In “Teresa Urrea, of Oblivion and Memory,” actress and playwright Lucía Zapien Osuna not only tells a story, she embodies it, invokes it, and sows it in the hearts of the audience. The stage space at Casa Haas was transformed into a symbolic territory where each element—the flowers, the candles, the herbs, and the water—took on a ritual value. The stage became an altar, and the scene, a ceremony that not only represented Teresa Urrea, but brought her to life.
During the performance, time spiraled. Teresa no longer spoke from the 19th century; she spoke from an embodied present, from the voice of all the women who have struggled, who have healed, who have been silenced, and yet who continue to create history. The stage actions, such as lifting a gourd on her head, giving a flower to the audience, or carefully placing medicinal plants, were not mere theatrical gestures: they were poetic acts of affirmation and memory.
Added to this symbolic framework was the musical presence of Iris Belén Meza Suárez—guitar and cello player—who, from the sidelines of the stage, wove an emotional, respectful, and profound accompaniment. The music didn’t compete with the words: it sustained them. It was like an underground current that connected Teresa Urrea to the audience’s hearts.
Beyond the biographical narrative, the staging established a dialogue with today’s social reality. Teresa Urrea, a mestiza woman, curandera, healer, and spiritual leader, was also a political figure who dared to question power at its most essential: the body, the community, and justice. Her story, almost erased, finds in this work a platform to resonate with current women’s movements that continue to demand justice, land, health, and dignity.
The monologue has the ability to articulate the intimate and the historical, the political and the poetic. Lucía Zapien Osuna’s work transcends acting; it is an act of cultural recovery and an ethical commitment to memory. The Teresa we saw on stage is not only the woman of the past, but also the woman of today, the woman who is not afraid to speak, who heals with her hands, who confronts the system without ceasing to look with tenderness.
This staging makes it clear that Teresa Urrea was not a minor figure in the history of Mexico. She was a root. And now, from Mazatlán, that root flourishes once again on stage to remind us that there are struggles that never end and that memory, like art, also heals.
At the end, a brief conversation ensued between Lucía Zapien and the audience, who, moved, expressed their gratitude for having witnessed such a powerful and necessary story.
A display of female unity and recognition
A group of women—some artists, others teachers, cultural managers, and committed citizens—gathered in a spontaneous gesture of recognition and affection for Lucía Zapien. That moment sealed the evening with an image that speaks for itself: the unity of a gender that continues to make history on various fronts in Mazatlán’s cultural, social, and educational life.
