Teatro Indocumentado

Last fall, Andrew Stelzer went to Iowa for Studio 360 to tell the story of a unique amateur theater group, Teatro Indocumentado.

The group formed in the aftermath of the largest immigration raid at a single site in United States history. In May 2008 Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 389 undocumented migrants in Postville, Iowa. Most of the workers were quickly tried, sentenced, and deported, but a few remained in the country to testify in the trial of their plant’s owners.

Unable to work, the remaining migrants formed Teatro Indocumentado, or the Theater of the Undocumented, and staged a play to tell their stories. They’ll perform that play, ‘La Historia de Nuestras Vidas’ (The Story of Our Lives), for the last time on Monday, March 22, in Chicago, Illinois, before they are deported the following morning.

You can hear Andrew’s story here.

-Michael Guerriero