As part of the Women’s History Month celebration, the Center for Mexican American Studies and Research will be hosting a performance celebrating the life and strife of OLLU alumna, Emma Tenayuca.

The performance demonstrates Tenayuca’s life and fight for workers’ rights through a story of a student writing a term paper. Sara, the main character, is struggling to find information about Mexican-American people and their lives, when she comes across Tenayuca’s name and the pecan shellers’ strike. When she asks around, not many can provide the information needed for her paper.

Through her eager search for the information about Tenayuca’s life and the pecan shellers’ strike, the audience is drawn into the story by “presentation of acting, dancing, audio recordings, live singing and photo montages,” says Dr. Mary Francine Danis, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The audience travels with the main character “through her research, in an organized matter of course,” said Sister Maria Eva Flores, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and Research.

Even though there is much more to Emma Tenayuca’s life, this particular “performance focuses on the pecan shellers’ strike, because people who know something about Emma know this part,” said Sister Flores.

The performance of the actual strike brings the story to life when the audience gets a chance to join the strikers’ march. Another very effective part shows the pecan shellers coughing from inhaling so much pecan dust, and walking around bent over due to sitting for long hours on hard benches while they shelled pecans by hand. “In fact, the whole performance brings history to life,” said Danis.

The mission of this performance, as Flores mentions, is to raise awareness of Mexican-American culture, history and people who have done great things, but are not known to many people, especially students. This also is in line with the mission of the Mexican American center which is, “to provide information and events for public that convey the Mexican-American experience,” states Flores.

Some students are involved in the play, including Britaney Riojas and Isabel De La Cerda who perform in the play, Ana Lisa Leos who serves as stage manager, and Dereck Montemayor, Cesar Trujillo and Gus Villa who work as the technical crew.

Performances will be held this weekend at PWSR, starting at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free for students, although a $5 donation is recommended.