Esperanza [40']

Esperanza is a dramatic musical meditation on motherhood, migration and exile based on poems by Gabriella Mistral, the first Latin American Nobel Prize winner in Literature.As Esperanza,a young woman,flees toward refuge,a metaphorical star leads her and her children to safety.She sings her hope for a new day for herself,her toddler,and the ailing infant swaddled against her chest.A “coyote” demands her meager funds to take the family across a dangerous, distant border.They enter the truck as night falls and she sings her children a tender lullaby.An old man hobbles in.Well-intentioned, he gives the toddler a tiny toy horse.The toddler and choral children celebrate the toy in song and a playful dance.The dance becomes increasingly frenetic, building to a climax as ominous black-clad dancers appear among them.An “officer”appears,grills Esperanza,and takes her few coins.He hassles her, shoots the old man,and flings the baby out of Esperanza’s arms, leaving the family alone,grieving in the wilderness.Esperanza retrieves her baby,tenderly covers the old man’s body with her shawl,and resumes the family’s trek.But the baby is dying.Esperanza sings her goodbye to the little one as Death arrives to claim the child.Death and Esperanza sing a duet of grief and determination. Though Esperanza’s pace has become slower, burdened with grief, the Narrator reminds us of her goal.Even as she falls, dropping her star, her resolve gradually returns–along with her hope.