“What Is the Scandal?/¿Cuál Es el Escándalo?” a play

“What Is the Scandal?/¿Cuál Es el Escándalo?” is a one-woman play which first opened at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. It features Eliana Lopez, a Venezuelan actor who resides in San Francisco, Calif.  It has since played successfully at a good number of venues in the Bay Area with wonderful press reviews.

The play is a bilingual personal account of Ms. Lopez who is the wife of the former Sheriff of San Francisco who was accused by law enforcement officials (not Ms. Lopez) of committing an act of domestic violence against her.  The incident had wide-ranging political and community consequences.  Lopez, who consistently denied that she was a victim of domestic violence, was portrayed by the judicial system and many domestic violence advocates, as a poor Latina immigrant without the means to stand up for herself.  With this play, she explains that she has finally been given a voice and an opportunity to tell her side of the story, one she says she was denied because she was a Latina immigrant.  The play covers issues pertaining to immigration, cultural differences, racial bias, and power of politics. The performance provides the context for a larger discussion about the community politics of domestic violence and immigration.