{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Radio Chatskill","title":"At NACL Theater, a Love Letter to a Grandmother Who Helped a Generation Thrive","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1064,"description":"This weekend, audiences at NACL Theater will witness an intimate and deeply personal work-in-progress titled Mercedes: Para los Callejones, created by Brooklyn-based artist Modesto “Flako” Jimenez and the ¡Oye! Group. The play, performed primarily in Spanish with English supertitles, is both a tribute and a time capsule — inspired by the grandmother who raised Jimenez in Bushwick after he immigrated from the Dominican Republic.Through letters, receipts, and other personal mementos, Jimenez uncovered his grandmother’s quiet but powerful legacy — a woman who helped countless Latino families survive and thrive in New York City while staying connected to loved ones back home.“The Mercedes-Benz, the matriarch — the one that opened her doors for many generations to ground themselves in America, in North America, in New York City,” Jimenez said.As Jimenez cared for his grandmother during her battle with dementia, he began uncovering the story that would become Mercedes.“I kept going into drawers and different boxes and realizing that she never threw anything out — like a true beautiful hoarder,” he said with a laugh. “I found letters from people in the Dominican Republic asking for things and saw how she took care of them. I realized, oh, this woman didn’t just take care of me — she took care of multiple generations even back in the motherland.”Those discoveries revealed a woman whose small acts of love and resourcefulness rippled across generations.“She made sure that I had a lock on the bathroom door so I could study my lines and be a performer,” Jimenez said. “People should know that those little tools — that love — gave me space to breathe and become who I am.”A Matriarch’s Spirit on StageActor Zuleyma Guevara, who portrays Mercedes, said the character felt instantly familiar.“Flako told me I reminded him of his grandmother,” Guevara said. “When I read the script, it reminded me of my own mother. Immigrants work their asses off — sending money, resources back home —...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/q7XXsnSXT_u4mZLCn3chUorwDmUD_kWiB272D6emB18/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80N2Uy/OGY5MWUwZThkYTEw/NDVkZGM2ZGZkZDIw/ZjliOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}