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Performance

Carmen Tafolla has impacted audiences throughout the world with her special messages of individual value and cultural affirmation. This one-woman theatrical show, My Heart Speaks a Different Language, has been performed throughout the U.S., as well as in England, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway. Tafolla makes you laugh, cry, celebrate, and dream of a world where we all wear our names and experiences proudly, with human dignity.

"(Tafolla is...) a mirror of understanding, providing rich insights, not only to Hispanics in the reflection of the intricate tapestry that they are as a people, but to all people -- about the nature of diversity, the face of prejudice, and the strength of human promise."
— Dr. Gene Chávez, Director of the Center for Intercultural Communications

As the keynoting Dr. Tafolla is being formally introduced, a stooped bag lady in ragged house slippers and a Mexican shawl interrupts the program. With simple prop changes, Tafolla transforms from a shabby vieja loca to a first-grader, from a chola to a college student, and from a retired G.I. to an outspoken black woman janitor - each emphasizing in their own way the strength and beauty of individual and cultural diversity.

"With a clear, bursting, boundless cry, you speak the unspoken memories of mine.... You regress me - unmistakeable guide - to my ancestors, to my roots, to my past... You have been spelling me again with all the authentic names of my reality."
— Efraín Palacios, editor of Etc. Magazine