For this year’s Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, Visión Latino Theatre Company presents the local premiere of Nelson Diaz-Marcano’s 2024 play, Las Borinqueñas. Set in 1950s Puerto Rico, the play (directed by Xavier M. Custodio) traces the changes in circumstances for five women before and during the test trials for Enovid, the first birth control pill, that were launched in Puerto Rico in 1955.
Las Borinqueñas
Through 11/9: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen, visionlatino.com, $39.19, general admission, $60.54 “visionary” experience (includes drink ticket, concession item, best reserved seating, and a printed photo on the set); Fri 10/31 pay-what-you-can community day ($7.18-$33.85)
Though the pill undoubtedly changed women’s lives for the better, the doctors behind these trials—John Rock and Gregory Pincus—used a formulation with extremely high levels of progesterone, and dismissed the reports from a woman physician, Dr. Edris Rice-Wray, of disturbing side effects (including death) with her Puerto Rican patients. It’s just one part of the long history of marginalized women used as guinea pigs by the medical establishment. The “father of gynecology,” J. Marion Sims, experimented on enslaved women. Poor women and women deemed “unfit” have faced forced sterilization for many decades (detention centers for Immigration Customs and Enforcement being just the latest source of this outrage). Yet as Diaz-Marcano’s play makes clear, being able to control their fertility was also an important development for the women in Puerto Rico.
The relationships here are joyous, complicated, funny, and heartbreaking, with the shadow of Puerto Rico’s own uncertain status (neither a state, nor an independent nation) serving as a parallel for the strings-attached freedom the women are seeking. Throughout the show, Nelson A. Rodriguez’s radio announcer appears, extolling the virtues of the “nuclear family” and all the modern conveniences Puerto Ricans can have (implicit in the announcements: if only they’d give up this crazy notion of being independent).
Maria (Kidany Camilo) has returned home from New York, where she went after the discovery of her relationship with Fernanda (Alondra Rios) led to her father disowning her. Maria also had an illegal abortion in the past, and when Fernanda faces an unwanted pregnancy, she pleads for Maria’s help. (Fernanda’s dreams of running off to New York with Maria to become a fashion designer are among the most poignant moments in this show.) Fernanda’s sister, Yolanda (Alyssa Corrigan-Cuadrado), who disapproves of Maria’s attachment to Fernanda, is having her own affair with a married man. Rosa (Daniela Martinez) is sterilized after giving birth, without fully understanding the implications of the procedure. Chavela (Audrey Romero) battles the side effects of the pill, determined to not be saddled with more children.
Judging from reviews of the New York production, Diaz-Marcano has made some changes in the script, removing Dr. Pincus as an onstage character. That seems right to me: the focus here definitely deserves to be on the women, including Katherine Schwartz’s Dr. Rice-Wray, who is torn between wanting to help her patients and the deceptions and omissions that the pharmaceutical company is using in promoting the pill. Fans of the long-running BBC series Call the Midwife will be able to relate to the complicated ways in which women negotiate their fertility and their relationships. But the added element of colonial imperialism, though mostly hinted at rather than presented in obvious strokes, adds extra disquiet to this well-acted and engaging take on the historical snapshot captured in Las Borinqueñas.
Reader Recommends: THEATER & DANCE
Reader reviews of Chicago theater, dance, comedy, and performance arts.
A child molester and his victim meet years later in New Theatre Project’s site-specific Blackbird.
October 29, 2025October 29, 2025
In Measure of a Man, Fred Hampton gets the final word.
October 29, 2025October 29, 2025
4 Chairs Theatre’s revival of the late Joel Drake Johnson’s drama is unfussy and heartbreaking.
October 29, 2025October 29, 2025
City Lit and Black Button Eyes team up for Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter.
October 22, 2025October 22, 2025
Teatro ZinZanni Chicago’s latest celebrates immigrants and dreams.
October 22, 2025October 22, 2025
Redtwist’s reimagined take on the original Chicago is criminally entertaining.
October 22, 2025October 22, 2025