At a moment when trust in public figures is widely in question, theater artist Marisela Barrera says one mythological figure can be believed.
In her new performance Lechuza Guide to the Lone Star State, to be staged at Jump-Start Performance Co. Aug. 2-3, Barrera plays the role of the legendary bird-witch creature that haunts the borderlands of northern Mexico and South Texas, keeping ne’er-do-wells in line.
“Through her stories, we’re able to definitely get to know her politics,” including that people no longer know what to believe or whom to trust when it comes to public figures, Barrera said. “She’s like, believe in me, don’t believe in that.”
The word lechuza means owl in Spanish, but the creature that looms large in local lore purportedly is the size of a person, with a long neck and fierce, glowing red eyes closely attuned to the foibles of humanity. Barrera portrays the lechuza on her final night as a shapeshifting human, reflecting on her world as she prepares to transform permanently into a denizen of the underworld.
Interview with a lechuza
She compared the format of her new one-hour performance to the Interview WIth a Vampire fiction of novelist Anne Rice — in which a vampire tells his 200-year life story to a reporter — but with her audience playing the role of interviewer asking questions of her character.
Barrera is accompanied by musicians Joe Reyes and Wayne “Odie” Cole of popular San Antonio band Buttercup for several original songs and background music interwoven throughout the performance.
Reyes said he was born and raised in San Antonio and his family knew of all the local legends, including La Llorona and the lechuza. “My folks would use those to scare us, to keep us in line,” he said.
“I just thought it was kind of funny,” Reyes explained, “but as you get older you realize these are my roots. The music, the culture, the food, the language, the slang, all that stuff is part of who we are.”
‘Our ancient past’
In her performing career, Barrera has invoked other characters of borderlands mythology including La Llorona and the Donkey Lady. She is familiar with the intergenerational power of storytelling, particularly when those stories transcend time and temporary national boundaries.
“These are also very much Tejano stories, of the land that once was, before it was Texas, before it was the U.S., even before it was Mexico,” Barrera said, speaking of Indigenous communities that have inhabited the region for more than 10,000 years.
Lechuza mythology “connects us to the past, and I hope that by sharing a contemporary version of it, we can realize that we have a direct link to our ancient past,” she said.
In the performance, the lechuza draws on her own human past, telling stories of being misunderstood, “about being an outcast, about being a rule breaker,” as well as our shared present, where politicians argue about climate change as hurricanes sweep the Gulf Coast and rocket launches shake the Rio Grande Valley and fill the air with pollutants.
“Climate is a very important target topic to land on because it’s part of our reality here,” Barrera said.
Regarding a favorite haunt of a lechuza on the prowl for unscrupulous behavior, her character has some portentous words of advice for multibillionaire Elon Musk, who has located a Tesla manufacturing plant and his SpaceX headquarters in the Lone Star State.
“He’d better watch his back. Don’t go into any cantinas, especially here in South Texas,” she warned.
Lechuza Guide to the Lone Star State runs for two evening performances, Aug. 2-3 at 8 p.m. at Jump-Start Performance Co. Tickets are available online.
