Quiara’s in touch with spirits…This is a woman who went into playwriting because she sensed that her family stories—those in Puerto Rico, those in Philadelphia—would fade if she did not give them language.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda
“My Broken Language honors the many women in Hudes’s maternal line. A tender collision of scene and image…There’s a sincere attempt to find a theatrical language that captures the love and joy and pain of learning, that celebrates the grandmother, mother, aunts, and cousins from whom Hudes learned. This is at its core a memory play, and to remember means not only to recall, but also to piece back together.” —Alexis Soloski, New York Times
“Quiara Alegría Hudes’s impressionistic My Broken Language feels more like a party than a play: a family photo album come to vivid, joyous life. Hudes struggles to understand her place as she navigates two worlds, two cultures, two languages. Art is the key to her self-integration, and even if we don’t grasp every detail, we’re invited to witness her ritualistic tribute to the loved ones who shaped her.” —Raven Snook, Time Out New York
“Probing, intelligent, and earnest…What makes this an original play and not a regurgitated version of her memoir is the implication that an autobiography is common property, not a house behind a fence. Others’ real lives, their true personalities—call them spirits—shiver through us, leaving their mark. The arts we attend to—literary, religious, choreographic, conversational—are what, in the end, make us who we are and set us on our way.” —Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker
