Manuel Huillipan, Mapuche Longko of the Lof Rankilko community, has been wrongfully jailed, accused of setting fire to land illegally purchased by the Arauco Forestal logging company. Millaray Cayancura, the Machi healer of Lof Rankilco, has tried prayers and offerings to her spirit guides to no avail, so she implores the help of a Huinca lawyer. She recruits Javiera Quintana, daughter of a Chilean exile, who has returned to Chile to help support the fight of the Mapuche. Javiera meets her match in Karl Carver, Arauco Forestal’s corporate lawyer, who will stop at nothing to keep Manuel in jail and ensure the logging goes unchallenged. A chorus of ancient Araucaria trees will connect the past with the present to ensure the survival of the land, the trees, and the Mapuche’s future.
Inspired by true events, Teatro Milagro’s original production of Huínca will expose audiences to the history of the Mapuche and share with them the indigenous Chilean people’s unique relationship to their land. The play will also frame the Mapuche’s struggle in a larger global context, relating their conflict to other indigenous’ groups efforts to preserve their native land in a common struggle against global industrialization and colonialism. Huínca will tour nationally, and be accompanied by UNIDAD workshops that focus on environmental health.
Ajai is an actor, a director, and playwright, and OSU graduate from Corvallis. He has worked as an Education Director and Tour Manager at Teatro Milagro, appearing in over fifteen productions including Searching for Aztlán, Frida: un retablo, Cuéntame Coyote, Duende de Lorca, and El Payaso. He has also written three shows for young audiences ¡Corre! ¡Corre!, Sueños de Fútbol, and Mijita Fridita. He is a member of PDX Playwrights, where he produced his one person show Osho Returns, and has also worked with Theatre Vertigo, Northwest Children’s Theatre and School, Salt and Sage Productions Original Practice Shakespeare, and Speculative Drama.
Cati’s pronouns are they/them. They were born in Georgia and grew up living in rural towns all around the Pacific Northwest in a multicultural, multiracial family. They now live with their girlfriend and cat in Portland. They found their love of theatre in their sophomore year of high school and their love of acting their junior year. They recognize that this pivotal moment of their life is all thanks to their theatre teacher, Blair Cromwell-Fawcett, and their English teacher, Aaron Fawcett. Cati graduated from Western Oregon University in 2019 with a Theatre Arts BFA in Acting. As well as being a trained actor, they are trained in stage combat and have voice training in opera and musical theatre. They began working with Milagro in December of 2019, originating the roles of Javiera and Ailen in Huínca. Cati is continuing their work with Milagro Theatre this year as a touring artist and will be performing in Milagro’s new upcoming play Blast Off. Cati is grateful to be working in the Latinx Community with Milagro, connecting and working with people like them. Equality and justice are the motives of all that Cati does.
Black Lives Matter. Abolish ICE. Love is Love.
Manuel Huillipan, Mapuche Longko of the Lof Rankilko community, has been wrongfully jailed, accused of setting fire to land illegally purchased by the Arauco Forestal logging company. Millaray Cayancura, the Machi healer of Lof Rankilco, has tried prayers and offerings to her spirit guides to no avail, so she implores the help of a Huinca lawyer. She recruits Javiera Quintana, daughter of a Chilean exile, who has returned to Chile to help support the fight of the Mapuche. Javiera meets her match in Karl Carver, Arauco Forestal’s corporate lawyer, who will stop at nothing to keep Manuel in jail and ensure the logging goes unchallenged. A chorus of ancient Araucaria trees will connect the past with the present to ensure the survival of the land, the trees, and the Mapuche’s future.
Inspired by true events, Teatro Milagro’s original production of Huínca will expose audiences to the history of the Mapuche and share with them the indigenous Chilean people’s unique relationship to their land. The play will also frame the Mapuche’s struggle in a larger global context, relating their conflict to other indigenous’ groups efforts to preserve their native land in a common struggle against global industrialization and colonialism. Huínca will tour nationally, and be accompanied by UNIDAD workshops that focus on environmental health.
Marilo Nuñez is a Canadian-Chilean playwright. She was Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Company, a Toronto company dedicated to new work by Latinx Canadian playwrights. She won the 2018 Hamilton Arts Award, Established Artist in Theatre, and has been shortlisted for the KM Hunter Artist Award in Theatre twice, nominated for the Most Influential Hispanics in Canada, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Spirit Awards. Marilo traveled to Chile in June 2019 and met with Mapuche leaders and families who welcomed her into their homes as they taught and exposed her to their culture and land. She wrote this play for them, to tell their stories and spread word of their struggle to preserve their land and autonomy.