Valley-inspired musical ‘¡Despierta!’ an uplifting ode to all things RGV

2 months ago 58

EDINBURG — If “Les Misérables” is considered the emotional rallying cry for all things redemption and revolution, then “¡Despierta!” can be thought of as a love letter for what sets the Rio Grande Valley apart from the rest of the world as the spiritual center of Tex-Mex culture.

Not too long ago, Edinburg resident Brisa Areli Muñoz, 35, had an idea to convey that spirit in a play, a musical work designed to capture the soulful undertones of a region that has proven resilient after being decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic and losing more than 4,000 souls since 2020.

As it’s been reported significantly since then and through the years, ad nauseam many would argue, the isolation didn’t end once restrictions were lifted. There were many who lived as though they were still waiting out a global pandemic, but in their own head as many mental health experts have identified since.

Muñoz’s idea begins and ends there. She refers to “¡Despierta!” as an opportunity not just to heal, but to make the old feel new again, and embrace that which makes Valley culture endearing.

“I’m really excited for the region to see themselves reflected in a way that uplifts our stories and shows the beauty of this place and its people,” a tenderhearted Muñoz said.

The rest of the Valley will be able to experience it at FridaFest on Saturday, July 27, but until then, this is how “¡Despierta!” came to be.

THE LOVE LETTER

Muñoz said that while she loves working in New York City as a theater director and healing practitioner, there’s nothing like the Valley.

The opportunity to represent her hometown through an original musical first came about when she met one of the co-founders of Arts for Everybody.

The initiative is a national campaign inspired by the Federal Theater Project, that creates a partnership between municipalities, artists and healthcare providers to find creative ways to support communities.

“When the opportunity came around for the project there was no way that I wasn’t applying on behalf of the city of Edinburg,” Muñoz said with excitement.

She went on to partner with the city to participate in the initiative and is currently the only area in Texas participating in the campaign. Edinburg is one of 18 different cities across the country participating in the initiative on July 27.

“What was so beautiful about the city of Edinburg is that they already understand the value of arts and culture,” Muñoz said. “They get it. It’s at the center of the work that they do so, it felt like an easy alignment.”

The past two years have been part of the initiative with federal COVID-19 recovery funding allocated towards the initiative.

Their efforts have brought arts classes such as guided meditation, music therapy, acrylics, theater devising and other creative courses.

What’s coming to the stage will culminate two years of planning that fashioned a reality from a dream.

“Some of the things that we were curious to examine in this initiative were things like addressing social isolation post-COVID but also hoping to foster a sense of belonging,” Muñoz said.

The story follows a 12-year-old girl who returns to Edinburg after dealing with the sudden loss of her parents. Throughout the story audiences will follow her journey through grief.

She goes on to live with her grandmother, a curandera who uses herbs to heal people as well as talks to spirits.

Her grandmother gives her a magic herbal tea that takes her into a dream world where she will meet figures from the Rio Grande Valley and across our culture such as Freddy Gonzalez, Selena Quintanilla and Gloria Anzaldúa.

“We witness her experience all stages of grief and the ways in which these guides, the ways in which her community, the ways in which her family show up to support her,” Muñoz said.

Her eyes watered and voice trembled as she spoke about her hopes for the piece.

The piece is not just a representation of Muñoz’s home but also a way to bring the community back together after dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic.

“In some ways sometimes it can feel like it never happened, like it was all just a dream,” she said. “But there is so much that is left in people’s bodies or some way that people isolated themselves, and my hope was that inviting as many people as possible who wanted to be a part of a musical could be a way to bring us back together and maybe out of our isolation.”

The local production, Muñoz’s first, will feature 75 community members, 35 of whom compose an ensemble, as well as a cameo from UTRGV Mariachi.

For Muñoz, this group doesn’t just capture the spirit of the Valley, but helps define it.

THE MUSIC

Like all great musicals, the music is a key component in the success of a production. It’s meant to capture the emotions of the character while simultaneously continuing to move the audience through the story.

Muñoz’s composer and fellow Edinburg High alum, Ernesto Geronimo Vergara, was the perfect man for the job.

“He shared pretty transparently that a lot of these songs that he’s created over the years, that he’s never put out for the world, were about him moving through his own grief,” Muñoz said, adding that their brainstorming often ended in tears as their ideas came together in perfect harmony.

Vergada, 36, explained that he began writing some of these songs about 15 years ago as part of a healing process during a time of hardship, and unearthed them for “¡Despierta!”

He explained that each song is influenced by the music he would listen to growing up such as The Beatles, ska music as well as hip-hop and cumbias.

“I think it’s cool because we’re in the Valley, right? So it’s not just a certain style of music because we’re so diverse. It’s nice to have that kind of influence,” Vergara said.

Vergara, who is classically trained with a masters in piano performance, is looking forward to seeing audiences react to his music, which will be a first for him given this is his first composition featured in a play or musical.

“It’s pretty magical seeing people move to my music and interpret it in ways that I hadn’t thought before,” Vergara said, adding that some of the lyrics were rewritten for the stage.

There are two songs specifically that standout for Vergara: “Carino” and “Losing My Mind.”

He said “Carino” is a cumbia that ends the musical on an uplifting note, one he said that “resonates a lot.”

On “Losing My Mind,” he refers to it as a “darker song kind of going into the mind and overcoming that and finding freedom within the dream of life,” and added that the song includes rap, hip-hop and even classical.

You can see “¡Despierta!” at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at FridaFest in Edinburg, which is free and open to the public. There will be several more performances with the times to be announced.

“All I can say is that his work feels like a beautiful amalgamation of what the Valley sound is,” Muñoz said with a soft smile.

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