Monologists have participated in this project to stimulate community conversation on critical issues through finding their personal, political and creative voice. National leaders and musicians have agreed to “stand in their shoes” to help move these conversations forward by amplifying their voices.
For the 12 episodes in season one of Shoebox Stories, Motus worked with a group of undocumented young people who wrote, reflected, prayed, meditated, yelled and cried until they found one story from their lives they chose to share on this with you and your neighbors across the country.
Autobiographical Monologists
Alejandro Fuentes Mena
Alejandro Fuentes Mena was born in Valparaiso, Chile and grew up in San Diego, California after age four. Through Teach for America, he was one of the first two DACAmented teachers in the entire nation and Senator Durbin featured his story on the Senate floor to showcase the transformative impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He tells a story of his hard working parents and celebrates the assets he and his family are to our country.
Ana Casas
Ana Casas was born in San Jerónimo, Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico. Her mother crossed the border with her and her two brothers when she was 11. She is a recipient of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). She tells the story of her younger brother’s deportation away from everyone he knew and loved into an unfamiliar country and that the crime doesn't equal the punishment when it comes to immigrant lives.
Armando Peniche
Armando Peniche Rosales is the Partnerships & Project Manager with Motus Theater. He currently runs an initiative of his own called "Leámos Juntos" which provides local businesses with books for children to read while at their establishments, nurturing a reading habit for families. Armando is also creating his own picture books featuring diverse characters with fun, empowering storylines. His monologue addresses the criminalization of people of color and the dangerous rhetoric maligning undocumented people under the current administration.
Cristian Solano-Córdova
Cristian Solano-Córdova is the Communications Director with the National Partnership for New Americans. Cristian is a Denver native, born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Cristian is a proud DACA recipient and hopes to continue his education and one day work in health policy advocacy. He tells the story of strategizing to protect his eight-year-old sister, who is an American citizen, in the event her mother gets deported.
Hugo Enrique Juarez-Luna
Hugo Enrique Juarez-Luna was born in Toluca, México. Hugo came to the United States to Phoenix AZ at the age of 12. He works for Padres Y Jovenes Unidos supporting young Latino students. Hugo is a person of great integrity and his monologue expresses his anger and pain at being accused of being a criminal.
Irving Reza
Irving Reza holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of New Mexico. He currently works at Growhaus in Denver, Colorado, bringing healthy food to the depressed Elyria-Swansea neighborhood of Denver. His monologue explores the threat he feels every time he has to pass through a Border Patrol checkpoint during his visits to his grandmother in El Paso, Texas, and the importance of The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Juan Juarez
Juan Juarez is a Board Member for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, a community leader for Northern Colorado Immigrants United, a student at Metropolitan State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and a man of tremendous integrity. His story is about his desire for the DREAM Act to pass, and the pain caused by congressional representatives pushing for the DREAM Act, to vilify parents who brought their children to this country undocumented.
Kiara Chavez
Kiara Chavez is a graduate from CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. In her role at KIPP, Kiara works with parent leaders, principals and community members to connect the community with instrumental resources. She tells a tender story of flying home to Mexico for the first time since she was four to see her ailing grandmother as part of the “Advanced Parole” program that allowed youth with DACA status to leave the country for work, education, or humanitarian reasons. (Advanced Parole was terminated by the current administration).
Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodríguez
Reydesel Salvidrez-Rodríguez migrated to the U.S. with his family from Mexico at the age of 10 and has been living in Denver for the last 17 years. Despite being legally deaf and undocumented, Salvidrez graduated from the University of Colorado of Denver, where he majored in Communications and Ethnic Studies. He was the first undocumented Senator for the CU Denver Student Government Association. He tells the story of his despair and hope.
Tania Chairez
Tania Chairez is an undocumented immigrant born in Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She received a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and M.Ed. from Grand Canyon University. Watch her TedX Talk on being Undocumented and Unafraid and uplift her nonprofit, Convivir Colorado, which supports immigrant and refugee students. Her story challenges people to acknowledge the danger to us all from the current threats facing the undocumented community, and take action.
Victor Galvan
Victor Galvan is a Rocky Mountain native, born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Victor is the Political Field Director at United for a New Economy, a grassroots organization that focuses on economic justice on the local and state level. His work as the former Civic Engagement Director at the coalition led to many pivotal victories in Colorado (the passage of ASSET which granted undocumented students, who graduated from high school in Colorado, instate tuition, and the passage of the Law Enforcement and Community Trust Act which did away with Colorado’s “Show me you papers” law, and expanded access to Colorado driver’s licenses for undocumented people).
Laura Peniche
Laura Peniche is an undocumented storyteller, based in Colorado. Her debut documentary film: "No One Shall Be Called Illegal" opened the path for her to become involved in community work. She was later a key producer of the documentary film “Five Dreamers” which aired on national PBS in 2018. Laura is currently the Hotline Manager for the Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition, documenting cases of ICE activity in Colorado. Laura is a woman of strong Christian faith whose monologue reaches out to fellow Christians to think about Jesus’ intervention for the woman who was about to be stoned.
"Allied" Readers
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She travels in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of indigenous peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She lives in New York City, and recently published a new book.
Jorge Ramos
Jorge Ramos is a Mexican-born American journalist and author. Regarded as the best-known Spanish-language news anchor in the United States of America, he has been referred to as "The Walter Cronkite of Latin America". He anchors the Univision news program Noticiero Univision, the Univision political news program Al Punto, and the Fusion TV English-language program America with Jorge Ramos. He has covered five wars, and events ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the War in Afghanistan.
Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since 2001. Kristof has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of Tiananmen Square and the genocide in Darfur, along with humanitarian awards such as the Anne Frank Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described him as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on neglected conflicts.
Art Acevedo
Art Acevedo was sworn-in as Chief of the Houston Police Department (HPD) on November 30, 2016. Chief Acevedo leads a department of 5,200 sworn law enforcement officers and 1,200 civilian support personnel with an annual general fund budget of $825 million in the fourth largest city in the United States. The first Hispanic to lead the HPD, Acevedo brings a unique understanding to the concerns of the diverse communities in the City of Houston.
Maria Hinojosa
As a reporter for NPR, Maria Hinojosa was among the first to report on youth violence in urban communities on a national scale. In 2010, she created the Futuro Media Group, an independent, nonprofit organization based in Harlem, NYC with the mission to create multimedia content for and about the new American mainstream in the service of empowering people to navigate the complexities of an increasingly diverse and connected world.
John Lithgow
John Lithgow is an American actor, musician, poet, author, and singer. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards. Lithgow serves on a commission to advance the cause of the humanities and social sciences, advocating for action by the government and is also an advocate for literacy and arts education for children.
José Andrés
José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, New York Times bestselling author, humanitarian, and chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup. A Spanish-American chef, he is often credited with bringing the small plates dining concept to America. Andrés is the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters and was awarded a 2015 National Humanities Medal. He owns restaurants in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Las Vegas, South Beach, Florida, Orlando, New York City, and Frisco, Texas.
Ai-Jen Poo
Ai-Jen Poo is co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, working to bring quality work, dignity and fairness to domestic workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. She is also the co-director of Caring Across Generations, a coalition of 200 advocacy groups working to transform the long-term care system in the US. A 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award, Ai-Jen believes the future can be glimpsed in the margins of our economy and society - both the potential threats on the horizon and the solutions.
Photo credit: Giovanni Solis
Patrisse Cullors
Artist, organizer, educator and popular public speaker Patrisse Cullors is a Los Angeles native, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and founder of the grassroots organization Dignity and Power Now. Cullors’ work for Black Lives Matter received recognition in TIME Magazine’s 2020 100 Women of the Year project. Cullors is the author of New York Times’ bestselling “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” (2018). For the last 20 years, Cullors has been on the frontlines of criminal justice reform and led Reform LA Jails’ “Yes on R” campaign.
Congressman Joe Neguse
As a 36-year-old son of refugees from Africa, Joe is not your typical Congressman. But his family’s story, and deeply held belief that we need people from all walks of life to speak up and engage in our democracy, motivated him to run for office and fight for Colorado values in Washington D.C. Congressman Joe Neguse represents Colorado’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to his first term in November 2018, becoming the first African-American member of Congress in Colorado history. He serves as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, House Natural Resources Committee and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
Congressman Jason Crow
A former Army Ranger and lawyer, Congressman Jason Crow represents Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District. Jason worked his way through college before enlisting in the Army and serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon returning home, Jason struggled to get his veterans benefits so he went to work helping veterans across Colorado. A proven reformer, Jason is working to strengthen our democracy and fight the influence of money in politics through ethics and campaign finance reform. Beyond increasing government transparency, Jason is focused on preventing gun violence, protecting DREAMers and passing comprehensive immigration reform, and combating the effects of climate change.
Musicians
Yo-Yo Ma
Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, and numerous other awards, Yo-Yo Ma, is one of the best-known classical cellists of the recording era, whose crossover releases have spanned the world. Working with partners from across disciplines, Yo-Yo creates programs that stretch the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore music-making as a means not only to share and express meaning, but also as a model for the cultural collaboration he considers essential to a strong society.
Arturo O’Farrill
Pianist, composer, and educator, Arturo O’Farrill was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. His professional career spans working with a wide spectrum of artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Bowie, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Belafonte. Arturo’s highly praised “Afro-Latin Jazz Suite” took the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition and the 2016 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. His powerful “Three Revolutions” won the 2018 Grammy Award (his sixth) for Best Instrumental Composition.
Jennifer Berezan
Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/ songwriter, teacher, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing. Her ground breaking work as a recording artist and teacher has established her as a leading voice in the field of music and healing and she is an acclaimed producer of large scale multi-cultural ecstatic musical events.
Ozomatli
With a unique blend of latin, funk, hip hop and rock musical styles, Ozomatli is a six-piece band that advocates for the rights of workers, immigrants, and more. Winning two Grammy awards for ‘Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album”, their 10 albums promote global unity and peace amongst people, cultures, and nations. Ozomatli has opened for Santana, performed before Barack and Michelle Obama, and presented the first musical TED talk at the TED Conference in San Francisco.
DAN DRUFOVKA / LIVE NATION
Neil Young
Neil Young is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and activist. Young has received several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. In 2000, Rolling Stone named Young the 34th greatest rock 'n roll artist of all time. His guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature tenor singing voice define his long career.
Las Cafeteras
Born and raised east of the Los Angeles river, Las Cafeteras are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories. Las Cafeteras create a vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and positive message. Their Afro-Mexican beats, rhythms, and rhymes deliver inspiring lyrics that document stories of a community seeking love and justice in the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities, and create ‘a world where many worlds fit’.
Dominique Christina
Dominique Christina is an award-winning poet, author, educator and activist. She holds five national poetry slam titles, including the 2012 & 2014 Women of the World Slam Champion and 2011 National Poetry Slam Champion. Her work is greatly influenced by her family's legacy in the Civil Rights Movement - her aunt Carlotta was one of nine students to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas and is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.
Photo by - Thomas J. Krebs
Ron Miles
Ron Miles is a jazz musician, composer, educator, as well as a trumpet and cornet player based in Denver, Colorado. He is one of the finest improvisers and composers of his generation and has been called one of the greatest melodists by clarinetist Ben Goldberg. In addition to leading his own bands, Ron Miles has performed in the ensembles of Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, Mercer Ellington, Don Byron, Myra Melford, Joe Henry, Madeleine Peyroux, Jason Moran, Matt Wilson, the Bad Plus, Harriet Tubman, Ginger Baker, and Goldberg.