{"id":178032,"date":"2026-02-14T15:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/178032\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:19:08","slug":"yosimar-reyes-discusses-new-play-no-llegamos-aqui-solos-set-in-east-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/178032\/","title":{"rendered":"Yosimar Reyes Discusses New Play \u2018No Llegamos Aqu\u00ed Solos,\u2019 Set in East San Jos\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

This conversation was edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n

\"\"The cast of \u2018No Llegamos Aqu\u00ed Solos.\u2019 (Ugho Bad\u00fa)<\/p>\n

Blanca Torres: Can you tell me about some characters in this play that you created based on your life? <\/p>\n

Yosimar Reyes: The script follows a series of neighbors. They\u2019re undocumented, but they all have a different issue that\u2019s impacting them. Oftentimes, plays or stories about undocumented people are meant to educate people. What\u2019s more important is to hold a mirror to undocumented people. There\u2019s a scene where a group of day laborers are all living in one apartment. There\u2019s another character who sells food in the courtyard. It was important to also showcase the way in which characters contribute back to the community as well.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about the stage production of the play coming at this particular moment? <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been keenly aware of the way undocumented people have been represented. That has been the looming theme in a lot of my work. My grandmother, who I was a caregiver to, passed away in November 2024. I had advanced parole, which allows me to leave my country, so I was able to transport her remains back to Mexico. That was like an awakening. The story of so many undocumented immigrants that return home is either they are deported or in a coffin. I don\u2019t necessarily want that to be my fate.<\/p>\n

The character Ignacio, throughout the play, is bombarded with all these ICE raids that he\u2019s seeing. And because he\u2019s so focused on preparing, he forgets to enjoy the little moments or the small things that are happening. The play juxtaposes the madness of living under this constant threat of deportation with how do undocumented people actually live full lives?<\/p>\n

\"AnYosimar Reyes (right) and his grandmother, pictured in East San Jos\u00e9 in 2021. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

So has your thinking about telling the stories of undocumented people changed?<\/p>\n

We spent so much time and energy telling undocumented narratives, and it was to no avail, because people are willing to believe that we\u2019re all these negative things. I wanted to write a play that\u2019s unapologetic and is catered to my community. The question that I\u2019m asking undocumented people is: What are the sacred things you lose when you choose to remain here? And how do we start taking care of our mental and spiritual well-being? The reality is that the deportation machine is going to grow and we are going to have to leave. How do we hold on to things that are more sacred than papers?<\/p>\n

Can you tell more about East San Jos\u00e9? Is this a community that people know a lot about? <\/p>\n

What happens with San Jos\u00e9 is we are put under the umbrella of Silicon Valley, right? There\u2019s so much tech. There\u2019s so much innovation. When I was growing up, that was kind of frustrating because I was like, yes, that\u2019s downtown. The East Side is different. There\u2019s multiple families in an apartment. People are living in deplorable housing conditions because we have slumlords. My grandma used to recycle bottles and cans. She used to hustle to pay the rent. We have families that are just trying to stay in this very, very expensive city. I remember growing up constantly feeling like an outsider. Yes, we might not be acknowledged, but we\u2019re contributing to this city. We\u2019re living full lives in this corner of the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"The cast of Yosimar Reyes\u2019 \u2018No Llegamos Aqu\u00ed Solos.\u2019 Says Reyes, \u2018Over the play, there\u2019s this looming presence of the ICE raid, but the characters are cracking jokes. They\u2019re making fun of each other. They have dark humor. They\u2019re pushing through it.\u2019 (Italia Bautista Barcenas)<\/p>\n

What do you see, longer-term, coming out of the current immigration enforcement? How would you want things to either change or for the community to change? <\/p>\n

This country has always had a turbulent relationship with immigrants and people of color. Look at the history of the Civil Rights movement. There are Americans losing their civil liberties because they want to believe this lie that I\u2019m a criminal. At this moment, undocumented people need to protect their energy. We need to enjoy our families. We need to start saving and dreaming of a different future.<\/p>\n

For so long we have been told this is the only place we could build, that our home is here, that this is the only place we can make it. And all this effort that I have been putting in for 30-something years to become legal and doing things the right way, and it\u2019s not happening \u2013 we are not going to get legalized anytime soon. So can we take time to pause, assess, protect our energy and really start thinking: If I have to go, how do I not lose a sense of myself and know that I have the fortitude to build all of this again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This conversation was edited for length and clarity. The cast of \u2018No Llegamos Aqu\u00ed Solos.\u2019 (Ugho Bad\u00fa) Blanca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-178032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-san-jose","9":"tag-san-jose-headlines","10":"tag-san-jose-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}