We received an email from an anonymous audience member who appreciated last night’s show.

Yesterday I went to see American ESE: A one men show, starring Dario Gonzales. He is a Salvadorian Immigrant just like me, but he experienced the journey to the Norte, as he called it, differently. I felt his pain, laughed at his jokes and at his sorrows and at his painful addiction. And in a sense I could identify myself with that human being in that small stage at the White Fire Theater in Sherman Oaks.

He made me go back 20, 30 years ago being a small girl having in my country all these weird names of streets that didn’t make sense at all, the celebrities that we admired so much in our pueblo, people that had that sense of unity as family, the hard working poor class that is more than the 50, 60, 70% of the population. It made me feel proud where I come from, one of the smallest countries in the world, that has been hit with Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, hunger, poverty, and war. And we still manage to get up and keep on going, looking for a better place for our families. All of this I remembered last night when Dario was sharing his life story with us. A lot of it I lived it in my own skin, he refreshed those good and bad memories that I have suppressed for so long. It made my heart sink to seeing him on the floor crying for his mom. I could not imagine at that age having that feeling of losing my mom. As I wiped my tears a moment of silence and peace came through me, teaching me that after pain comes the realization of acceptance and finally peace.

Dario doesn’t know that those couple of hours that he shared his life on stage, he opened my heart to appreciate everything that I have, the people of my country, my family, the struggles that made me stronger, and especially to embrace one more time the injustice in this world, but at the same time the power we have to make it a better. I applaud you and thank you Dario, what I beautiful life sharing moment.

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