This youth-produced radio-play helps communities begin to analyze and process the repercussions of immigration.

After many months of hard work, five episodes of the radio-play produced by the El Nance-Tacualtuzte Youth Group in Honduras and ArtCorps Artist Monica Gutierrez have aired! The youth developed the story, the characters, the sounds, the scenes. The voices, ideas, sounds and laughter documented with a small recorder were then cut into short tracks, mixed with music and given wings on the local and virtual airwaves – to see who shares with whom, who sees truth in the characters, anecdotes and production process.

Early in the storytelling process, a unanimous decision was made by the Youth Leaders in Conservation group: the radio-play will be a romantic immigration story. ArtCorps and EcoLogic Development Fund had successfully worked with the youth on various water conservation projects, and now these emerging leaders wanted a platform to express their thoughts about the impacts of immigration and start a dialogue in their communities about the issue. We decided this before the Tamaulipas massacre, and now it seems so much more pressing to talk about these issues. In a strange foreshadowing, the youth picked this migration theme because it is a huge, and undigested part of their lives. To start this work, the youth interviewed people in town to gather stories about those who have gone abroad and their reasons for doing so. This is the first time community members have begun to communally analyze the reasons, the histories and the repercussions of these migrations….

Listen to and download the radio-story episodes in Spanish.

Read more about the Invisible Theater Radio Waves project.