The journey begins in Mexico where La Malinche is introduced as the first mother of the Latin American Mestizo Race. She travels north to the Southwest, where she is transformed and becomes the mythic, archetype figure of La Llorona (The Wailing Woman) who roams the Rio Grande crying for the lost souls of her mestizo children. In an  ultimate sacrifice she becomes a factory worker to learn the painful reality of the present day mestizo woman on the border towns of Juarez  and El Paso.  Here we find her  grieving for the factory workers employed as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Before the performance begins, select audience members are presented with  river rocks to hold throughout the piece.  Each rock bears the name of a murdered maquiladora worker.  At the end of the piece each audience member holding a rock is asked to move forward to an altar and place their rock in reverence to the woman and to speak her name.   The trilingual performance weaves  prose and song with fact and mysticism to create a fascinating piece that both honors and laments the life and death of the women working along out borders and the families who have lost them.

Improvisational interludes by cello, guitar, cajon, concertina, finger harp, percussion, and songs are interwoven with evocative lighting and computer-generated images projected on a screen depicting the Rio Grande river. This collaboration of powerful subject matter and intensely beautiful music takes the audience on an emotionally charged  but truly exceptional journey.

The piece is graphically violent due to the realities it is describing.  It is not meant to entertain, but to inform and to help raise awareness of the atrocities. 

Directed by Sabina Zuniga-Varela. English, Spanish and Nahuatl with corresponding subtitles. 

The piece is not suitable for children under the age of 13. 

Future plans to translate the entire piece into Spanish are under way.

20% of all door donations are given to various groups working on behalf of the Women of Juarez. All donations are tax deductible.

We operate as a non-profit group called Las Meganenas under the umbrella of The Center of Southwest Culture. 

 If interested in having us perform for your organization, contact: