Open Your Heart: Immigrant Stories and Music from Boston and Beyond

A production created by Hoopla Productions, in collaboration with ZUMIX

A celebration of immigrant vibrancy and resilience. Stories, music, dance, free food!

Performed on June 30, 2023 at City Hall Plaza!

Open Your Heart celebrates the diversity of immigrant stories.

Open Your Heart gives voice to an inter-generational group of immigrants who came to the U.S. and ultimately landed in East Boston. Their moving and inspiring stories capture why people decide to come to this country, their journey to get here, their experience when they arrive, and ultimately, their transformation into community leaders and activists who contribute to the vibrancy of East Boston.

Like many people from El Salvador, Fernando Rosas was 16 when his father sent him on a long and harrowing journey with a “coyote” to escape being recruited by violent gangs in El Salvador. He’s now the owner of Pandebono Restaurant in East Boston.

Luz Zambrano came to the U.S. with a college degree from a university in Colombia. In her first job in the U.S. – working 70 hours a week as a cleaner – she discovered that she and her co-workers were being denied their rightful wages. She made a complaint to the Department of Labor on behalf of herself and her co-workers, and they won. Luz is the co-founder and General Coordinator of the Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity (CCDS) in East Boston, where she supports immigrant workers to create worker-owned cooperatives.

When she was five years old, Gloribel Rivas and her sister had to pretend they were the daughters of a family in Mexico to get across the border. Meanwhile, her mother was walking through the desert to get here. Gloribel Rivas is currently the Chief of Staff for Massachusetts Representative Adrian Madaro.

Youth actors will be joined by ZUMIX musicians and professional actors, Ines de la Cruz, Jaime José Hernandez, and Luz Lopez. And narrating the performance of Open Your Heart is Jenn DeLeon, award-winning writer and young adult author of Borderless, a forthcoming book about teens on the U.S./Mexico border.

This event was free and open to the public. For more information, contact Mindy Fried – mindy@hooplaproductions.org

DONATE HERE to support Hoopla Productions! Help us create other community-building arts events!

All donations – small, medium and large – are welcome.

Hoopla Productions is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is tax deductible as allowed by law.

2023 Open Your Heart Artists

Actors

Fernanda Zapata Arteaga/ZUMIX (Sandra Nijjar) is 15 years old, and this is her first semester at ZUMIX. She loves animals and listening to other people. She also likes music, painting on canvas and reading mystery and fantasy books.

Charley Belaney/ZUMIX (Charley) 14 years old and lives in East Boston. She enjoys singing, acting, dancing, and anything that has to do with performing. She also loves to hang out with her friends, whenever she’s not babysitting. Charley has been a member of the ZUMIX community since she was 7 years old, and is excited to be a part of this production.

Inés de la Cruz (Luz Zambrano and Eny Lovo) (she/her) is a Dominican, Boston based actor. Past acting credits include: Bud, Not Budy (Wheelock Family Theater) Chicken & Biscuits (The Front Porch Theatre Collective) Think of Me Tuesday (Gloucester Stage) Sonia Se Fue (Teatro Chelsea) Wolf Play (Company One Theater) Marriage, Mentiras, and Mantras (Escena Latina Teatro) Prohibido Suicidarse en Primavera (Escena Latina Teatro) This Place / Displaced (Artists’ Theater of Boston), Wrestling with Freedom III (Our Place Theatre Project). Great War Theatre Project: The UK Tour (TC Squared Theatre Company). She has directed/produced and served as an administrator for Escena Latina Teatro. You can catch Inés in the comedic web series The Pineapple Diaries (La Gringa Loca Productions). Inés is a member of Actors Equity Association.

Jennifer De Leon (Narrator) is the author of just-released YA novel, Borderless (Simon and Shuster, 2023), as well as Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (Simon & Schuster, 2020), chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection, and White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing (UMass Press, 2021), a recipient of the Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction. She is also the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), which won an International Latino Book Award. Jenn is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University. Forthcoming are two children’s picture books: So Many Gifts, and a biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Rigoberta Menchú. Connect via Instagram or Twitter: @jdeleonwriter, or via her website: www.jenniferdeleonauthor.com

Jaime José Hernández (Fernando Rosas and Kannan Thiruvengadam) has performed extensively throughout the Boston area, and is a founding member of Teatro Chelsea. Recent acting credits include: Actors Shakespeare Project: As You Like It, Moonbox Productions, The House of Ramon Iglesia, Gamm Theatre: Sweat, Lyric Stage Company of Boston: Fabulation, or the re-education of Undine, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, American Repertory Theatre: The Arboretum Experience, Hub Theatre Company of Boston: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Apollinaire Theatre Company: Romeo & Juliet, Zeitgeist Stage Company: Vicuña. Represented by: Kreativ Media Partners. @jaimehernandezactor

Luz Lopez (Deysi Gutierrez and Gloribel Rivas) is so excited to be a part of Open Your Heart! She is a Puertominican (Dominicarican?) theatre and film actress, voice over artist, and director. Recent acting credits include: Alma at Central Square Theatre, Don’t Eat The Mangos with Apollinaire Theatre & Teatro Chelsea (Elliot Norton Nominated – Best Featured Performance), Witness with Arlekin Players, Sonia Se Fue with Teatro Chelsea, and the radio play Dream Boston: Wonderland with The Huntington Theatre. Earlier this month, she directed La Lengua No Tiene Hueso for the Boston New Works Festival at Moonbox Productions and earlier this year, she assistant-directed The Art of Burning at The Huntington Theatre. Luz graduated from Yale University and is represented by WSM Talent. You can learn more about Luz at www.luzlopez.com or follow her @luzlopezactor

Omar Ramadan/ZUMIX (Personal story) lives in East Boston and loves biking through the Greenway. He attends the Newman School and plays squash. He is very friendly to many. At ZUMIX, he was a part of the Finding Home production during the summer of 2022. He also hosts a weekly Firehouse Radio show on 94.9FM ZUMIX Radio.

Robin Chavez Shirman/ZUMIX (Young Luz) lives in East Boston, and likes dancing and acting. They also like reading comedy, horror, and mystery books, and for eight years, they have played the violin. Robin has been in several plays including Much Ado about Nothing, 67 Cinderellas, and Pied Pipers of Hamlin. This is their first ZUMIX production.

Angelica Muñoz (Vocalist) is Colombian and lives in East Boston. She grew up with culture all around her, and she has always been open to learning new things. She is a part of the ZUMIX Teen Council and hosts her own radio program, Bilingual Mess – a show about culture and experiences shared between friends, while having a fun time. She is also an only child with a tiny chihuahua named Lolis.

Samantha Angulo, Samy, or MCSam (Bryan), is a ZUMIX alum. She is a rising junior at Wesleyan University, studying theater and film. She is proud about being a bilingual Venezuelan.

Julian Jarjour (Cinematographer) is a 16 year old pianist, photographer, and current ZUMIX participant from Lynn. He has been attending programs at Berklee College of Music as well as playing in ZUMIX’s Divercity band. He doesn’t like to write about himself in third person, but alas.

Amir Harper (Percussionist)

Production/Artistic Team

Mindy Fried (Producer, Playwright) is the Executive Director of Hoopla Productions, a nonprofit organization that produces arts events aimed at building community across the divides of race, class, culture and immigrant status. Mindy also founded and hosts The Shape of Care, a podcast about caregiving, and is the recipient of 2023 Public Engagement Award from the Carework Network, a global network of care scholars. Mindy received her Masters and Doctorate degrees in Sociology from Brandeis University, and a Masters in Social Work from Syracuse University, with a focus on Community Organizing and Social Policy Planning.

Vincent Siders (Artistic Director/Coach) is an actor, director, producer, and educator. He is the Lead Instructor and Director of Youth Underground, a resident theatre company at Central Square Theater. Vincent has received two Acting awards and two nominations for Best Direction from the Independent Reviewers of New England, the Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor, and Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston Award for Best Actor. He is the founder and artistic director of TYG Productions, home of the Family Beef Feast Fest.

Eli Pabon (Post event dance leader) is a multi-talented dancer, singer, lyricist, educator, percussionist and events curator who was born and raised in Boston to a Puerto Rican family of performers, musicians and educators, . She grew up learning the importance of music and dance in health, education, healing, resistance, and community-building. She shares her experiences and love through teaching dance, percussion and song to others, as well as performing and producing arts programming and events locally, nationally and internationally as an active artist collective member of MetaMovements and Kilombo Novo (Imaginal LLC) and her BOMBAntillana project.

Michele Cubillo (Interpreter) is a language justice practitioner who is deepening their relationship with language and liberation. Michele was born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, FL, and has been an interpreter, storyteller, and language advocate from a young age. To them, language justice is about disrupting power dynamics and creating multilingual spaces that invite collective power and joy. It is also about creating new ways of communicating that honor our past and present, while reimagining our future deepening their relationship with language and liberation. Michele was born in Nicaragua and raised in Miami, FL, and has been an interpreter, storyteller, and language advocate from a young age. To them, language justice is about disrupting power dynamics and creating multilingual spaces that invite collective power and joy. It is also about creating new ways of communicating that honor our past and present, while reimagining our future.

Phil Sequiera (Stage Manager) walked into a theatre when he was 14 and on one level or another he has been doing production ever since. From community theatre, to being a band roadie, to professionally working in the industry, Phil has seen many a production go by. Having a strong interest in music, Phil looks forward to hearing people’s stories through their music and art during this years Finding Home event.

Brittany Thomas (Facilitator/Mentor)is the Director of Creative Media and Technology at ZUMIX. Joining the organization in 2014, she led ZUMIX Radio to its launch on the airwaves at 94.9FM. Brittany loves working alongside the young people at ZUMIX, and witnessing the freedom they find in their art. As a LocaloreLIVE and NEFA Creative City grantee, Brittany designed the collaborative narrative project Constelación de Historias, documenting neighbors’ work for housing stability in East Boston, which won an impact award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Brittany has contributed writing and reporting to WBUR and currently serves on the advisory board for The Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity, an Eastie-based collective building economic power through cooperatives. Her spirit instrument is a saxophone, and in real life, she plays piano.

Check out this video by Camille from ZUMIX, capturing the power of the Hoopla/ZUMIX production of Finding Home in 2022.

DONATE HERE to support Hoopla Productions! Help us create other community-building arts events!

All donations – small, medium and large – are welcome.

Hoopla Productions is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. Your donation is tax deductible as allowed by law.

This program is supported in part by grants from The Boston Foundation’s Live Action Grant (LAB), the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, an anonymous grant from the Donor Advised Fund from the Mill River Foundation Fund, and Eastern Bank Foundation.