ACTO NUMERO UNO: PAYASA USA finds mom, a professional clown from Mexico City, in present-day San Antonio, Texas. Her teen Daughter is a Dreamer who hates performing alongside mom, but is looking forward to their make-it-or-break-it performance at the Henry B. Together they decide what is worth sacrificing in today’s USA. PAYASA USA is not a clown show for kids. It is a performance for a city, a state, a country, that has gone beyond morality. The performance features actors Holly Nañez and 14 year-old Valentina Barrera-Ibarra (Barrera’s daughter), comedian Mark Riojas, and musician Jaime Ramirez, former Barnum & Bailey Circus Music Director. Artwork and graphic by Gaby Flores. Photos by Siggi Ragnar.

 

ACTO NUMERO DOS: FRONTERA FRONTIER is inspired by Barrera’s experience as a guest artist with Kitchen Dog Theater and Cry Havoc Theater from Dallas. Together—over six days—they interviewed dozens of people about immigration in the Rio Grande Valley: refugees and immigrants at camps, bridges, detention centers, and bus stations; ICE officials; public defenders and federal judges; artists and dragtivists; priests and nuns; water station replenishers, human rights watchers; and Angry Tias y Abuelas. Barrera presents a performative adaptation of her commentary from this experience called “Frontera Frontier: Chaos on the US-Mexico Border,” originally published in https://brooklynrail.org/2019/05/field-notes/FronteraFrontier and now available on most podcast platforms as the first episode of “Tejana Rasquacha: Living and Loving in Texas.”