URSULA OR LET YOURSELF GO WITH THE WIND A PLAY WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY FRIDA ESPINOSA-MüLLER Teacher's Guide by Jerry Hawkins, co-founder of The Imagining Freedom Institute CARA MÍA THEATRE'S Ursula, or Let Yourself Go with the Wind IN THIS TEACHER'S GUIDE YOU WILL FIND Pre-Show Guide Synopsis Investigation 1 Compares migration and immigration journeys and connects how they are similar. Activity: What is your family’s story? Mid-Show Guide Investigation 2 Borders are political boundaries, not human boundaries. Activity: What is a border? Post-Show Guide Investigation 3 Provides an opportunity for students to take inventory of their thoughts and emotions after watching the play while reflecting on our shared commonalities as diverse individuals. Activity: What are our connections? Biographies Cara Mía Theatre The Imagining Freedom Institute Frida Espinosa Müller (Playwright and Performer) Jerry Hawkins (Study Guide Author) Please be aware that all property and materials that you access before, during, or after watching the educational play Ursula or Let Yourself Go with the Wind, belong to Cara Mía Theatre Company with special permission given to Dallas ISD for distribution to its staff members and their students only. IF YOU ENCOUNTER ANY TECHNICAL ISSUES OR HAVE ANY QUESTIONS Email Cara Mía Theatre's Education and Community Action Coordinator Cheyenne Raquel Farley at [email protected] or call (214) 516 - 0706. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AT CARA MÍA THEATRE PRE-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE Grades 7- 12 URSULA OR LET YOURSELF GO WITH THE WIND PRE-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7 - 12 ABOUT THE PLAY With a minimal set, various puppets, and a performance rooted in movement, performer Frida Espinosa Müller transforms into over 10 characters to tell this story of child detention at the Southern border through the mind of a child. Ursula is performed primarily in Spanish with English subtitles. Intertwining this story are voice overs from government officials that are both against and in support of the zero- tolerance policy, the border wall, and the treatment of immigrants. This highly theatrical one-woman performance opens the door to conversations that help communities understand the immigration crisis at the border and begin to collectively envision solutions. TERMS TO KNOW Refugee: A person who, owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinions, is outside the country of their nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country. (World Health Organization) Asylum Seeker: An individual who is seeking international protection. In countries with individualized procedures, an asylum-seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it. Not every asylum-seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum-seeker. (World Health Organization) Migration: The movement of a person or a group of persons, either across an international border, or within a State. It is a population movement, encompassing any kind of movement of people, whatever its length, composition and causes; it includes migration of refugees, displaced persons, economic migrants, and persons moving for other purposes, including family reunification. (World Health Organization) Immigration: The act of leaving one's country and moving to another country of which they are not natives, nor citizens, to settle or reside there, especially as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. In the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, an immigrant is an individual seeking to become a Lawful Permanent Resident in the United States. (US Homeland Security) Immigrant (US): Any permanent migrant in the United States. A migrant who entered the United States without inspection, would be strictly defined as an immigrant under the INA but is not a permanent resident. Lawful permanent residents are legally accorded the privilege of residing permanently in the United States. They may be issued immigrant visas by the Department of State overseas or adjusted to permanent resident status by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States. (US Immigration and Nationality Act) PRE-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7 - 12 Why is it important to talk about immigration and migration together? Everyone has an immigration or migration story Why is it important to talk about immigration and migration together? Well, it's because immigration and migration are connected. Those stories are interlinked, and everyone has an immigration or a migration story. When I think about stories of immigration and migration, I reflect on my grandmother’s story. As a 19-year-old young girl and sharecropper in the 1940s, she felt that she had to flee the southern states of the US. She decided one night to pack up all of the belongings and hop on a train that she knew was headed north. My grandmother did this to escape the violence of the Jim Crow South. She headed to Chicago, a place where she had no family members and no sense of where she would live, work, or how she would earn money but knew that she was escaping violence. My grandmother’s story is the same story of young people who are fleeing their countries from hardships and violence and seeking asylum with hopes of a better future. In Ursula, Nadia and her mother left a violent Honduras with hopes of a better future, just like my grandmother. These stories are similar, and they mirror each other because people are fleeing the violence that they are not guilty of themselves but are experiencing. Everyone in this country has an immigration or migration story. PRE-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7 - 12 Activity: What is your family’s story? Students should interview family members to learn where their family comes from and how they arrived to where they live now. Make sure you write down all of the places they have lived. Students should be familiar with the location(s) and should easily identify them on a map. When the class is ready, students should each add a pin (or pins) to a large map so they can see the variety of places where everyone is from. As a class, students may add pins to the map anonymously if some do not wish to share their names. CARAMIATHEATRE.ORG EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AT CARA MÍA THEATRE MID-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE Grades 7- 12 URSULA OR LET YOURSELF GO WITH THE WIND MID-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7 - 12 Borders are political boundaries, not human boundaries When we contemplate the political boundaries that separate us, we think about the names North America, Central America, and South America. We think about the names of countries, such as the United States of America, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. These political boundaries have separated us, and they are not natural. The indigenous history of North America or South America shows that these land masses had different names. For example, the bodies of water had different descriptors here in Dallas. The Trinity River wasn't called originally the Trinity. The Caddo American Indians called it the Arikosa River. The images below show how natural land masses such as the Sonoran Desert and Native land such as that of the Tohono O'odham are divided by political boarders. It's really important for us to understand that these boundaries were not always there. In fact, they are relatively new. Some boundaries are less than one hundred years old. The boundary that exists between Mexico and the United States of America is less than 400 years old. Before that political boundary, there were only geographical ones. See the map of the area now called Dallas on the left without any borders between cities. Each color represents different traditional Native American lands. See the map on the right that shows the current borders between the cities surrounding Dallas. MID-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7 - 12 ACTIVITY: What is a border? Before engaging in this activity, we encourage teachers to establish the following agreement with students: As a group, can we agree that other people have different opinions and understand that disagreements do not reflect how we feel about one another? As a group discussion or as a writing exercise, have students list the obstacles that Nadia and her mother faced when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. How would Nadia’s and her mother’s lives be different if a border did not exist between the United States and Latin America? Let’s remember that we can agree that other people have different opinions. We can also understand that disagreements do not reflect how we feel about one another. If we choose, we can return to this subject and continue to discuss with this understanding. CARAMIATHEATRE.ORG EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AT CARA MÍA THEATRE POST-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE Grades 7- 12 URSULA OR LET YOURSELF GO WITH THE WIND POST-SHOW TEACHER'S GUIDE / Grades 7-12 Our lives and issues are connected You and your students have just experienced Ursula, a play by Frida Espinosa Müller. Take a moment to ask students to share what they are thinking after watching the film. What are they feeling? What do they feel prompted to do after watching Nadia’s story? Do they relate in any way to this story? For some students, they may be reminded of the stories that they have heard. Others may know someone who has sought out asylum at the border. Students may not know how to communicate their thoughts but feel empathy and pain for Nadia. This proves that our lives and our issues are connected.