La Calle - Issue 4, Volume 1, Summer 2009
In Conversation: Carmen Aguirre talks about The Refugee Hotel

Artistic Director Marilo Nunez recently chatted with the playwright and director Carmen Aguirre to discuss the upcoming world premiere of her play, The Refugee Hotel. This interview is one in a series that will occur in the weeks leading up to production.

MN: Lusha, I know that you have been asked this a million times since first writing the play back in 1998, what is The Refugee Hotel about and why did you write it?

CA: (laughing) I wrote the The Refugee Hotel at the turn of the millenium. I never imagined that it would be a decade before it premiered! Just when I thought the play would end up in a drawer collecting dust forever, you, and Alameda Theatre Company stepped up: you wanted to produce it, and, not only that, you wanted to start Canada's premiere professional Latino theatre company to do so.

The characters and stories in the play are based on the experiences of my family and friends. When we arrived in 1974, we were put up at The English Bay Apartment Hotel in Vancouver, which is still a “refugee” hotel. Although the play follows the arrival of eight Chilean refugees to Canada, it is not exclusively about exile. It's about love. Love of each other and love of oneself. At its core, it's about the act of surrendering to love as the key to survival.