Culture: The Stories We Carry, Unpacking Home
What does it mean to make a place home when you carry generations of memories with you?
Unpacking Home by Raices to Roots approaches that journey through the lived details of life in Chicago, music, movement, and family that shape belonging.
Written by Maria Luisa Torres, Luis Tubens and directed by Sandra Delgado Unpacking Home is part of Destinos, the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, which is presented by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance.
Destinos began in 2017 as a way to support, grow and celebrate Chicago’s local Latino theater talent.
Maria Luisa Torres in Unpacking Home at Collaboraction.
The Collaboraction Theater is a home for artists and community, Its commitment is not only to presenting work, but to supporting local artists and creating a space where people feel they belong. Unpacking Home is also part of the theaters’ You Belong Here program.
It has drawn artists and audiences from across the U.S. and Latin America. The festival brings more than a dozen productions to stages across the city, including world premieres, intercambios (workshops) and works in progress.
Held at Collaboraction in Humboldt Park, the intimate venue made the performance feel close and personal, yet the stories it held seemed much larger than the room.
Raices to Roots
At the center is The Poet, Tubens’ character, who is searching for home in Chicago when he receives a suitcase from their ancestors filled with items of the past.
Each item unlocks a memory of Puerto Rico, and each becomes a scene about identity, love, family and resilience.
The poetry brings an honesty that gives the performances throughout the play much of its emotional force; music, dance and poetry work as one voice instead of taking turns.
The dancing is joyful and powerful. It’s also a proud statement: This is who we are, and this is the respect we’re owed on the dance floor. Alyssa Harlston performs it with total command, and the message lands. Real joy includes respecting boundaries and honoring Latina identity.
The performance finds its home in the particulars of Chicago life: layering up for cold winters, meeting someone at a house party, a first date by the Humboldt Park lagoons, a meal from abuela’s kitchen.
Light, movement and music make room for the stories tucked inside the suitcases: not just mementos, but truths and memories carried forward.
At the end of the show, audience members are invited onstage to share what home means to them, and the story opens outward. Belonging becomes something we make together.
