ONSTAGE 34 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 20-26, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Everything about this particular theatrical experience is one of a kind. Raw and real, Piernas: The Story Between Our Legs, a bilingual drama by local playwright Cristal González Ávila, boldly reflects the fact that over 60 percent of the Monterey County population is Latino. Many of them navigate between Spanish and English their whole lives, with younger generations switching between both languages, sometimes within a single sentence. That’s the reality of four sisters: sweet and well-meaning Cecilia (Najavy Ramirez); funny and sexy Maritza (Melissa Muñoz); at times bitter, but smart and reliable Concha (Jessenia Zubia); and the youngest— also the most Americanized—Sandra (Maylin Villegas). These charming young women try to live in contemporary Watsonville, looking for modern relationships and career advancement, without leaving the traditional world of their Spanishspeaking parents, agricultural field workers. It’s not easy because their father is a silent, confused type who left the house decades ago (an amazing performance by Crystal Padrón Piña) and their mother (lovely Lizbeth Rios Blanco) is wheelchair-bound due to M.S. Her nonfunctioning legs, piernas in Spanish, are a symbol of her unmet needs, including emotional. The four loving daughters try to accommodate her as much as they can, despite having their own problems. Cecilia struggles with a trauma of childhood sexual abuse, Maritza wants to leave for a job in Oakland, Concha’s marriage ends, leaving her feeling unattractive and alone. As for Sandra, she is still largely a child who deserves a more stable family environment to continue her studies. “Each of them amplifies a different version of womanhood,” says González Ávila, who also praises the “young, talented, hungry, passionate actors” at Hartnell College Theatre Arts who make her play come alive on stage. Piernas will make you cry, laugh and cry again. The engagement of both actors and the audience on opening night was unprecedented; tears and laughter came naturally, cleansing hearts and awakening minds. What also stood out on opening night was the fact that the audience was majority of Hispanic or Latino origins—a rare sight in Monterey County theaters. Many of them were relatives of the students who acted and produced the play. That said, González Ávila points out that English-speaking members of the audience told her they understood every word anyway, even if just from context. “I wrote the play while I was pregnant with my first child,” she says. “It was the first time I gave myself permission not to care what others would say of my writing. So I danced freely between Spanish and English, and this way I think I found my voice as a playwright. I thought it would work for a large chunk of our community, who will be just delighted hearing this back and forth [between languages] and find it authentic and funny.” González Ávila says she takes pride in the values of two languages and worlds that made her, and she knows a lot of young people having the same experience. “That’s what’s beautiful about theater,” she says. “If you feel the energy, the emotion, that these characters are emoting, language is just secondary.” As a young performer (at Watsonville High School and then at San Jose State, where she majored in theater), González Ávila learned that there are not many roles for people who look like her and sound like her. So she turned to writing. “I’m going to make sure it has an exclamation mark,” she says about her decision and approach to future plays. She has been working for years with El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, the oldest Chicano theater company in the U.S., founded in 1965. González Ávila is currently working with them on a Christmas play. At the same time, she is working on her first national play, finishing a movie (Color Cielo, to be released in January) and promoting her book, Pedacitos: Little Pieces. Piernas is presented by the Hartnell College Theatre Arts and collaboratively directed by professor River Navaille (who identifies as they/them), Isabella Trejo, Maria Elena Mejia Contreras, with the help of González Ávila. Navaille, who just this year shone bright as an actor in two wonderful plays at PacRep—as the titular St. Joan (their favorite role in three years) and as Stephano in Shakespeare’s The Tempest—says that in the professional world they wouldn’t feel comfortable directing Piernas, simply because they are not of Hispanic origins. That said, Navaille is an educator (they teach acting at Hartnell and Seaside High School) who was given an opportunity to put a Spanish-English play on stage and went for it. Many of their students at Hartnell represent the world presented in the play. “I grew up in Seaside privileged to have been able to have excellent theater,” Navaille says. “I want to cultivate a culture and an educational and working environment where a greater diversity of students have access to the same quality theater education I had, because theater can save lives and turn lives around.” When Navaille works with their Hispanic or Latino students, they often hear: “My mom said the play was really good. She also said she had no idea what was going on on stage.” Piernas is the opposite of that. It’s all about Spanish speakers and their bilingual children and grandchildren. “I think it’s OK that maybe some of our English speakers have to say that at certain moments in the play that they don’t know what’s going on,” Navaille says. “This is how Spanish speakers feel all the time.” While all the issues are addressed with tact and gentleness, audience members should be advised that the play touches upon childhood sexual abuse, grooming, miscarriage, abandonment, infidelity, illness, death and mentions gun violence. Piernas: The Story Between Our Legs 7:30pm Friday, Nov. 21 and Saturday, Nov. 22; 2pm Sunday, Nov. 23. Hartnell’s Studio Theatre, Building K Room 116, 411 Central Ave., Salinas. Free (optional donation of $10-$20). (831) 755-6700, piernas.brownpapertickets.com. Amazing Legs An incredible bilingual play at Hartnell College triggers a full range of emotions. By Agata Popęda “I danced freely between Spanish and English.” Sisters—from left to right, Maritza (Melissa Muñoz), Cecilia (Najavy Ramirez), Concha (Jessenia Zubia) and Sandra (Maylin Villegas)—interface with elders (below) including their mom (Lizbeth Rios Blanco, left) and aunt (Amalia Canchola-Martinez). MARIA ELENA MEJIA CONTRERAS MARIA ELENA MEJIA CONTRERAS
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