Last week, we had Tucson Festival of Books on our minds, so there was little time or space to offer a big congratulations to Borderlands Theater for the production of Barrio Stories. The outdoor, multi-stage production took place in the most fitting location for a play about the destruction of most of the Barrio Libre neighborhood—the Tucson Convention Center—where a good chunk of the vibrant old neighborhood once stood.
Recommendation: Every time you see Borderlands Theater's artistic director Marc David Pinate and staffer and playwright Milta Ortiz, thank them for joining Borderlands and calling Tucson home.
We are unbelievably lucky to have them here continuing to tell unique Tucson stories and work in this beautifully collaborative way. Also, this seems like UA professor and author Lydia Otero's year. The author of La Calle, a book that covers that sad albeit important history of Barrio Libre, was an integral part of Barrio Stories. I'd say we remain lucky that, like many of us, she had the love of home to return to Tucson. With the production of Barrio Stories and other people taking a closer look at Tucson history, one can't help feel a great sense of hope. We need hope in every corner we can find it.
I think about this while watching Donald Drumpf on the GOP presidential stage. I find myself filled with almost as much anger as the people who show up to his rallies. The shovers and the sucker punchers. What the hell is happening? I'm still troubled by the video that shows an African-American woman standing in the middle of a Drumpf rally being shoved by several men, several really angry men. She was amazingly brave, while I sat there watching the news feed with my jaw agape.
One of the men doing the shoving was older and he wore a cap on his head that I know many combat veterans wear. That image of a veteran—a person who swore to serve our country and defend our Constitution—shoving this woman to intimidate her out of the rally, left me wondering if he continues to have the right to wear that cap?
Here's to holding on to hope.
— Mari Herreras, mherreras@tucsonweekly.com
