Crossing Borders

1990. PUENTE's second play was "Crossing Borders". It told about the experiences of immigrant men. They arrived to this country on their own, many were refugees and some were here illegally.
Many Latin American men earned their living as musicians, playing Latin American rhythms in bands that were very popular with the Canadian mainstream. We decided, therefore, that this play should be a musical comedy.

During the process of rehearsal the men talked openly about their experiences in the workplace, their feelings of nostalgia and their love for music, but they were very reticent to talk about their family lives. In this they were very different from the women in "I wasn't born here" for whom the topic of the family was central. This difference in attitude between men and women awakened our curiosity and suggested the topic for our third play "Canadian Tango".