'Etched in blood and bone': Tucson play tells the story of migrant deaths in the desert

TUCSON — A streetlamp overlooked the historic stage.

Its light flooded the scene as the sputtering engines of passing cars provided the production’s score. Clusters of cacti lay scattered across the dirt set Thursday as a cascade of candles illuminated El Tiradito, an adobe wishing shrine nestled in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo.

The actors read the names, cause of death and state of decomposition of migrants who had been found dead in the Arizona desert. The crowd of roughly 60 people resoundingly responded with the word, “presente,” meaning present.

Passersby stole glances at the ongoing play from the nearby sidewalk and, sometimes, stopped to buy a ticket to the show. A bus stopped at the feet of the shrine and eventually trundled off when no one boarded.

It was the world premiere of “El Tiradito,” an immersive outdoor play that wove together narratives of myth, history and death. The production compressed the past, present and future onto one stage and time.

Rob Williams, a Tucson resident who attended the show, said the production was a really important opportunity for the community to see the issues put on in a dramatic play.

“Hopefully people will see this play and educate themselves about these issues in a way they didn't know about before,” Williams said.

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Elaine Romero, the playwright of “El Tiradito,” sat a few seats behind Williams. She held a battered and wrinkled copy of the play, held together with a binder clip, in her hands.

“It's a very exciting opportunity to bring together mythology, the history of the place — like the legend of El Tiradito — with the activism of the people who practiced their activism for decades to remember the dead who've been lost crossing the border,” Romero said.

The stories are seamlessly interwoven throughout the production, which is set in the same location it seeks to explore. The play offers a retelling of the origin of the sacred shrine while showing the realities of the Arizona-Mexico border and the thousands of lives that its vast desert has claimed.

More than 4,000 migrant human remains have been recovered in Arizona since 2000, according to the Arizona OpenGIS Initiative, a collaboration between the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner and the nonprofit Humane Borders.

So far this year, 134 remains have been recovered.

The U.S.-Mexico border is the world's deadliest land migration route, according to recently published figures from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.

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Over the decades, El Tiradito, which may be the only shrine dedicated to a sinner in the U.S., has become a gathering place for Tucson’s immigration activist community.

Isabel Garcia, co-chair of the Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos, began gathering at the shrine with other advocates for a prayer vigil for the 13 Salvadorans who died in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument after their guides abandoned them in 1980.

“The play is long overdue,” Garcia said. “I'm very happy that it's able to be cast in the actual location because we really do consider this holy ground.”

Coalición de Derechos Humanos helped put on the production.

In 2000, advocates committed to visiting the site every week until border deaths stemming from U.S. policies stopped. In 2017, the group scaled back to visiting once a month.

“We've been here all these years,” Garcia said. “A lot of people recognize it as the shrine of the immigrant because of the years of activism surrounding this area and surrounding the reality here of the border.”

What is ‘El Tiradito’?

The inception of El Tiradito dates back to the 1870s. Its origin, however, is surrounded by numerous legends and myths.

The most prominent origin story of the site ascribes its creation to Juan Oliveras, an 18-year-old ranch hand who married the daughter of a powerful rancher and had a love affair with his mother-in-law.

The powerful rancher eventually caught his wife and Oliveras in the act and hacked Oliveras to death with an ax. The Catholic Church refused to bury Oliveras in a catholic cemetery on consecrated ground, given his sins.

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As a result, the mother-in-law buried Oliveras where her husband had thrown and killed him, leading to the name of the shrine meaning “the little castaway or throwaway.” The site eventually became a shrine to Oliveras where people could come and pay their respects.

It is said Oliveras’ young and pregnant wife committed suicide after finding out about the affair and murder.

The play recreated the tragic story of Oliveras.

El Tiradito is on the National Register of Historic Places and played a key role in stopping the construction of a freeway that would have run through the remainder of Tucson’s historic Barrio Viejo neighborhood. Swaths of the neighborhood were bulldozed in an urban renewal push in the 1970s that led to the construction of the Tucson Convention Center.

Over the years, the shrine has evolved to become a place for people to have their prayers and requests answered. Visitors often leave candles, offerings and tiny pieces of paper with their prayers.

People tuck tiny pieces of paper into the crevices of the adobe walls of the shrine. Legend goes that if you light a candle and it burns all night, then your prayer will be answered.

“My greatest hope is that people feel invited to the space that is open where people have always come,” Romero said.

The play will be presented at El Tiradito Wishing Shrine located at 418 S. Main Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701 from Sept. 14-17, 2023 at 7:30 pm and September 21-24th at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased here. 

Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at josecastaneda@arizonarepublic.com or connect with him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @joseicastaneda

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: El Tiradito:Tucson play shows intersection of activism and myth