• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor

Broken Words

Broken Words, a new play written and directed by Alejandra Ramos Riera, is at Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater in Concourse, The Bronx, Friday-Saturday, April 5-6, 2019. Suggested donation $7


Broken Words

Julia, a young woman living in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, decides not to speak again. Encouraged by her neighbors, her mother commits Julia to a psychiatric institution.

Wrestling with the ins and outs of colonialism, mental illness, and institutionalization, Julia tries to mend episodes from her past while dealing with her relationship with her mother.

As the story progresses, madness becomes a puzzle, and its pieces can only be set into place by Julia, just like the broken words flowing in her chattered mind.


Broken Words Cast

The cast is Nicole Betancourt, Omar Pérez, Mónica Steuer and Thalia Romina.


Alejandra Ramos Riera

Ramos Riera is an artist in residence at Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

She is a New York-based Puerto Rican playwright and director. Ramos Riera is the co-founder of Teatro en la Azotea and author of the book En la Azotea – 10 piezas cortas de teatro.

This is what we need. Since Hamilton became the Broadway hit of our generation, the Broadway world is more open to the next great Latin playwright. We just need more people to try and get experience.


Broken Words Tickets

Tickets are available at the door. The suggested donation is $7.

This is community theater. Since we are the community, let’s make sure Broken Words opens to a full house. Space is limited so RSVP is recommended.

RSVP and get more information at pregonesprtt.org

¡Palante juntos!


Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater

575 Walton Ave, The Bronx, New York 10451
(between 149th and 150th St)
Concourse, The Bronx

Subways

(2) (4) (5) to 149th St – Grand Concourse
Walk one block west on 149th St and one block north on Walton Ave


Thoughts on Broken Words

I haven’t seen or read the play, but this is an interesting premise.

Health or sickness of the mind often derives from our childhood experiences. The experiences of our surroundings, our family, and our own youthful lives mark us for the rest of our days. That’s why we need to end abuse and we need to end war.

Subconsciously we spend much of our adult lives trying to heal the wounds of childhood. It doesn’t matter whether the wounds were inflicted intentionally or not. You can even have the most loving parents on the planet, the most wonderful childhood, and still grow up wounded.

Maybe it’s nature’s way of forcing the human mind to evolve. Just like physical evolution, mistakes are introduced into the mind. Some turn out for better and are passed to the next generation. Some turn out for worse and don’t reproduce. At least you hope they don’t reproduce.

A domineering mother (like many Latina Moms) can be suffocating. But when you get older, you realize that all those things Mom told you to do like get a good night’s rest, eat healthy and not too much, exercise, don’t do alcohol/drugs, be careful of the opposite sex, work hard, get an education, have friends and a spiritual life, are essential to living well. Mom was right even though we didn’t want to hear it.

It’s human nature to blame others for our problems. That’s almost always our first reaction. From living through my own mistakes, I learned never to trust anger. It’s a false emotion. Anger is something that I messed up, that I don’t want to accept, so I try to blame somebody else. Staying angry means I will not solve my own problems. That is crazy.

In the end, nobody can heal us, but ourselves. Being enslaved, colonized or crazy can be physical states, but can also be states of mind. You can be a slave, imprisoned or institutionalized and still be free. Or you can be free, but be a slave or prisoner to your own emotions.

Part of the game in these situations is to get you upset because when you are upset, you don’t think rationally and are more easily controlled.

True independence requires a lot of cool. It also requires forgiveness. In the words of Cuban R&B rapper Danay Suarez “Que tiene mucho valor que de perdones, Pero mas perdonar” (It’s good to be forgiven, but better to forgive).

“Que tiene mucho valor que de perdones, Pero mas perdonar”
‘Yo Aprendi’ Danay Suarez, Kobalt Music Publishing

Sometimes madness is chemical and there isn’t much you can do about it. But sometimes, it’s a choice and then the choice is up to you.

As the musician Prince once said, “What you think is true.”


Published April 5, 2019 ~ Updated March 18, 2023.

Filed Under: Bronx, Concourse, LATIN THEATRE, Pregones/PRTT, Puerto Rican

Primary Sidebar

Dominican Alternative + Haitian Afrobeats

Yasser Tejeda Dominican Alternative (Harlem Stage)

Yasser Tejeda and DJ Sabine Blaizin Get Everyone Dancing at Harlem Stage

Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda

Papo Vázquez (artist/Hostos)

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours Play a Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda at Hostos Center

Puerto Rican Bomba & Plena, Cuban Jazz Holidays

Arturo O'Farrill and Juan Gutiérrez "Navidad Nuyorkina" (Hostos Center)

Los Pleneros de la 21 Celebrate 40 Years with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra “Una Navidad Nuyorkina” at Hostos

Mexican Holiday Folkloric Ballet

Ballet Nepantla "Nacimiento" (Nina Galicheva/BN)

Ballet Nepantla “Nacimiento” is a Holiday Folkloric Ballet About The Birth of the Mexican People From Indigenous and Spanish Roots

Cuban Son Musical

Buena Vista Social Club™ musical (Atlantic Theater Company)

Buena Vista Social Club™ is now a Saheem Ali musical about a band of retired Cubans who made the whole world dance again, at the Atlantic Theater Company

Theatre Professionals ~ Theatre Employers Network

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Things to do in NYC in January 2024

Sponsored By The Best Of New York

2023 Sponsors 🙏🏽

92nd Street Y, New York

Atlantic Theater Company

Ballet Hispánico

Ballet Nepantla 🇲🇽

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company 🇲🇽

CCCADI Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

Carnegie Hall

Harlem Stage

Hostos Center

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Parade

Marco Orsini Documentary Filmmaker 🇵🇷

New York City Center

RISE Theatre Directory

Robert Browning Associates

Teatro Real, Royal Opera of Madrid

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine®

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's email.

Follow

¡WEPA!

New York

Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.