The cast of Judge Torres takes a final bow after their performance on Nov. 5. Teatro Milagro is a traveling theater troupe who performs all over the United States. They have been performing Judge Torres together for the past year.
Portland-based theater troupe performs biopic
The life story of Judge Xiomara Torres was interwoven with Salvadoran folklore in the performance of “Judge Torres” on Nov. 5 at the Ragozzino Performance Hall.
The stage’s backdrop was vibrantly colored and highly stylized. “This mural is painted in the style of Fernando Llort,” said Elizabeth Muñoz Robles, the woman who played the titular character Judge Xiomara Torres, while gesturing towards the painting. “That’s Xiomara’s favorite painter. He was a famous artist in El Salvador. He fled to La Palma, and then he painted murals there. That’s where Xiomara Torres is from.”
A variety of upbeat Latin music and indie rock played over the speakers as people decided where to sit. Over 30 people were in attendance to watch the group of four actors perform.
The team of four is a traveling troupe for a larger theater group based in Portland. “The Miracle Theater Group employs us. We are the ambassadors for them internationally,” Elizabeth Muñoz Robles, who goes by Élle, explained.
She was joined on the stage by her fellow teaching artists Irma Gill-Yañez and Ahash Francis, as well as their tour manager Monica Booker. They are the members of Teatro Milagro, a small traveling theater troupe who performs all over the United States.
The play’s story chronicles the journey of Xiomara Torres from the small mountainous region of El Salvador where she was born to her appointment as a judge in Multnomah County.
The entire play was performed bilingually by using a linguistic method of speech called code-switching — when a person switches between two or more different languages while speaking.
“It was written in such a way that it doesn’t matter if English or Spanish is your first language. You will be able to understand the story,” Ahash Francis, the actor who played Xiomara’s brother Luis, pointed out.
The play starts with Xiomara meeting La Siguanaba, a shapeshifting woman from Central American folklore. According to legend, she is seen at night in the rivers of El Salvador washing clothes and looking for her cursed son Cipitio.
“We did a lot of research on Salvadoran folklore and warfare,” the actress who played La Siguanaba, Monica Booker, revealed after the play.
Xiomara escapes El Salvador with her siblings at nine years old due to a civil war. The audience isn’t introduced to either of her parents in the play, but in real life, their mother accompanied them on the journey. Xiomara’s father was already living and working in the United States.
At 13, she revealed to a friend that she was being abused at home. In the play, Xiomara exclaims, “It’s my body and no one should touch it!” After, her friend convinced her to report the abuse to their school counselor. She did and Xiomara and her siblings are taken into foster care.
We are then introduced to another important character named Jan. She is Xiomara’s court-appointed special advocate or CASA. CASAs advocate for children who are living in foster care as a result of abuse or neglect. Her character is played by the same actress who plays La Siguanaba, and that is no coincidence.
As the play progresses, Jan’s character inexplicably speaks Spanish despite claiming to not know any. Because Xiomara comments on her Spanish as being out of place and how she reminds her of someone she met a long, long time ago, it is implied that Jan is, in fact, La Siguanaba in a shapeshifted form.
The real Jan Brice held onto Xiomara’s hand for three-and-a-half hours as she testified in court against her abuser. “We got to meet her at our 30th anniversary for Milagro. Xiomara came and she was with Jan. They’re still best friends,” Irma Gill-Yañez, who played Xiomara’s little sister Carmen, recalled.
Xiomara, separated from both of her siblings, goes to therapy for her traumatic experiences and her bottled-up emotions are expressed through interpretive dance. On her last day of therapy, she breaks down in an emotional monologue about her inability to connect with people — especially boys — after the abuse.
Once she aged out of the foster care system, she feared she may end up homeless. However, with the encouragement of her teachers and Jan, she applied to college and was accepted. After earning her sociology degree from UC Berkeley, Xiomara decided she wanted to help children, so, she attended Lewis & Clark College in Portland and graduated from law school.
A montage of Xiomara in family court representing various clients is acted out. Future Oregon Governor Kate Brown is introduced in the play as a fellow lawyer and friend. Brown suggested that Xiomara become a judge. She tried and failed.
Years later, Brown, now Governor, called Xiomara and offered her an interview for a vacancy and in March of 2017, Xiomara Torres became a judge in Multnomah County. The play ended with Judge Torres, surrounded by loved ones, standing at a podium as audio excerpts from real speeches by and about Xiomara played over the speakers.
Teatro Milagro will be heading to California on Nov. 12.
