All My Mothers Dream in Spanish: by Alexandra Espinoza

All My Mothers Dream in Spanish/Solly Dreams in Spanish
Draft 3
4.16.21
All My Mothers Dream in Spanish

by Alexandra Espinoza
(267) 472-3135
A.Espinoza0013@gmail.com
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Draft 3
4.16.21
Characters (An Afro-Latinx Family Tree*)

Maria Consuelo: A grandmother.
A woman with transcendent wisdom and stubborn mystery. She is in the final chapters
of life but still possesses physical vitality. She has never left her home country. When
cast as Guiomar, she has a fluid ability to dance and disappear.
Maria Soledad: A mother.

An accomplished physician with both feet planted firmly on the ground. She is
hardened by logic that disguises a fiery temper. She left her home country for the U.S.
in her twenties. When cast as Guiomar, she intimidates and climbs the tallest trees.
Camilla Marie: A daughter.

A dreamer caught in a mid-twenties Black Femme fighter’s body. Wide-eyed with
clenched fists. She grew up in the U.S. When cast as Guiomar, she is watchful,
mischievous, loving.
Guiomar: An ancestor.
Played by all three characters, she is them and they are she.
*All actors should self-identify as Black and as Latinx.
Notes on Script:
• This is a 3-part play with 3 actors and 4 characters. The actor whose character
does not appear in the scene will appear as Guiomar for that scene. When this
happens, they are fully Guiomar, a figure with many iterations, but don’t be
afraid to lean into the meta of it. For example, when Camilla appears as
Guiomar she is fully Guiomar, but on a certain level it is also Camilla playing
Guiomar, and sometimes Camilla might break character.
• Premature line breaks indicate a quick shift in thought.
• An ellipsis indicates a moment of reaction before dialogue/thought continues.
A note on history/truth/facts
In 1552, Miguel de Buría, a Black man born in Puerto Rico, established a new nation
within the country of Venezuela, staging the first successful African rebellion in the
country. He established a royal lineage with his wife, Guiomar. The nation lasted for
two years before being overcome by the colonizing Spanish. Miguel and his wife
Guiomar have persisted as folk heroes in the Afro-Venezuelan community.
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It is important to know that Guiomar is a fact-based historical figure who existed in

our linear timeline. It is also important to know that there have been hundreds of
thousands of Guiomars who have begotten hundreds of thousands of millions of
descendants. Because this play is for all of them, I am not specifying the country in
which it takes place.
A note on language
I spent the early part of my life running away from Spanish, and now I chase it. This
play is written with that in mind. The shifts between the two languages need not exist
in a realm of realism, though a shift into Spanish can indicate a moment of ease,
intimacy, or a character seeking the true nature of what they are attempting to say. I
am not providing translations of the Spanish in this script because it is intentionally
written to translate itself. There will be moments where non-Spanish speakers may
not understand what they are hearing, but they will know what they need to know
soon enough. (And Spanish speakers, please forgive grammatical typos, they will be
corrected in future drafts.)
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Un Sueño
The sound of her heartbeat. The sensation of falling from a great height. A forest floor.
Small creatures crawling on her limbs. They get bigger. And wetter. A warning shout.
The sound of an arrow whizzing right past her ear. A whimper coming from someone
next to her. A single voice lets out a battlecry that is joined by another, then another,
then another, then another. Sudden silence. Boots on the ground. The rushing sound
of wind as she runs. The harshness of tree bark on her feet and hands as she climbs.
The sound of bursting through trees. The warmth of the sun. Gentle, comforting and
then suddenly too hot. The smell of blood from above as the sun scorches her skin.
The smell of blood from below and the sound of steel swords entering bodies. The
sound of shackles and the weight of them on her wrists. The chains are long. She falls,
past the tree’s branches, past their trunks, and as she hits the ground a deep roll of
thunder envelops the space. In the tsunami of thunder she disappears from the Earth’s
surface and burrows into its core. One thousand osprey feathers fall from the sky. They
shatter like glass.
La Primera Parte
Midnight on MARIA CONSUELO’s outdoor patio. MARIA CONSUELO sits alone in the
moonlight, under the mango tree. We hear the unlocking of a top lock, a middle, a
bottom. CAMILLA arrives and stands in the darkness.
CAMILLA:
Alo?
Puedo entrar?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Como que “puedo entrar?” No tienes que preguntar.
CAMILLA comes into the light. She is wearing a dark green military uniform. She is
sweating, fighting back sickness, holding herself taut and tight. MARIA CONSUELO
clears her throat and comes dangerously close to coughing. CAMILLA relaxes a bit,
remembers where she is, gives MARIA CONSUELO a kiss on the cheek.
MARIA CONSUELO:
No me saludas con tu manera usual.
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CAMILLA:
I’m…
Tired.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Evidentemente. Parece como no dormiste.
CAMILLA:
It’s a long trip.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Sientate.
CAMILLA sits in the chair next to her grandmother.
CAMILLA:
Gracias.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Hay empanadas en la cocina.
CAMILLA:
Who cooked them?
MARIA CONSUELO:
En mi cocina, soy la unica jefa.
CAMILLA:
Should you really be cooking? With your breathing the way it is?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Si yo no lo hago quien va hacer?
Estoy solita, recuerdes?
And you should never say no to your grandmother’s empanadas.
But I know you are not here to see your grandmother.
CAMILLA:
Pero, si.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Puedes decirme la verdad, no me duele.
I know you are here to see Ala Iña.
Even if you do not greet Ala Iña as an initiate should.
CAMILLA slowly gets up again, struggling against her sickness. MARIA CONSUELO
watches her. CAMILLA drops to her knees and takes a deep breath.
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña, nombrada para el manto del fuego en el centro de la tierra.
Mi maestra en la camina de mis ancestras, de las orishas, de las secretas de la
naturaleza.
Estoy aqui.
Tu iniciada.
Por escuchar.
Por aprender.
Por unirse en la lucha por la curación.
Por ahora. Y por siempre.
She slowly gets up, and kisses MARIA CONSUELO on the cheek.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Asi es. Como se dice?
That’s more like it.
Y entonces.
Las empanadas?
CAMILLA:
…
What kind are they?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Son de Cazón.
CAMILLA:
(suspicious)
Have you stopped following the consumption guidelines? There’s been a shortage of
Cazón for several weeks.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
No m’importa las pautas. Demasiadas reglas.
I used the tuna in the can.
CAMILLA:
So it’s not cazón, it’s tuna.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Cuando cocino, tuna transforms into cazón.
CAMILLA:
(laughing, relaxing.)
Si, eres la unica jefa en tu cocina.
I’ll try one.
Exits into the house and comes back with the empanadas and a glass of water. She
places them on the small table next to MARIA CONSUELO. The trip to the kitchen has
tired her further.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y entonces? Vas a comer?
CAMILLA:
I’m…
I don’t feel…
No me sientas bien…
You know that…
You know that the roads are bumpy.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Por que no dijiste algo? Ya sabes que tengo--
CAMILLA
A cure for everything.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Asi es.
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CAMILLA:
I’m fine. Voy a comer.
She takes an emapanada from the plate and moves to take a bite.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y ahora te olvidas de la ofrenda?
CAMILLA:
Of course. Lo siento.
CAMILLA places an empanada at the foot of the mango tree with deliberate
attentiveness, whispering something under her breath.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Pero que te pasa?
The initiate I know is never this distracted.
CAMILLA:
…
You know what it is, Abuela.
MARIA CONSUELO:
No viniste aqui por una Abuela. After all the hard work we have done together, why
do you use this name?
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña.
You know why I’m distracted, Ala Iña.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Como que “you know”?
When you left you said you would return once a week to continue your lessons. Ya
pasa semana y semana y semana y no te he visto. Entonces. How can I know when I
have not seen you? When our lessons have been interrupted?
CAMILLA:
Lo siento.
I’ve been busy.
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The movement has been very busy.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Esto yo lo se. Con “consumption guidelines.” Asi es.
Bueno. De todas formas. Estas aqui.
Benediciones de Elegua por porteger tu camina y el viaje con los “bumpy roads”.
CAMILLA:
Si. Benediciones de Elegua.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Vamos a empiezar.
Estas lista?
CAMILLA:
Estoy lista por escuchar y aprender.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y compartir?
CAMILLA:
Si, y compartir.
MARIA CONSUELO takes the glass of water on the table and pours some out into her
hands. She brings the water to her face and rubs it into her skin. CAMILLA does the
same.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y entonces. Comparte conmigo tu viaje.
CAMILLA:
My trip? What do you want to know about it?
MARIA CONSUELO:
I would like to know what color the sky was when you left the forest.
What it felt like in your heart when the jungle gave way to dusty streets.
And I want to know if you were followed.
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CAMILLA:
I wasn’t followed, Ala Iña.
I’m a senior member. I’m trusted.
MARIA CONSUELO:
shrugs
I want to know what you miss of the forest as you sit here.
And what you miss from here as you sit there.
CAMILLA:
I miss you when I’m there.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Te extraño mucho tambien, m’ija. Pero eres una guerrera. You do not need me
anymore.
CAMILLA:
I’m here because I need you.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Quien me necesita?
Is it you? Or is it the movement that needs me?
CAMILLA:
Los dos.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Los dos. This is your favorite answer for everything.
They fall into a tense stare.
Gracias, mi iniciada, por compartir conmigo. Now I will share with you some things
about my journey since we last sat together. Aqui me siento cada dia, mirando mis
arboles, pensando en ti, pero hoy fue un poco diferente.
Today, I had a visit from an old friend.
CAMILLA:
Quien?
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Draft 3
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Juan Pedro Jimenez.
CAMILLA:
…
Senior or Junior?
MARIA CONSUELO:
El Señor. El hijo is with you in the forest, si?
Unless he has abandoned the movement.
CAMILLA:
No one abandons this movement. You know that.
I only asked because I saw Juan Pedro el hijo soon before I left, and I would’ve been
surprised if—
MARIA CONSUELO:
He is another senior member who is too trusted to be followed?
The tense stare returns.
MARIA CONSUELO:
When you see him again, you can tell him that his father cries at night, wishing that he
would return home.
CAMILLA:
We will all return home soon. This is temporary.
MARIA CONSUELO:
And will there still be homes here to greet you when you return?
CAMILLA:
El Señor. What did he want?
MARIA CONSUELO:
He came to tell me he will leave this village.
The village of his ancestors.
Con sus sangre en la tierra.
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He came to say he must leave in order to protect what is left of his family.
CAMILLA:
And what did you say?
MARIA CONSUELO:
I said nothing. I performed a ritual to Elegua on his behalf, so that the road before
him may be blessed.
CAMILLA:
You should have told him what I’ve told you. That this is just for now.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y no por siempre.
CAMILLA:
Exactly. I have listened to you.
MARIA CONSUELO:
That is not what I said.
CAMILLA:
Pero—
MARIA CONSUELO:
I had another visitor today. Aqui, en mi arbol.
El guácharo. Recuerdes?
CAMILLA:
I could never forget el guácharo. I hear them singing every night in the forest.
…
Cuando el cielo parece como el terciopelo.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Bueno, Estaba aquí, sentada solita, silbando a mi mismo
(begins to whistle, remembering with her body.)
And there he was, whistling back to me. In the mango tree. In the middle of the day.
Que raro.
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CAMILLA:
Was it a message?
MARIA CONSUELO:
A message?
From un guacharo?
…
(Camilla leans in, hungry for the information. MARIA CONSUELO laughs loudly. It
devolves into coughs.)
Que broma.
CAMILLA:
You told me that birdsong contains messages, you said that—
MARIA CONSUELO:
Mira a esta iniciada! You are so wise that now you can teach the teacher?
The tense stare returns.

No.
En esta familia, we do not receive messages from guacharos.
…
Los turpiales, cardenalitos, las águilas. Those are the birds we receive messages from.
They stare. And then they laugh together.

…
But it is strange. Un guacharo in the daytime.
Algo tiene hambre.
Something is out of balance.
Something needs to feed.
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña.
I am here for my last lesson.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Quieres enseñar a la maestra otra vez? It is I who says when you are here for your last
lesson. And you cannot be here for your last lesson if you missed the lesson before it,
and the one before that. No estas lista.
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CAMILLA:
Ala Iña, mi maestra, I do not question your methods. I am here because of your
methods. I am here because I have listened, and because I have seen.
I have seen her Ala Iña.
Que benedicion!
CAMILLA places one hand on her forehead and reaches to put the other hand on
MARIA CONSUELO’s forehead. MARIA CONSUELO bats the hand away.
MARIA CONSUELO:
You saw her?
CAMILLA:
I saw her because you sent her to me, just like you said you would. Dijiste que la
enviarías en un sueño quando yo estaba lista por mi ultima--
MARIA CONSUELO:
A dream? Last night?
CAMILLA:
Is this a surprise to you?
MARIA CONSUELO:
And this is why you are here?
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña, pensé que entendí pero…
Didn’t you say that she would come to me in a dream when I was ready? Isn’t that
what you promised me? You said that a dream sender knows they are ready to step
into their power when they receive a dream from another. You said--
MARIA CONSUELO:
Cállate!
The force of her own voice makes her erupt into coughing. She gasps for breath.
CAMILLA:
Abuela--
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Deja me pensar.
And what did I say about that name?
…
Tienes que comprender…sobre todo…I do not make you promises. I can only guide
from the path my own feet have followed. Do not put the weight of promises on my
shoulders.
Entonces.
Estas segura que tu queires enviar los sueños? Esta poder puede ser muy peligrosa
para los que lo tienen.
CAMILLA:
I know it can be dangerous. We’ve talked about this.
MARIA CONSUELO:
You did not listen.
CAMILLA:
I have always listened, Ala Iña. From the very first time I came here, I have listened.
Every time I greet you, I vow to listen…
Por escuchar.
Por aprender.
Por unirse en la lucha por la curacion.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Por ahora y por siempre.
CAMILLA takes a deep breath and begins to perform a meditative chant: “Oshun me
bai ibe jeelo.” MARIA CONSUELO joins. It sounds like a voice from beyond joins as
well. They do this exercise together for awhile and then they quiet down.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Tonight, as we always do in ritual, we invite the energies of the orishas into our home.
But tonight, it is my turn to listen.
So tonight, I ask you to tell me about your dream.
CAMILLA:
Will this be part of our ritual?
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MARIA CONSUELO:
For what other reason would I ask?
Buscame un mango.
CAMILLA stands up and crosses to the corner of the patio where she picks up a long
stick with a plastic basket attached to one end. She approaches the mango tree in the
center of the patio and shakes at its higher branches with the stick. We hear the
thumps of a few ripe mangoes landing in the basket. She puts the basket end of the
contraption on the ground, picks out a mango and takes out a pocket knife.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Dejame hacerlo. Eres iniciada todavia.
CAMILLA passes the mango and the knife to MARIA CONSUELO who eats the flesh as
she continues to dig for the mango pit.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y como fue? Quando la viste?
CAMILLA:
She was so beautiful, Ala Iña.
Parece como…como mi madre.
MARIA CONSUELO seems to freeze in place.
You know how in a dream someone looks like someone else…she looked exactly like
my mother but was nothing like my mother…
Ala Iña?
MARIA CONSUELO springs back into motion and pulls the pit from the mango’s
carcass. She retrieves a bottle of aguardiente from behind her chair. She struggles to
get up. CAMILLA helps her and guides her toward the mango tree. MARIA
CONSUELO takes a big swig from the aguardiente and then passes it to CAMILLA who
holds the bottle but does not drink. MARIA CONSUELO holds the pit in both hands
and then, with her aged and limited physical strength, is able to split the pit in two with
her bare hands.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Empiezamos.
She sees the bottle in CAMILLA’s hands
No vas a beber por estar en comunión con los espiritus?
CAMILLA:
I can’t, I—
MARIA CONSUELO:
Another “consumption guideline”? Carrajo con todas esas reglas!
CAMILLA:
I can remember the dream clearly.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Como quieres.
She throws the two sides of the pit past each of CAMILLA’s shoulders.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Cuentame.
CAMILLA closes her eyes and the air around her begins to hum and glow.
CAMILLA:
En mi sueño, plumas cayeron del cielo.
I was one of those feathers.
When I touched the earth, I shattered like glass.
Podia sentirme en cada fragmento.
And then I was dead.
Decaying.
And then I was me.
In my tent.
Like any other night.
Except…
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A sharp intake of breath and we are in the rainforest in the middle of the night.
CAMILLA is in a military tent. She wakes with a start and grabs the rifle that is next to
her. She shivers violently and then throws up into a bin next to her bedroll. She
breathes deeply, attempting to recover, and then, among the crickets, frogs,
guacharos, and other nighttime noises, she hears a twig break. She points the rifle in
the direction of the sound. Another twig breaks. A glowing light bleeds through the
tent. CAMILLA breaks open its entrance, holding the rifle in front of her.
CAMILLA:
Quien es? Don’t come any closer.
(SOLEDAD as) GUIOMAR is outside of the tent, unseen.
GUIOMAR:
Is every mystery a threat?
CAMILLA:
Quien es? No es broma. I’m serious. I’ll blow you to bits if I have to.
She thrusts the rifle once again. The glowing light dances.
GUIOMAR:
No m’importa. I’ve survived worse.
CAMILLA:
Who—
GUIOMAR:
I am your mother.
CAMILLA:
No shit.
During the following, GUIOMAR transitions from a glowing light into her woman’s
body—awesome in her presence, beauty, and strength.
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GUIOMAR:
I am your mother’s mother. I am the gust of air that breathed all the mothers before
them into the universe.
GUIOMAR moves with a ritualistic, pulsing rhythm. She raises CAMILLA up from the
ground. When she touches CAMILLA’s gun it somehow disappears. During the
following, she and CAMILLA move together to the same gentle, pulsing rhythm.
I am the butterfly who landed on your finger the first time you walked in a forest
alone.
I am the blood that blossomed from your knee when you tripped, so excited to dance
with the butterfly that you forgot you had feet and not wings.
During the following, GUIOMAR guides CAMILLA under a tree where they both seem
to float between the forest of CAMILLA’s dream and MARIA CONSUELO’s patio.
I am the voice in your head that thundered the first time you witnessed injustice. I am
what you grieved the first time you saw a graveyard.
GUIOMAR and CAMILLA:

I am the darkest shade of black on your skin.
CAMILLA is back on the patio with MARIA CONSUELO.
CAMILLA:
I am Guiomar.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Coño…
Madre de mis madres…
CAMILLA:
Does the dream you sent me surprise you?
MARIA CONSUELO:
The ancestors are always surprising us.
CAMILLA shivers a bit, looking unwell.
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Y tu? Te sorprendió? Te enfermó? Te asustó?
CAMILLA:
I wasn’t scared.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I see the fear in your eyes. An ancestor will always surprise us, but they should never
frighten us. A que te da miedo?
CAMILLA:
I’m not afraid of anything. It was just…
CAMILLA/MARIA CONSUELO:
Overwhelming/Asombrada.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Asi es. Cuentame mas.
CAMILLA closes her eyes and the soft hum and glow returns.
CAMILLA:
En mi sueño…
No hacia calor. No hacia frio.
But I shivered uncontrollably.
Como mi cuerpo, mi alma, my very being, was a never-ending fault line in the earth.
Until…
A sharp intake of breath and we are in the rainforest once again. CAMILLA is shaking
and shivering. GUIOMAR lays her hands above CAMILLA’s shoulders, echoing the
same movement that MARIA CONSUELO made with the two halves of the mango pit.
CAMILLA stops shaking.
GUIOMAR:
Tu me conoces?
CAMILLA:
I…I know who you are.
Mi abuela told me about you.
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GUIOMAR:
And she knows me because I am the bolt of electricity that keeps her heart beating.
CAMILLA:
She…she told me you would come. When I was ready.
GUIOMAR:
And are you ready now?
CAMILLA:
Si. Estoy lista.
GUIOMAR:
Para que?
CAMILLA:
I am ready to fight.
GUIOMAR:
And are you ready to heal?
Why are you in this forest?
CAMILLA:
I’ve…
I’ve come to follow in your footsteps, madre de mis madres. You are my great-great-
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great—
GUIOMAR:
I give you the air that you breathe. You do not have to count for me. Why are you in
this forest?
CAMILLA:
You…
You were a fighter. In this very forest.
GUIOMAR:
(With growing intensity)
And why do you fight in this forest!?
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CAMILLA:
(finding her strength)
I am a member of El Frente del Futuro! Seremos una nacion nueva por los Negros de
todos partes. We follow in the footsteps of your husband, El Negro Miguel el Rey, the
African King who ripped off his chains and ran to the forest to begin a new nation.
And you fought by his side!
GUIOMAR:
Do you see him with me now?
CAMILLA:
…
No.
GUIOMAR:
Sabes por lo que luchamos?
You know our fight. But do you know our reasons?
CAMILLA:
For…for…liberation. For revolution!
GUIOMAR:
El Negro Miguel el Rey. He fought for power. I, Guiomar, his wife, madre de tus
madres, I fight for healing.
She places her hands in the air above CAMILLA’s shoulders, feeling the electricity that
sits there. CAMILLA’s arms are compelled upwards and her hands land on branches
that appear above her head.
GUIOMAR:
Y entonces, hija de mis hijas, which one do you fight for? Which one do you follow?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Dijiste la verdad?
CAMILLA is back on her grandmother’s patios. She is clasping onto the branch of the
mango tree.
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CAMILLA:
Que?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Did you tell her the truth? You cannot lie to an ancestor.
CAMILLA:
You know what I said. You sent me the dream! Do I have to repeat every single--
MARIA CONSUELO:
Como que “do I have to”!? No confias en mi? Esta guerrera tan macho no necessita su
maestra? Remember. I do not make you promises. But you can always trust me.
CAMILLA:
Of course, Ala Iña, disculpame. I just…I don’t know the purpose of the—
MARIA CONSUELO:
And a butterfly cannot see her own wings.
…
Whatever you respond to an ancestor’s question…this comes only from your heart. It
cannot come from the dream sender.
CAMILLA:
But you still know what I said, because I’ve said it to you so many times.
Both.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Your favorite answer for everything.
CAMILLA:
Why can’t you see it?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Being wise has only made me more stupid. Digame otra vez.
CAMILLA:
Los dos. Juntos. Healing and power together.
You say I don’t listen, but you don’t listen.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Como que Ala Iña no escuches?
CAMILLA:
Because I’m not the only one who says this. Who’s willing to die for that answer.
There’s a whole movement who agrees. An entire generation of this village who you
taught! Who only know how to survive in a forest because of you! Who only have
crowned orishas because of you! You’ve heard this answer so many times. You
planted this answer like a seed before I even knew you. Before I even knew I had a
grandmother. And now when we’re doing something about it, you act like it’s
nothing!
MARIA CONSUELO:
(starting to lose her temper/control)
Entonces no estoy solita en mi estupidez. What makes you all think you can
understand this so quickly? So simply? With lives in the balance? And why must I sit
and watch as the stupidity of the young turns to violence?
CAMILLA:
No one has asked you to sit and watch! We asked you… we begged you to come
with us. To finish a fight that you started.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I did not start a fight. I asked questions. And you are all too impatient to wait for the
answers. You are too impatient to heal! Too impatient to learn! Otra leción para ti,
que no escucharás, I have learned that the best way to fight for what you love is by
standing still—no escaper al bosque, jugando como niños en una fantasía. Every
single one of you is needed at home, and this game of a revolution is putting those
homes at risk.
CAMILLA:
Even though you’ve turned your back on this movement we still show respect for you.
I came here as a courtesy—
MARIA CONSUELO:
I know when you are lying. You came here to learn at the knee of Ala Iña once more.
You still want to send dreams and turn people’s sleep into your own weapon.
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CAMILLA:
…
You told me it was a healing power.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Si, como no. When you use it to heal.
How did you answer our ancestor?
CAMILLA:
I answered the way anyone in our movement would.
Another sharp intake of breath and the air around CAMILLA begins to glow again.
WITH HEALING WE ACCESS OUR POWER, WITH POWER WE ARE ABLE TO HEAL!
She is back in her dream, back with GUIOMAR.
GUIOMAR:
Hija de mis hijas…
You tell me that you fight for both?
CAMILLA:
(self-consciously)
Asi es, madre de mis madres.
GUIOMAR:
And have you suffered losses?
CAMILLA:
We are just beginning…are you saying we will lose?
GUIOMAR:
I am not here to tell you your future. Your ancestor can do so much more than that.
Estoy aqui para mostrate mis manos.
GUIOMAR holds her hands up. They shimmer and almost vibrate in the moonlight.
And I know from my own path that healing and power cannot be held by the same
hand.
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CAMILLA;
Si, Madre de mis madres, Oppression has kept them from each other. El Frente del
Futuro will change that. This is our revolution. This is why we are here.
GUIOMAR walks a full circle around CAMILLA, surveying her and taking in information.
CAMILLA begins to shiver again.
GUIOMAR:
Hija de mis hijas, puedo verte. I am learning you, the mystery born from me. There
are some things that you are ready for. Would you like to see them?
CAMILLA:
(through her shivers)
Yes.
GUIOMAR:
Entonces Guerrera de confianza. Remember this tree?
(GUIOMAR forcefully places CAMILLA’s hands back onto the branches.)
You are but a small leaf on its branch. And I am but a piece of its bark. Sígueme.
(GUIOMAR begins to climb the tree. CAMILLA follows. Their movements look like a
dance of mystery, ancestry, physical mastery. They climb in tandem, like a double
helix. They reach a big, strong branch and GUIOMAR rests there. CAMILLA joins her
and looks exhilarated at first, and then nauseated.)
GUIOMAR:
Look through the branches. What do you see?
CAMILLA:
I see…Leaves. And bark. And a little bit of the night sky. And the ground… if I let
myself look at it. I’m…
I’m afraid of heights.
GUIOMAR:
Esta bien. I am happy to learn that you know fear. No pienses en el suelo. Tell me,
what color is the sky?
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CAMILLA:
The color of the bottom of the ocean.
The maze of branches and leaves light up like stars in a sky, each one connecting to
another to make their own constellations.
GUIOMAR:
Que mas? What do you see now?
CAMILLA:
I can see…I can see...life. Pulsating. Breathing. Thoughts. Feelings. Dreams.
GUIOMAR:
Mi Guerrera tan valiente, listen to these words and make them your truth. You will
find life here in the trees. En los arboles, encontraras lo que estas buscando. Every
daughter of my daughters has their own place of healing where they must go to find
life, truth, to end their search. The trees are yours. I give this to you.
CAMILLA:
I see so much more than that here.
GUIOMAR:
Que mas puedes ver?
CAMILLA:
I can see power.
GUIOMAR:
Do you know what happened when I brought El Negro Miguel el Rey up into these
heights?
(CAMILLA shakes her head. She is still transfixed by what she sees.)
He believed that this vision brought power and healing together in the same hand.
He believed that this understanding must be about his enemies and not about
himself.
CAMILLA:
His African nation lasted longer than any other maroon nation. That is your legacy!
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GUIOMAR:
ESCUCHES!
You must listen to the words I speak and not the words you hope to hear!
El Negro El Rey Miguel, your inspiration, he confused the always for the now and the
now for the always. He confused the inside for the outside and the outside for the
inside. He came into the trees to peer into the truths of his enemies, not to find the
truth of himself! Will you make the same mistake?
(CAMILLA looks away in shame. Then she looks down. The sight of the ground far
below cues her unsettled stomach. She vomits again. GUIOMAR approaches her,
engaging the space above CAMILLA’s shoulders, and the vomiting stops. GUIOMAR
places one hand on CAMILLA’s womb and one hand on her own womb.)
Y ahora…The tree grows another leaf. Hija de mis hijas, now you join the mothers.
Heed my warnings.
(GUIOMAR continues climbing higher up in the tree. CAMILLA looks up, and then
clutches her womb in pain until her womb bursts open and releases thousands of
osprey feathers.)
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ay! No!
(A clap of thunder, and CAMILLA is back on the patio. The vomiting returns.)
MARIA CONSUELO:
Mi nieta preciosa…when were you going to tell me you are with child!?
CAMILLA:
(Cleaning herself up)
If you had really sent me that dream…I wouldn’t have to tell you…you would already
know.
MARIA CONSUELO moves to get up and begins to cough. She tries to get up again
but the coughing overpowers her. CAMILLA does not move to help. Finally, MARIA
CONSUELO pulls herself out of her chair, walks to the mango tree, gets on her knees,
and says a quiet prayer with her hands on the tree trunk. She slowly gets up again,
using the tree for support.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
I did not send you this dream. To send a dream is a divine ability, passed on from our
beautiful ancestor Guiomar. I do not have this ability.
CAMILLA:
So you lied. You lied to me.
MARIA CONSUELO:
…
Te pones brava conmigo. Con Ala Iña. I understand this anger. Pero Camilla, mi nieta
preciosa, forget Ala Iña and let me be your grandmother for one moment. Who is the
father of this child?
CAMILLA:
…
En el Frente del Futuro, there are no fathers. There are no mothers. Only fighters. I’m
trying to end this fight and you can’t help me the way you said you would.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I did not make promises.
CAMILLA:
That’s not the same as telling the truth.
MARIA CONSUELO:
How will sending dreams end this fight?
CAMILLA:
They believe in you. This movement. Even though you do not believe in them. And if I
had an ability they believed you taught me…
…
But I can get it for myself. I saw what Guiomar showed me in those trees and it had
nothing to do with you.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ten cuidado hija. You make decisions for two now. Which of your ears did you use to
listen to your ancestor on that high branch? La oreja de una madre o la oreja de
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alguien como el Negro Miguel el Rey? This king that you and your movement so
admire, he ignored Guiomar! She offered her vision in order to heal the souls of the
slaves that had followed him in rebellion. And what did he do? El construyó la misma
casa que sus enemigos. He built a state just like a colonizer would. He wanted power.
He took your ancestor, a divine healer, una Iya and turned her into nothing but a
queen!
CAMILLA moves to leave.
We met too late in our lives, mi nieta preciosa, mi guerrera de confianza…I would
have taught you so many things that I know your mother could not teach you because
I failed to teach them to her. But think of your father—
CAMILLA:
You know nothing about him.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Me contaste sobre su gente
CAMILLA:
My father is the reason I am here. And after all of these lessons, these rituals, you
clearly know nothing about that either.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Do you know why I use mango pits in my rituals with you?
CAMILLA:
Are those rituals even real?
MARIA CONSUELO:
The last time I saw your mother was when she brought you here as a baby for me to
meet you. That is when I met your father too. He told me about the dreams your
mother had when she was pregnant with you. She dreamt that heavy, succulent
mangos would surround her, graze against her skin, sometimes even hit her in the
face. She would wake up, thinking she was covered in their juice, but it was her own
sweat from carrying you. Era una bebe de muy mal humor. You cried all the time. Tu
mama era exhausta. Tu papa, desesperado. Estaba preocupada que nunca ver tu
sonrisa. I held you under this tree, while your parents tried to sleep inside. I sat here,
rocking you, cooing you, when a mango fell from the tree’s branches, right onto your
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head. De repente, dejaste de llorar. Y como el sol se arrastra por la mañana, a smile
crept onto your face. For the rest of your visit, I put mango juice in your bottle when
your parents weren’t looking. And I knew that you would be just like a mango.
Brightly colored on the outside. Exuding sweetness, but with a hard, impenetrable pit
at your center that will break the teeth of even the hungriest soul.
CAMILLA:
Why are you telling me this?
MARIA CONSUELO:
You should talk to your mother about your dreams.
CAMILLA:
Good-bye, Maria Consuelo.
She approaches the gate and begins to unlock it.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Your father told me about one particularly violent dream.
CAMILLA:
Don’t talk about my father anymore.
CAMILLA begins to rush the opening of the locks. MARIA CONSUELO, with
tremendous amounts of effort and perhaps pain, makes her way toward her
granddaughter.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Your mother stood on the branch of a mango tree. She looked out onto the horizon
and saw a bright shining light. She rubbed her belly to let you know what kind of
beauty you would see once you joined this world, and her belly burst open.
Thousands of mangos tumbled out.
MARIA CONSUELO reaches CAMILLA, grabs her hand.
CAMILLA:
Dejame!
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MARIA CONSUELO:
In your dream there were feathers…maybe your daughter will learn how to fly.
CAMILLA yanks her hand free. She leaves.

Lights Out.
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A Dream
Maria Consuelo is deep in sleep. The moon in the sky is waning and yet it shines a
brilliant, brittle light directly on the mangoes hanging in the tree. There are overly ripe
mangoes littered on the patio. The guacharo bird sings its song and Maria Consuelo
begins to listen faintly in her sleep. A human whistle answers her. Maria Consuelo
wakes up abruptly. She whistles again, tentatively. Her whistle is answered again,
followed by an easy, lilting laugh.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Quien es? No te acerques a mi!
(CAMILLA as) GUIOMAR is hidden in the upper branches of the mango tree. She
giggles youthfully again.
GUIOMAR:
Why must I stay far away?
The tree rustles as she jumps to a lower branch, still hidden.
Por que tienes miedo?
Another jump to a lower branch, her figure slightly visible through branches thick with
fruit.
An ancestor will always surprise us, but they should not frighten us, es verdad?
GUIOMAR appears. She is young, Black, glistening.
I have come for you, hija de mis hijas.
MARIA CONSUELO takes a shocked and sharp breath. GUIOMAR breathes with her.
Respira conmigo.
Vamanos.
GUIOMAR takes another deep breath and a strong wind engulfs the patio. The fallen
mangoes create a force field around MARIA CONSUELO who begins to breathe in a
punctuated rhythm. GUIOMAR dances in and out of the mango cyclone, following the
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rhythm of MARIA CONSUELO’s breaths. The rhythm quickens and GUIOMAR’s dance
moves become heavier, closer to the ground. The mango cyclone picks up speed,
obscuring both women and then total darkness descends. The waning moon is behind
a cloud. The guacharo sings again. When the moonlight returns, MARIA CONSUELO
has her arms wrapped around the lowest branch of the mango tree, the same one
CAMILLA had reached for. She begins to cough uncontrollably. From the shadows, an
enormous buffalo with mangos stuck on its horns emerges. MARIA CONSUELO
charges the bull, but it disappears. Suddenly, it is raining. MARIA CONSUELO begins
running around the patio, searching and screaming:
MARIA CONSUELO:
M’ija!
M’ija!
SOLEDAD!
Deja de jugar!
In the tree, the youthful giggle can be heard again.
La Segunda Parte
Midnight on MARIA CONSUELO’s patio. She sits in her chair as usual, (CAMILLA as)
GUIOMAR crouches behind her.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y entonces? You come to me in my dream and then you stay?
GUIOMAR:
Are you not pleased to have me here? Estoy aqui para ayudarte.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I know what help you bring. I saw your horns. I do not want that help.
GUIOMAR:
Ah, you have studied me well—conoces todos mis arquetipos. Eres un iniciada
excelente, hija de mis hijas.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I am an old woman.
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GUIOMAR:
And still you are my daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s…
(she continues, reveling in the repetitive rhythm of the words)
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ya. Must we count every generation?
GUIOMAR:
You would deny your ancestor this pleasure?
MARIA CONSUELO:
You want pleasure?
She strains to pick up a platter on the ground. It is covered in fruits, a glass of red wine,
smooth river pebbles, and a pair of bull’s horns. She picks up each fruit as she names
them.
Tamarindo dulce. Uvas. Ciruela. I have made these offerings for your pleasure and
you do not take them. You do not go away!
GUIOMAR:
There are things you should not have to do alone.
Te ayudaré aunque sea tarde.
The sound of the patio gate being unlocked.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I know how to handle her.
The patio gate opens.
GUIOMAR:
Me voy abrazarte.
Even as you push against my embrace.
You will need us both, where you are going.
She pulls MARIA CONSUELO into a lightning quick and thunder strong hug before
she leans back into the shadows. SOLEDAD steps through the gate. She is dressed
sensibly for travel, aside from a pair of high heels that she wears like extensions of her
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legs. She holds a small travel bag. Mother and daughter stare at each other for a cold,
long moment. They finally look away from each other.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Buenas noches, Doctora.
SOLEDAD:
It’s late. You should be asleep.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Una madre debe saludar a una hija.
GUIOMAR inches back into the light, too curious about Soledad to stay away.
GUIOMAR:
And this mother will greet all her daughters.
SOLEDAD:
That isn’t necessary, Maria Consuelo. It’s been over twenty years since we have been
a mother and a daughter. I only unlocked the patio door because Juan Pedro told me
you sometimes fall asleep out here. I thought I would check before trying the front
door lock.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y aqui estoy.
She begins to cough. It rattles in her chest.
SOLEDAD:
Yes, here you are. We should both go inside. That cough doesn’t sound good.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Tranquila. You are home. Esta tierra te recureda. You may forget, but this land does
not. There is nothing to be afraid of.
SOLEDAD:
I didn’t say I was afraid, I…
This isn’t a safe place. I know that much.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Juan Pedro told you?
SOLEDAD:
He didn’t have to. I read the news.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I am sure he was glad to see you make your homecoming, Hace mucho tiempo como
tu dijiste.
SOLEDAD:
We didn’t talk much. I thanked him for helping you and that was about it.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Tengo suerte por tener un vecendario tan leal. He is planning to leave the village
soon, but when I told him about the—when I told him you were coming, he agreed to
stay a little longer.
SOLEDAD:
Yes very lucky.
A cold silence.
Excuse me a moment, I need to check my messages.
SOLEDAD looks into her bag and takes out a cell phone, dials, and listens.
GUIOMAR:
Y tu pensaste que no necesitarías ayuda? Puedo ver como quema su ira. Her anger is
an ice that burns.
MARIA CONSUELO:
What else do you see?
GUIOMAR begins to encircle SOLEDAD who is engrossed in her phone. She quickly
darts from point to point around SOLEDAD, a soft glowing light following her,
revealing different symbolic shapes as she does this.
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GUIOMAR:
I see all the flowing waters inside of her. I see how they vibrate as they greet me, su
madre. La madre de su madre. El aire que respiró y creó todos las madres antes. The
waters inside her greet me because her eyes cannot yet meet mine. She is not ready
to remember that I am the wisp of beauty that she chased the first time she swam in
the ocean. That I am the bubbles she blew as she desperately made her way to the
surface. That I am the tears she shed the first time she felt sadness. That I am the
darkest shade of Black on her skin.
GUIOMAR/MARIA CONSUELO:
I am Guiomar/Eres Guiomar.
SOLEDAD:
Who are you talking to?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Es que…
I’m talking to you.
And I’m talking to me.
GUIOMAR:
Because I am you and I am she.
SOLEDAD:
Well, you know why I’m here so we might as well get right to it.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Your daughter is not here.
SOLEDAD:
But you know where she is.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I knew. But I do not know anymore.
SOLEDAD:
And you chose not to contact me when you did know?
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Como podría hacerlo? You said. It has been over twenty years. Phone numbers
change.
SOLEDAD:
And while I have chosen to not be in touch with you, tu vecendario tan leal Juan
Pedro has always had my most updated number.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I did not know if the call would be welcome, m’ija.
SOLEDAD:
Do not call me your daughter.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Maria Soledad Figueroa de Martinez…Ton Son?
SOLEDAD:
Thompson.
Thomp.
Son.
And everybody calls me Solly now.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Que desastre—
GUIOMAR:
Be gentle with her. Remember her ice.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Bueno, Ehsolly. Soy Ala Iña. Everybody calls me this now. This is my spiritual name.
Your daughter, she calls me this.
SOLEDAD:
Ala Iña.
And do you know what this spiritual name means?
GUIOMAR:
The mantle of fire from the core of the earth.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
You will know when you want to know.
SOLEDAD:
(rolling her eyes)
Well, now that we are reacquainted, I need you to tell me what you know about
Camilla.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Podemos esperar hasta mañana. You should rest.
SOLEDAD:
I didn’t come all this way to keep waiting.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Y como supiste venir aqui?
SOLEDAD:
A mother’s intuition.
I know my daughter.
And I read the news.
And Camilla has been…
This last semester of law school has been…
Things have been difficult. And I know she is angry. And I know that being angry
around you is dangerous. So I need you to tell me exactly what has been going on
here.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I have been trying to help your daughter heal.
SOLEDAD:
What did she tell you?
MARIA CONSUELO:
That she was ready to walk in the path of her ancestors.
SOLEDAD:
Laughs.
Okay. Do not fuck with me right now.
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Ala Iña, Maria Consuelo, it’s all the same to me, because I don’t know who you are
anymore. But I need you to take this very seriously. I am trying to save my daughter. I
need you to tell me what you know.
GUIOMAR:
Estas lista?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Vamos a ver.
SOLEDAD:
Excuse me?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Buscame un mango.
SOLEDAD picks up a mango from the ground gingerly.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Carrajo.
Del arbol.
SOLEDAD:
I…
MARIA CONSUELO points to the mango retrieving device that is in the corner.
SOLEDAD approaches it, exasperated and proceeds to retrieve the mangoes, gingerly
at first and then with a deftness that comes from years of practice, many years ago.
She finishes the task, chooses an especially luscious looking piece of fruit and offers it
to her mother, then wipes the fruits juices self-consciously on her slacks. MARIA
CONSUELO plunges her thumb into the mango and begins peeling it messily. She
hands SOLEDAD the peel, gestures to the foot of the tree, where SOLEDAD leaves the
peel. MARIA CONSUELO searches for the pit while eating the mango flesh.
GUIOMAR:
Una ofrenda tan refrescante!
GUIOMAR sucks on the peel with joyful abandon while MARIA CONSUELO finds the
pit. During the following, GUIOMAR continues to search for juicy mangoes in the dark
corners of the tree, she chomps on them while she listens to her descendants.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Do you remember your mango dreams?
SOLEDAD:
I am not going to talk to you about my dreams.
I will never talk to you about my dreams again.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Tus sueños eran verdad. Camilla es…dura.
MARIA CONSUELO closes a fist around the mango pit.
SOLEDAD:
You think I don’t know this?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Many months ago, Juan Pedro came for a visit.
SOLEDAD:
I really don’t have time for anecdotes.
MARIA SOLEDAD:
He told me that Juan Pedro el hijo had just returned from a trip abroad. A trip where
the many ideas he had for revolution in this village, this country, this world, where
they took shape.
SOLEDAD:
Juan Pedro Junior is a part of all this hullabaloo?
MARIA SOLEDAD:
In this meeting, many people came together to plan for a day when Black people will
be free.
SOLEDAD:
And what do you know about Black—
…
The International Convening for Black Liberation.
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MARIA SOLEDAD:
Asi es.
SOLEDAD:
She…wasn’t going to …I told her it was too soon to…
MARIA SOLEDAD:
Demaciado temprano para que?
SOLEDAD:
I’m the one asking questions. What happened after the meeting?
MARIA SOLEDAD:
A few weeks after Juan Pedro shared this news with me, Camilla arrived in the village.
Juan Pedro el hijo, the words he spoke at this meeting, they awakened something in
her. This is what she told me. She told me you had spoken very little of me when she
was young. She told me that you have…erased me. That you do not speak Spanish in
your own home. That you erased this too. She told me that you worked hard to keep
her away from me, but that it was not hard for her to find me. That she had
been…como lo dijo ella…resourceful. I taught her as much as I could before she
joined the movement in the forest.
SOLEDAD:
She’s where!?
MARIA SOLEDAD:
Son todos en el bosque como los cimarrones antes.
SOLEDAD:
How could you let this happen!?
MARIA SOLEDAD:
Y yo puedo te preguntar la misma! Camilla knew she would join this movement long
before she ever saw my face. Entonces como dejaste tu!?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Oye, oye, ten cuidado m’ija. We do not let our daughters happen. Tenemos que
dejar nuestras hijas a respirir, pensar, We must let our daughters grow, and fight, and
be.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Lo siento.
SOLEDAD:
Yes, you better be sorry.
How dare you ask me that.
You are the last person I am accountable to as a mother.
And you know why.
MARIA CONSUELO shudders, struggles to recover. GUIOMAR returns to her side,

cradling her shoulders.
GUIOMAR:
El aprieto empieza. I am here with you.
She soothes her by singing “Oshun me bai be jee lo.” MARIA CONSUELO hums along.
SOLEDAD rolls her eyes.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I am not the mother you remember.
After you…
I have become a teacher. A spiritual guide.
MARIA CONSUELO begins to stand up but starts coughing instead. GUIOMAR moves
to help MARIA CONSUELO out of the chair. To SOLEDAD, it looks like her infirm
mother is moving on her own.
GUIOMAR:
Mi iniciada tan sabia, piensas en todas tus hijas, encuentra tu poder en tu curación.
MARIA CONSUELO uses both her hands to break the mango pit in two. SOLEDAD
stares in wonder.
MARIA CONSUELO:
After you…
After you were gone…
I wanted to fight. To get you back. But I had to stand still. I had to heal.
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GUIOMAR:
Before fighting, healing.
Before power, healing.
GUIOMAR sculpts MARIA CONSUELO’s body into dance as she speaks.
MARIA CONSUELO:
And so I reached deep into this earth.
Mis brasos, mis piernas, son ramas por un arbol antiguo.
I quelled the raging fire inside of me
Asi que su calidez me consoló y no me quemaste.
I let these breezes lift me
Asi que mis pasos ya no eran pesados
I let myself listen to the rain
Asi que—
SOLEDAD:
You what?
GUIOMAR:
Ella escucho la lluvia, so that she could listen to you.
SOLEDAD:
You’re a hypocrite.
A charlatan.
A liar.
I don’t have time for this.
SOLEDAD picks up her bag and moves to go into the house.
MARIA CONSUELO:
(to GUIOMAR)
Yo lo traté.
GUIOMAR:
The icy fire will melt. She will heal. Se paciente.
SOLEDAD turns back.
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SOLEDAD:
You listened to the rain!? You wanted to fight for me!? I am not here for you to rewrite
history, Maria Consuelo. I am here to bring my daughter back home where she is
safe, where she can heal—
MARIA CONSUELO:
Entonces we want the same thing. La curación.
SOLEDAD:
You know nothing about healing. You know nothing about listening to the rain. That’s
what I knew, what I did, and you beat it out of me!
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ayuda me…
GUIOMAR:
Estas lista?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Por favor madre de mis madres.
GUIOMAR:
Elegua abre los caminos.
It begins to rain. It makes SOLEDAD’s anger stronger, hotter. Her styled hair begins to
lose its steely straightness and a curl starts to return.
SOLEDAD:
Soledad! Soledad! Deja de jugar! Para con esa brujería! Mi jefe te verá!
Remember?
Recuerdes Mama?
GUIOMAR approaches SOLEDAD.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ayuda me, Madre de mis madres!
GUIOMAR:
Estoy aqui para ella tambien. I will embrace you both.
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As SOLEDAD speaks, lost in memory, GUIOMAR sculpts her movements. They are
punctuated with anger. They come from the depths of her child self.
SOLEDAD:
Mama! Mama! Va a llover!
GUIOMAR:
(to Maria Consuelo)
You were working that day, dusting el jefe’s family portraits on the grand piano.
SOLEDAD:
Mama! Mama!
GUIOMAR:
The sun was bright in the sky, The air full of sunshine pedals. No chance of rain.
SOLEDAD:
Mama! Puedo probarlo!
GUIOMAR:
She had abilities. Deep and ancestral. Like tasting the scent of rain on her tongue
before it could be detected in the skies.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I don’t…
No recuerdo…
SOLEDAD:
Mama! Mama! Ya viene!
GUIOMAR:
(to Soledad)
Cállate, Negrita!
GUIOMAR grabs SOLEDAD’s wrist and twists it into a grotesque shape. SOLEDAD
wails.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I…
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I didn’t say it like that.
It didn’t look like that.
GUIOMAR:
Hija de mis hijas, I am the gust of wind that breathed all your mothers into the
universe. I saw it with your eyes and I saw it with my own.
SOLEDAD begins to dance a dance of joy and excitement. Her stilted joints remember
the movements from across time.
GUIOMAR:
(turns to Soledad.)
Maldita niña! Deja de jugar! Para con esa brujería! Mi jefe te verá!
MARIA CONSUELO:
El jefe had just returned from another trip.
GUIOMAR:
El jefe. The great diplomat with the heart of gold.
MARIA CONSUELO:
They were good to me.
GUIOMAR:
Whose pale children called you Abuela.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I…
I wasn’t healed then.
SOLEDAD continues her dance and begins to chant in a low voice. Suddenly, the rain
begins again.
GUIOMAR:
Maldita niña! Ven aca! Tu pelo tan feo y mojado!
MARIA CONSUELO:
I had just pressed her hair that morning.
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GUIOMAR:
You were angry with its curls.
SOLEDAD dances but the joy and excitement is replaced by angular rage. She chants
under her breath quietly and then louder…
SOLEDAD:
Maldita…Negrita…Maldita…Negrita.
She continues, louder and louder.
GUIOMAR:
Mira esta niña. She is so small. So young. So powerful. It is she who tastes rain before
it is in the sky. And it is she who sends dreams.
SOLEDAD:
MALDITA NEGRITA!
SOLEDAD’s rage seems to have shaken her back from memories.
That’s who’s a spiritual guide!? A teacher!? A woman who hated me for turning my
face towards the sky!? When I lived in this house you could barely look at the black on
your face in the mirror, and now you’re helping my only daughter walk in the path of
her ancestors!? No, no, no, no, no….
MARIA CONSUELO:
M’ija…
SOLEDAD:
WHAT did I say about that word!?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Lo siento…
I have learned so much since you left me.
SOLEDAD:
You left me! You left me every time you rubbed oil so hard into my skin, I could feel
you wishing you could rub the black off my cheeks. You left me when you screamed
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at me for staying in the sun for too long. You left me when I came here with my
husband, the love of my life and you said “Ay, que lastima,” you chose not to improve
the race!
SOLEDAD is at full rage. Thunder strikes. The sound, and its connection to her
feelings, surprises her. She looks at her body anew, like senses are waking up within
her.
GUIOMAR:
Y ahora, the ice begins to melt.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I was wrong…so wrong.
SOLEDAD:
It doesn’t matter now. It’s too late now. I just need to know that you haven’t infected
my daughter with your—
MARIA CONSUELO:
I pray at the altar of our ancestor, Guiomar, crowned by the orisha Oya. I was so
wrong then. So unhealed. But now, I know to follow the wisdom of the ancestors.
GUIOMAR:
The moment is near. Pregúntale lo que necesitas.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Por favor. Disculpame. Maria Soledad Figueroa de Martinez…
(with effort)
Thompson.
Please forgive me.
GUIOMAR:
Asi es.
SOLEDAD:
You can’t even keep your only granddaughter safe.
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Por favor. We have so little time.
SOLEDAD:
Time has already run out. You never even apologized to him. To Everett. And now
you can’t.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Que me estás diciendo?
SOLEDAD:
I know how to send dreams, remember? I don’t know how to talk to the dead.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Ay! No!
GUIOMAR:
Mi niña con poderes, I am sorry for your pain. Thank you for remembering. Thank you
for returning to yourself.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Que pasó? Oh…
Eh-Solly.
I am sorry.
For your loss.
SOLEDAD:
Camilla didn’t tell you?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Camilla spoke of her father’s ancestors. Gente con magia muy fuerte. People who
knew to look to the stars for liberation. People who could hide maps to freedom in
the coils of their hair. Pero no hable de su papa. I thought that she was angry with
him, the same way she was angry with you. Can you tell me? About him? About what
has happened?
SOLEDAD:
You basically spat in his face when he came here. Why would I want to talk to you
about him? Does Camilla even know?
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Know what?
SOLEDAD:
That this is the reason she never knew her grandmother. That this is the reason I never
came back to my mother.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I taught Camilla things she needed to know…
Coughs.
GUIOMAR:
Como ser como un arbol de mango
MARIA CONSUELO:
I taught her to find her roots and fight for them…
Coughs.
GUIOMAR:
Como escuchar a los guacharos
MARIA CONSUELO:
I taught her the languages of birds, trees, fruits
Coughs. Gasping for breath.
SOLEDAD:
Esta bien? Let me get you some water.
MARIA CONSUELO:
I taught her…
that to walk in her asé she must know the difference between the now and the always.
And that she must commit to them equally.
And I tried…
To teach…
The difference…
between healing…and power.
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But with this…
I have failed…
I do not make promises…
But please…
Mi hija…prometeme que no cometerás los mismos errores.
Promise me you will teach your granddaughter this lesson.
She is coming soon.
You must prepare yourself.
SOLEDAD:
What?
MARIA CONSUELO:
Entonces…
Mi niña con poderes. My daughter. With the ability to send dreams…
Coughs. It is incessant now.
SOLEDAD:
Mama!
How long have you been this sick!?
What can I do!?
MARIA CONSUELO:
I am already healed.
No necessito doctora. Necessito una hija.
Perdoname, m’ija.
SOLEDAD:
I…I’m here.
GUIOMAR:
Y yo tambien.
MARIA CONSUELO:
SOLEDAD:
Okay. Okay. It’s okay. Shhh…
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MARIA CONSUELO:
Ayuda me.
GUIOMAR grabs Maria Consuelo’s hand. SOLEDAD grabs the other. The guacharo
sings again. MARIA CONSUELO tries to whistle along. She coughs instead. She gasps
for air. Life drains from her. As she dies, her arms drop and GUIOMAR and SOLEDAD
touch and face each other. SOLEDAD stares into GUIOMAR’s eyes.
GUIOMAR:
Don’t come any closer. You are not ready.
SOLEDAD:
M’ija!?
GUIOMAR:
I am the mother, you are the daughter.
SOLEDAD:
Camilla! M’ija!
GUIOMAR begins to retreat to the mango tree.

Camilla!
Camilla!
GUIOMAR:
I am your mother.
SOLEDAD:
Mama….mi Mama!
GUIOMAR:
I am your mother’s mother.
SOLEDAD:
Camilla, what’s happening?
GUIOMAR:
I am the gust of wind that breathed all the mothers before her into the universe.
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SOLEDAD:
Camilla, come home. Come home with me.
GUIOMAR:
I am Guiomar. Look for me in your dreams.
She jumps into the branches of the mango tree.

Lights Out.
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Un Sueño
CAMILLA is on the branch from her previous dream. She trembles at the sight of the
ground. She is at the full-term of her pregnancy, and rubs her womb. She is in the
beginning stages of labor. She is scared. Under her breath she sings to herself:
“Oshun mai bai beh je lo….” The labor pains intensify. She cries out in pain. She
continues to sing, punctuated by her cries of pain. A strong, clear voice answers her,
singing the first word of her phrase over and over, “Oshun…” CAMILLA allows the
voice to soothe her, and stops singing to breathe deep breaths. The voice
approaches. It is MARIA CONSUELO, dancing a dance of the goddess Oshun. She
approaches CAMILLA who breathes with relief.
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña. Gracias al orisha Oshun. My baby is coming. Your crowned orisha will guide
my way.
MARIA CONSUELO:
Hija de mi hija, I will carry your message to Oshun who waits to greet me with my
crown.
MARIA CONSUELO changes course, dancing away from CAMILLA.
CAMILLA:
Ala Iña, a donde vas?
Ala Iña?
CAMILLA is hit with the worst of the labor pains so far. MARIA CONSUELO continues
to dance away.
CAMILLA:
Abuela!
Abuela!
Help me!
MARIA CONSUELO:
Oshun, ya llegue tu hija,
MARIA CONSUELO continues to dance but to a different rhythm. A transformation is

occurring. She is (MARIA CONSUELO as) GUIOMAR.
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GUIOMAR:
I am your mother. I am your mother’s mother. I am the gust of wind that breathed all
the mothers before them into the universe.
CAMILLA:
Madre de mis madres?
GUIOMAR disappears. CAMILLA screams with pain. From her womb, an osprey bird
emerges and flies away.
La Tercera Parte
Daytime on Maria Consuelo’s patio. In the light of day, the patio seems completely
different, devoid of a certain energy. The mango tree has only a few wrinkled looking
pieces of fruit on it. The rest have been gathered up in baskets placed around the
patio. CAMILLA sits in the seat her grandmother used to occupy. She is wearing an
oversized military coat. She bends over her midsection, where her pregnancy is just
beginning to show, if you know to look for it. Next to her is a platter with a bowl of
uneaten soup and plate of empanadas. CAMILLA stares at the mango tree listlessly.
SOLEDAD enters from the house in a stylish leisure suit and stands behind her.
SOLEDAD:
You still haven’t eaten anything?
…
(Almost shouting, but stopping herself.)
Camilla.
You need—I think you need to eat.
CAMILLA:
I’m fine.
SOLEDAD:
…
Camilla.
You’ve been here three days. You have barely said a word to me. You have barely
eaten. I know you are grieving…
I know you are grieving for your grandmother.
But skipping meals is unwise.
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In your condition.
CAMILLA:
What do you mean, my condition?
SOLEDAD:
Well, someone who…
CAMILLA:
Collapsed as soon as I got here? Lives a physically demanding lifestyle?
SOLEDAD:
It’s time to talk about this, Camilla.
CAMILLA:
There’s nothing to talk about.
SOLEDAD:
Your grandmother said—
CAMILLA:
What did Ala Iña tell you?
SOLEDAD:
That I would be a grandmother soon.
CAMILLA:
Well, she was a liar.
SOLEDAD:
At times.
SOLEDAD inches towards CAMILLA who still stares off at the tree. She reaches one
hand towards CAMILLA’s forehead, and the other hovers around CAMILLA’s shoulder
like GUIOMAR touched her in her first dream.
CAMILLA:
(jumping back.)
What are you doing!?
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SOLEDAD:
I just want to make sure you don’t have a temperature.
CAMILLA:
Don’t doctor me right now!
I’m..
I’m feeling a lot better. I’ll be returning this evening.
SOLEDAD:
Returning to what?
…
Camilla, we have to talk. You have to let me help you.
CAMILLA:
I don’t need any help. I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.
SOLEDAD:
Then why are you refusing meals as you near your second trimester of pregnancy?
CAMILLA’s eyes dart back towards the mango tree.
SOLEDAD:
There are some parts of being a doctor I can’t turn off. And some things you can’t
hide. I will not let you leave this house until—
CAMILLA:
Mom…you don’t understand. I don’t have time—
SOLEDAD:
You don’t have time? Well, let me tell you one thing. Nobody has time to be
pregnant. You want to know what I don’t have time for? Do you want to know what
kind of time I have been losing? Looking for you? People and places and ideas that
have you taking off in the middle of the night wearing oversized jackets, looking like
death, that’s what you shouldn’t have time for. This is insane!
CAMILLA:
I’ve seen you do less sane things.
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SOLEDAD:
I think we should call the embassy.
CAMILLA:
And tell them your daughter is a member of a terrorist organization? That’s what the
always benevolent US government is now calling El Frente del Futuro.
SOLEDAD:
Camilla…this is really serious. If this is against your will—
CAMILLA:
It’s not.
SOLEDAD:
Given your current condition, and given…given what happened to our family…
CAMILLA:
How are you still this naïve?
I am here and I have chosen to be here because of what happened to our family.
Because it’s the only sane response to what happened to our family.
You need to accept that. And you need to accept that I’m leaving tonight.
SOLEDAD breathes deeply and then stands in front of the mango tree, forcing her
daughter to pay attention to her.
SOLEDAD:
Why tonight?
…
Why do you have to leave tonight?
If you’re not going to let me convince you to stay, you can at least explain what’s
actually going on to me.
I will listen. Please.
SOLEDAD gingerly crouches down at the foot of the tree. CAMILLA takes a small bite
from an empanada and chews it thoughtfully. She takes a deep breath.
CAMILLA:
There’s an auspicious day coming.
Well, Juan Pedro thinks an auspicious day is coming.
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Ala Iña taught him how to walk in the path of Ogun. The warrior.
You have no idea what I’m—
SOLEDAD:
Keep going.
CAMILLA:
He’s had a plan. For a long time.
Something I didn’t think we’d ever have to do.
I thought this would be over before we had to…
There’s a plan.
And I thought I could stop it.
I thought if I came back here, and Ala Iña did what she promised she would do, I
could stop it.
CAMILLA, in her exhaustion and despair, begins to cry.

I know she sent me those dreams.
I know it.
And she lied to me, trying to get me to believe it couldn’t be done.
Because she wanted me to stop trying.
But then she sent me another one, and she was…she was dancing…but she
was…different. She was…her.
But then I get here.
And she’s gone.
And now…
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop this.
You have no idea what I’m talking about.
SOLEDAD:
Camilla…
I know more than you think I know. And this doesn’t have to be your fight.
CAMILLA:
Of course you would say that.
SOLEDAD:
What is that supposed to mean?
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CAMILLA:
You don’t think anything’s your fight. You left this place. Or at least you think you did.
All that money you sent to Juan Pedro el Señor for her? You know what she did with
that?
SOLEDAD:
She didn’t use it to upkeep this house, that’s for sure.
CAMILLA:
She funded this revolution. El Frente del Futuro? It only exists because for years she
was taking young people from this village into the forest. Sharing ancestral
knowledge. How to find their ori, the orisha who crowns them with their inherent
wisdom. She called it La Escuela del Futuro. In this fucking country where no one’s
even allowed to be Black, she taught Black pride.
But you wouldn’t understand that either.
SOLEDAD:
Ya basta!
Hearing her mother speak Spanish seems to slap CAMILLA across the face.
SOLEDAD:
You have a lot of ideas about what I do and don’t understand.
But you have never, ever tried to understand me.
Why do you think I left this place, Camilla?
CAMILLA:
…
To go be a fancy doctor in a fancy country.
SOLEDAD:
(Laughs joylessly.)
When I was born, my father was convinced I wasn’t his because I was too dark. He
abandoned us before my first birthday.
My mother, your venerated Ala Iña, she used to get drunk and moan to herself, “My
daughter is dark and ugly, just like me, just like shit on a shoe.”
That’s why I left. That’s why I kept you from this place. This place where everyone is
allowed to hate black because everyone is at least a little bit brown. I left this place to
find my Black pride.
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And I found it.
I found it with your father.
(Breathes deep to keep the tears from falling.)
He was the first person to tell me I had beautiful skin.
The first person to rub his hands through my untreated hair and to love what he
found there.
So, maybe we didn’t go to marches. Maybe we didn’t storm state buildings. I know we
weren’t the people you wish we were. But we loved each other because we were
Black and not in spite of it. And if that’s not Black pride, then I don’t know what is.
CAMILLA:
…
…
And then you betrayed that. You betrayed that when he was gone.
SOLEDAD:
You can’t hold this over me forever, Camilla. You can’t punish me for trying to survive.
For trying to let his legacy survive--
CAMILLA:
You shat all over his legacy. “Everett Thompson was a good man who loved his
country. Everett Thompson was a proud American.” That’s all you ever said. Over and
over and over again. An American police officer shot him dead for grabbing his wallet
and that’s all you could say! Like you were begging for something!
SOLEDAD:
And running off to the International Convening for Black Liberation days after your
own father’s funeral isn’t begging for something? Begging that something be
different? Aren’t we both allowed to beg?
CAMILLA:
There’s a difference between begging and fighting.
SOLEDAD:
Or maybe healing looks like begging when the wound is still too fresh.
…
I was the one in the car with him, Camilla.
I was the one they brought in for questioning when they figured out where I was born.
They started pushing me like I’m a part of all this, like I’m some kind of undercover
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guerilla, less than an hour after your father took his last breath with me sitting right
next to him. What did you want me to say? Your father did love his country. Your
father was a proud American. I didn’t lie. I was trying to protect us. Give us a chance
to heal. And look what you’re doing with it!
CAMILLA:
Do you know what happened when I first arrived in the forest?
Years ago, Ala Iña taught the youth of this village how to summon a pantheon of
ancestors. How to…harvest all that good energy and intention. So on that first night,
when we first arrived, Juan Pedro did that, with Miguel de Buría. You know who that
is?
…
Of course not.
Miguel de Buría was an African king. He was enslaved, first in Puerto Rico and then
here, and he…started a revolution. The first maroon nation. In that same forest. And
by his side, the whole time, his wife. Guiomar. Our ancestor. She knew magic. She
was connected to divinity.
CAMILLA and SOLEDAD sit with this. The sun begins to set.
Guiomar was a warrior, too. They fought side by side. So that first night, we invited
them all in. And then Juan Pedro, in the last step of the ceremony, he asked us to
speak the name of an ancestor who had been killed by a colonizer, the same way
Miguel de Buría was killed by a colonizer. And every time someone spoke a name, a
new flame emerged in that fire. I spoke Dad’s name. Everett Thompson. And I
watched his flame strengthen that fire. And I knew that the only way I can ever heal is
to claim power. To fight.
SOLEDAD:
Fighting is not healing, Camilla.
CAMILLA:
Neither is giving in.
SOLEDAD:
Esto es lo que piensas de mi?
SOLEDAD stands up and begins to stroke the bark of the mango tree.
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CAMILLA:
Why are you speaking to me in Spanish? You never did. Even when I needed you to.
SOLEDAD:
Nunca dejé de hablar en Español. Lo hablo en mis sueños.
CAMILLA:
You dream in Spanish?
SOLEDAD:
Si, en mis sueños. Donde conosco Guiomar.
…
When I was pregnant with you, I dreamt of—
CAMILLA:
Mangoes. Ala Iña told me.
CAMILLA tentatively touches her womb.
I’ve been dreaming…

In my dreams I’m pregnant with feathers, with birds.
SOLEDAD:
Ya lo se.
Te envié esos sueños.
CAMILLA:
Mom…
SOLEDAD:
The first one, the one with the feathers where you met Guiomar? That was in spite of
myself. All day every day I was doing everything I could to find you. To get inside your
head and predict the choices you were making. Calling every friend, professor, trying
every password. And I was just too exhausted to keep fighting my dreams. I’ve been
fighting them for decades. So when I woke up and felt that tug between my mind and
heart, the one I’ve felt since I was a child, I let the dream go where it was meant to go.
And once I sent one, I couldn’t stop myself, just like when I was small. And then I sent
one to my mother. I guess it helped her prepare for my visit. Or for her journey
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onward. And after she was gone, I sent you another, because I knew you would come
back if I did.
CAMILLA:
…
She told me she would teach me how to send them.
SOLEDAD:
She beat it out of me as a child. She said it was witchcraft.
CAMILLA:
She lied to me.
SOLEDAD:
I think she was trying to heal.
CAMILLA:
Can you teach me?
SOLEDAD:
So you can heal? Or so you can fight?
CAMILLA:
So I can end this.
So I can be…
This movement. They respected her. If I have a power they think she had, they’ll listen
to me. This plan. I could get rid of it. And then I could be…
SOLEDAD:
A mother.
They sit with this together. The sun sets. SOLEDAD gets a desperate idea.
SOLEDAD:
Buscame un mango.
CAMILLA looks to the tree and takes in its barrenness.
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SOLEDAD:
…
We have to try.
CAMILLA approaches one of the baskets of mangoes and picks up a piece of fruit. She
begins to hum “Oshun ma bai beh ji lo” and hands the piece of fruit to her mother.
SOLEDAD plunges her thumb into the fruit like she saw her mother do. She hands the
peel to CAMILLA who takes it and places it at the foot of the mango tree. SOLEDAD
follows her to the tree, holding the pit of the mango. She tries to break it with her two
hands but nothing happens. CAMILLA tries to take it from her, but SOLEDAD keeps
trying. She screams in rage, frustration, grief, and throws the pit across the patio. She
begins to cry.
CAMILLA:
Mom.
Mommy.
Tranquila…
She approaches the mango tree and wraps her arms around the nearest branch. She
hums to Oshun faintly, and then begins to breathe rhythmically and deeply. SOLEDAD
listens to her breath. She begins to match it.
CAMILLA:
We have to invite her here.
Guiomar.
SOLEDAD:
Asi es.
CAMILLA:
When did you see her for the first time? Was it in a dream?
SOLEDAD:
I was very much awake.
I was small. Not even in school yet.
The water had stopped running in the house and I needed a bath, so my mother took
me to the waterfall.
I was so excited, running through the forest towards the sounds of thundering water.
But my mother was furious. She said that the poor people who bathed outside their
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homes were mala gente. So I skipped ahead, leaving her muttering curses behind
me.
They return to the rhythmic breathing. SOLEDAD joins CAMILLA at the tree. She
caresses the bark, whispers to it, until she bounces off of it, showering in a memory of
water.

Vi tu sonrisa en el chapoteo de agua.
Te escuché tararear en mi corazon quando contuve mi respiracion bajo de agua.
(MARIA CONSUELO as) GUIOMAR appears above SOLEDAD’s head, dancing the
same dance from CAMILLA’s dream.
GUIOMAR:
Hija de mis hijas, You saw me in the darkest shade of Black on your skin.
SOLEDAD:
You have been with me in my dreams ever since.
CAMILLA:
Mom?
SOLEDAD:
Ya llegue.
She’s here, Camilla.
CAMILLA:
I can’t see her!
SOLEDAD:
Mi mama…
GUIOMAR:
She has been greeted into a pantheon of ancestors.
SOLEDAD:
Mami…
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CAMILLA:
Mom?
SOLEDAD:
Que hermosa eres. Your Black skin is shining.
GUIOMAR:
Because I am she and she is me.
SOLEDAD:
Thank you…thank you for welcoming her home.
We invite you…
We ask you…
CAMILLA:
Mommy!
Tell her I need to heal.
SOLEDAD:
Te pedimos que nos sanes.
Both of us.
GUIOMAR:
Asi es, hija de mis hijas.
Buscame un mango.
SOLEDAD runs to CAMILLA and takes one of her hands off the branch, grabbing hold
of her. CAMILLA gasps.
CAMILLA:
I can see. You are with us.
GUIOMAR:
Hija de mis hijas, who holds the future in your mind, in your heart, in your womb, is
healing what you want?
CAMILLA:
Yes…I want to feel light, so that my daughter can learn how to fly.
69
Draft 3
4.16.21
GUIOMAR:
Asi es. Adelante!
Somos tres.
GUIOMAR:
Con tres, ya tenemos
CAMILLA:
The past, the present, the future.
SOLEDAD:
The now
GUIOMAR:
Lo que es ahora
CAMILLA:
And the always
GUIOMAR:
Lo que es por siempre.
CAMILLA:
As within, so without
GUIOMAR:
Como dentro tan abajo.
SOLEDAD:
We are the gusts of air that will breathe all the mothers after us into the universe.
All of a sudden, they are surrounded by a ring of fire. GUIOMAR proceeds to dance
with the flames.
CAMILLA:
We celebrate Ala Iña--
SOLEDAD:
Has she healed? Is she free from her suffering?
70
Draft 3
4.16.21
GUIOMAR:
She rests in the comforting glow of the flames, she tends to them so that they do not
spread.
CAMILLA:
Asé.
It begins to rain. The flames are slowly extinguished.
GUIOMAR:
La niña que conoce el sabor de lluvia, do you seek healing or do you seek power?
SOLEDAD:
I want to heal.
GUIOMAR:
Let the now be the always. Taste your past like you taste the rain. When you feel the
tug between your mind and heart—
SOLEDAD:
I will let the dreams fly.
GUIOMAR:
You will send them where they belong.
CAMILLA:
Asé.
GUIOMAR:
Mi hija el mango!
The rain stops. The tree is suddenly full of fruit, the mangoes twinkle and sparkle like
gems.
What do you see?
CAMILLA looks at the ground and gasps.
71
Draft 3
4.16.21
GUIOMAR:
Remember, do not look at the ground. Piensas en el cielo. What color is it?
CAMILLA:
The sky…is the color of a bird’s wing.
GUIOMAR:
Asi es. Y ahora, que puedes ver en ese arbol?
CAMILLA:
I see…my mother. She looks…strong. And I see…my grandmother…I see her in your
eyes. And I see…so many mangoes—
GUIOMAR:
Y entonces you are seeing yourself.
CAMILLA:
SOLEDAD:
My mother…when I dreamt of mangoes she said you would—
CAMILLA:
I know. She told me. Brightly colored, exuding sweetness with an impenetrable pit.
SOLEDAD:
She said that you would have so much to give.
GUIOMAR:
That your words and deeds would nurture.
SOLEDAD:
And that when you needed to say no, you would be steadfast and compassionate.
You would root yourself in the ground and you would let your no be the root of new
growth.
CAMILLA:
Is that what I’m doing?
72
Draft 3
4.16.21
GUIOMAR:
What will you fight for mi guerrera de confianza? La curación o el poder?
CAMILLA:
I think I’m too tired…
SOLEDAD:
You’re holding too much, m’ija.
GUIOMAR:
Healing and power cannot be held by the same hand.
SOLEDAD:
Stay here with me.
GUIOMAR:
Recuerdes…
CAMILLA
The best way to fight for what you love is by standing still.
CAMILLA and SOLEDAD are back on the patio. GUIOMAR has disappeared. There is a
full moon in the sky and the mango tree is still full of fruit. CAMILLA and SOLEDAD
embrace each other and hold on tight. It takes a long time for them to release this hug.
SOLEDAD:
What’s going to happen, m’ija?
CAMILLA:
El Frente del Futuro is going to bomb the government office in the center of town.
SOLEDAD:
What will you do?
CAMILLA takes off her military jacket, her pregnancy more clearly visible now. She
picks up the mango retrieving device and begins to shed the tree of its new fruit.
SOLEDAD picks up one of the baskets and helps CAMILLA place the mangoes in the
basket. They continue to work.
73
Draft 3
4.16.21
CAMILLA:
What was the first one?
SOLEDAD:
The first what?
CAMILLA:
The first dream you sent. Who was it to?
SOLEDAD:
My mother… She was crying herself to sleep one night, and I wanted her to feel
better. So I sent her…In the dream it was the middle of the day. She was at work.
Cleaning el jefe’s driveway. And in the middle of the day, a guacharo shows up and
starts singing to her. And she leaves the driveway and chases the bird, so surprised to
see it in the middle of the day. And as she chases the bird, her clothes they start to
change. She’s in her cleaning uniform but the further into the forest she gets, the
thicker the brush, the fabrics start to rip and tear and soon she’s not wearing anything
at all. And she runs and she runs and the running feels like it did when she was a
young girl, and she runs from the edge of the forest to the foot of a volcano. And
she’s so surprised to see it, this awesome sight in all its power, and it’s releasing these
velvety streams of fire, and the guacharo sings to her, “Ala Iña, Ala Iña, your darkness
is beautiful, as beautiful as the mantle of fire from the core of the earth, Ala Iña, Ala
Iña.” And the next morning at breakfast I asked her if she had good dreams and she
said she couldn’t remember.
SOLEDAD and CAMILLA laugh gently together. They continue their work. Maybe they
hum.
END OF PLAY.
74

All My Mothers Dream in Spanish: by Alexandra Espinoza

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All My Mothers Dream in Spanish: by Alexandra Espinoza

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All My Mothers Dream in Spanish/Solly Dreams in Spanish

All My Mothers Dream in Spanish

Characters (An Afro-Latinx Family Tree*)

Maria Soledad: A mother.

Camilla Marie: A daughter.

*All actors should self-identify as Black and as Latinx.

It is important to know that Guiomar is a fact-based historical figure who existed in

CAMILLA sits in the chair next to her grandmother.

They fall into a tense stare.

The tense stare returns.

The tense stare returns.

They stare. And then they laugh together.

MARIA CONSUELO seems to freeze in place.

She sees the bottle in CAMILLA’s hands

No vas a beber por estar en comunión con los espiritus?

(SOLEDAD as) GUIOMAR is outside of the tent, unseen.

GUIOMAR and CAMILLA:

CAMILLA is back on the patio with MARIA CONSUELO.

CAMILLA shivers a bit, looking unwell.

She is back in her dream, back with GUIOMAR.

(GUIOMAR forcefully places CAMILLA’s hands back onto the branches.)

CAMILLA moves to leave.

She approaches the gate and begins to unlock it.

MARIA CONSUELO reaches CAMILLA, grabs her hand.

CAMILLA yanks her hand free. She leaves.

The tree rustles as she jumps to a lower branch, still hidden.

Por que tienes miedo?

GUIOMAR appears. She is young, Black, glistening.

I have come for you, hija de mis hijas.

In the tree, the youthful giggle can be heard again.

The sound of the patio gate being unlocked.

The patio gate opens.

She begins to cough. It rattles in her chest.

Excuse me a moment, I need to check my messages.

MARIA CONSUELO closes a fist around the mango pit.

MARIA CONSUELO shudders, struggles to recover. GUIOMAR returns to her side,

GUIOMAR sculpts MARIA CONSUELO’s body into dance as she speaks.

SOLEDAD picks up her bag and moves to go into the house.

SOLEDAD turns back.

GUIOMAR approaches SOLEDAD.

She continues, louder and louder.

SOLEDAD’s rage seems to have shaken her back from memories.

Coughs. Gasping for breath.

Coughs. It is incessant now.

GUIOMAR begins to retreat to the mango tree.

She jumps into the branches of the mango tree.

MARIA CONSUELO changes course, dancing away from CAMILLA.

MARIA CONSUELO continues to dance but to a different rhythm. A transformation is

CAMILLA’s eyes dart back towards the mango tree.

CAMILLA, in her exhaustion and despair, begins to cry.

CAMILLA tentatively touches her womb.

I’ve been dreaming…

CAMILLA looks to the tree and takes in its barrenness.

Madre de mis madres…

It begins to rain. The flames are slowly extinguished.

What do you see?

CAMILLA looks at the ground and gasps.

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