Cara Mía Theatre Company - 2017

by David Lozano and Lee Trul
Directed by David Lozano
Sound Design - Broken Chord

Assistant Sound Design - Max Silverman

Deferred Action could be an alternate-reality, fun-house-mirror look back at the events leading into the 2016 election. It premiered in Dallas in 2013, and its plot — dreamed up by writers David Lozano (who also directs) and Lee Trull — now seems almost a prophecy.

Javier “Javi” Mejía (Ivan Jasso) was brought into the U.S. as an infant and raised by his loving grandmother (Frida Espinosa-Müller), who took him in when his mother died. His childhood was overshadowed by fear of deportation. “Getting sent to the principal’s office was like getting busted by la migra,” he recalls. But under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — the DACA program that President Trump announced in September that he was phasing out — he can legally attend college, drive, work and vote as long as he renews his papers every two years. Still, without an avenue to full citizenship, he doesn’t feel at home.

Photos by Karen Almond