"I remember only once in my career when I felt truly at home in a theater. I have always felt passion for my craft, and been part of moments that were beautiful and transcendent, but I have always carried the knowledge of being an other - an outsider. I remember during a rehearsal for LAS MUJERES…I sat and looked around the room and realized for the very first time in my life I wasn't code-switching. I could speak in half Spanish if I wanted. I could make reference to my abuelita, or empanadas, or praise a memory with "besos besos besos" straight from my thoughts to the world outside. I looked around and knew no one was going to ask me an insensitive question about my name, or my heritage, or "my people" as has happened so often before. I found myself in a room full of artists of color, elevating the voices of women and female-identifying artists, being as open, and kind, and thoughtful, and full of passion, and emotional, and supportive, and inclusive as I had always dreamed the rehearsal room could be… I hope to feel that way in a rehearsal room again and I try to build all of the rehearsals I have had since then on that experience, decolonizing the process of making art. That is a gift and an affirmation that has deeply changed me as an artist and a moment I will never forget."
- Tamanya Garza (Director of Las Mujeres & Advisory Board Member)
