Review: OUR LADY OF THE SAN DIEGO CONVENTION CENTER at TuYo Theatre
Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center is performing as part of a tour around San Diego through October 18, 2026
Mario Vega’s Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center is a very San Diego story, and that local connection makes its exploration of immigration, faith, family, and the meaning of care all the more immediate. Vega worked as a youth care worker at the San Diego Convention Center in 2021, when the building shifted from a familiar gathering place for conventions, comic enthusiasts, and events to a temporary shelter for unaccompanied migrant children. That experience became the foundation for this play, which has grown through readings with The Old Globe’s 360 Project and La Jolla Playhouse’s Latinx New Play Festival before arriving at its world premiere with TuYo Theatre.
Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, the play follows Lupe (Vanessa Orozco) and Milli (Alejandra Villanueva), two youth care workers assigned to a section of the convention center housing migrant girls. Among those in their care are Lourdes (Julieta Flores) and Fatima (Lulu Stezano), two young girls who have been separated from their families and are waiting to learn what happens next: where they will go and when, or whether, they will be reunited with loved ones.
Under Maria Patrice Amon’s thoughtful direction, the production finds the humanity, heart, and humor in an inherently difficult situation. Flores and Stezano are both excellent throughout as the girls slowly become friends. They laugh over the differences in language, food, and culture; Spanish isn't necessarily the same from Guatemala to Mexico to San Diego. They talk about the simple things they miss, including being able to go outside and see the stars. Their shared faith becomes another source of connection, and their prayers and rosary are among the play’s most moving moments.
Orozco’s Lupe is orderly and a rule follower, but also deeply caring. Having experienced being separated from her family when she was younger, Lupe is studying to become a lawyer while working with the girls because she wants to help. Villanueva brings plenty of comic energy to Milli, an enthusiastic newcomer whose exaggeration of her Spanish-speaking abilities and her free-spirited nature create an amusing clash with both Lupe and the detention center’s rules. Yet beneath their differences, both women clearly care about the children and are doing what they can to make an untenable situation bearable, and creating brief moments of music and dancing provides welcome flashes of joy.
Faith Carrion stands out in a series of roles that range from hilarious to heartbreaking, including an ICE agent and several mothers in and around San Diego. Her final appearance as an immigrant mother provides a particularly powerful closing moment.
The play includes considerable Spanish, but non-Spanish speakers can follow the story, and the language barrier becomes part of the experience. As Milli occasionally needs Lupe to translate, the audience gets a small sense of what it feels like to be surrounded by words you cannot understand. For an adult, that can be disorienting. For a ten-year-old child, alone and far from home, it is something much more profound, feeling alien and unmoored from the life you used to know.
Vega’s title draws on the girls’ names and the tradition of Marian apparitions, Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe, reflecting his own memory of migrant girls forming a prayer circle during his time at the convention center. That faith is not treated as decoration, but as a language of survival and hope. (Read his interview on this show with BWWSD's Lucia Serrano here)
Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center centers these experiences with care and humor, giving audiences a chance to know these migrant girls and what they experienced as children by capturing their fears, friendships, faith, and small moments of joy instead of as statistics or political talking points. TuYo Theatre’s production reminds us that their stories deserve to be seen, heard, and remembered.
How To Get Tickets
Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center is performing as part of a tour around San Diego through October 18, 2026. Starting at The Old Globe, it will travel to libraries, community centers, churches, and schools. Click here to see the schedule and find the location closest to you.
The production is presented in support and collaboration with Casa Familiar, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for people living in underserved and underrepresented communities. Casa Familiar was among the organizations providing services and youth care workers to migrant children at the Convention Center in 2021.
For more information about Casa Familiar and ways to support its work, visit casafamiliar.org.
Photo credit: TuYo Theatre
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