Nina is a fifteen-year-old Hispanic girl who is nine days away from her quinceañera. She talks to her friend about how excited she is about the event and her first dance with her father. But everything is gest turned upside down when she gets word that her father has been arrested by ICE agents and is in the process of being deported. She rushes home to her mother and siblings. This situation makes no sense, he is a good man who has only done good things since his arrival into America. Was he there illegally? Yes, but he had made himself and his family positive members of society and his reason for bringing them there was a noble one, to get his two eldest children the health care they needed to fight a difficult disease. Nina experiences an emotional roller coaster as her mother attempts to comfort her and they all try to understand how they will be able to move forward, but Nina announces her quinceañera is off if he cannot be there for their first dance. This is a truly beautiful coming of age story about the strong connection a young girl has with her father. *Character will speak Spanish throughout the performance.
Quinceañera (Also published as DI)
I like to hum this one song because it is my father’s favorite song and we are going to dance to it at my quinceañera. First song I can remember my papa ever singing to me as a little girl. Sometimes I like to practice the dance with my bear as papa’s stand in. We have been rehearsing like crazy and there is this one part in the song when he twirls me around and around, and my papa is not a dancer but for his ninita, he’s trying really hard- oh it’s going to be so beautiful. Me, my dress, all of my friends and family and the first dance with my papa. Everything is ready, all set up, and my dress just arrived from my abuela in Mexico; it’s pink with beads that she attached by hand. When you come to my house this weekend, I’ll let you see it, so pretty- but then the call came. My mom was crying, and she said that the police had come to the store that my papa runs and- something happened…he got deported.