By Megan Ma
 Left to right, Isaura Mendez, Francisco Lozano, Marco Cedillo, Maria Marroquin and Abel Aguilar take a bow during a rehearsal for a skit to be performed during the Mountain View Day Worker Center’s 10th anniversary. photos by |
The Mountain View Day Worker Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary Oct. 20 with an original play documenting the life experiences of day workers, who will bring their real-life stories to the stage.
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Mountain View Community School of Music and Arts and is sponsored by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View).
A festival is scheduled Oct. 22 at St. Joseph’s School in Mountain View that features folk music and dance, a slideshow presentation and an art contest. Day Worker Center volunteers will be honored, and the event is open to the public.
“Both events are celebrating the fact that the Day Worker Center has been able to operate for 10 years despite challenges,” said Jim Geers, a member of the Los Altos Community Foundation.
Dorothy Heller, the playwright of “La Espera,” interviewed several day workers at the center, gathering their stories into monologues and dramatic scenes that will document their “desperation, sacrifice, hopes and dreams,” she said. Veronica Meza is the director.
Because much of the material is lifted directly from interviews, the piece often presents uncomfortable dialogue of those struggling in this country illegally, Heller said.
“It takes a lot for honest, hardworking people to break the law,” she said, alluding to the poverty that compels people to cross the border illegally.
Many are fighting to feed their families, she added.
But in a broader sense, the play shows the immigrant experience of being alone in a foreign land fighting discrimination, she said.
Some of the challenges of organizing the play, which is performed in both Spanish and English, included coaching the day workers on their lines and working on a shoe-string budget, Heller said. The play also features original guitar music composed by a former day worker.
The Day Worker Center was formed in 1996 at St. Joseph’s Church and connects day laborers with prospective employers, bringing in Hispanic workers, many here illegally, who used to stand on street corners looking for work. The center stays afloat due to a grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation and a steady group of volunteers who teach English to workers.
Maria Marroquin, director of the center, approached Heller to write a play and will grace the stage herself. She said the event is a tribute to the community.
“We want to say thank you to everybody who has supported us and here’s to more (years),” Marroquin said.
For more information on the celebrations, call Marroquin at 903-4102.
