This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
3
1of3The Benitez family poses outside their home in Southwest Houston on December 9, 2022. From left are David Benitez, Andrea Benitez, 7, Allison Benitez, 13, Miley Benitez, 10, Clelia Benitez, and Melany Benitez.Sharon Steinmann/Staff PhotographerShow MoreShow Less2of3A shopping center with Central American businesses at 7207 Hillcroft Street, Houston 77081 on December 9, 2022..Sharon Steinmann/Staff PhotographerShow MoreShow Less3of3
CRECEN executive director Teodoro Aguiluz, center, rallies outside the Harris County Democratic Party offices in Houston, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. The staff inside refused to talk and take a letter the activists brought with them demanding a path for citizenship.
Marie D. De Jesรบs, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
David Benรญtez and his daughter Allison rehearse their quinceaรฑera waltz to the soundtrack of the (now aging) heartthrob Chayanne singing โTiempo de Vals.โ The formal gown, white chiffon with a pink fringe, was borrowed for the occasion and is big on Allison โ she wears it over the Mickey Mouse T-shirt she wore to school today. โKiss me to the tempo of the waltz,โ croons Chayanne in Spanish, and even though itโs just a rehearsal, father and daughter glow with the tenderness between them.
David and Allison, both natives of El Salvador, are not actually rehearsing her โquinceโ (sheโs 13 now). Theyโre acting the moment for โLittle Central America, 1984,โ a theatrical production I co-wrote with the Costa Rican performance artist Elia Arce that premieres next week at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. By the end of the performance, we realize that David and Allisonโs story echoes and yet is devastatingly different from that of another Salvadoran would-be immigrant family: 25 year-old Oscar Alberto Martรญnez and his two year-old daughter Valeria, who set out for the United States from San Martรญn, El Salvador, in the early summer of 2019.
