【Written by Paz Ortiz】
Characters
Ikumi: An indigenous woman from the Andes, victim from the forced sterilizations in Perú perpetuated by the Fujimori dictatorship (1992-2000).
Other #1 (also plays A Man).
Other #2 (also plays A Woman).
Script
A dark stage is lit by a single white light revealing IKUMI at the center. After a moment, two red lights reveal the OTHERS, one on each side of IKUMI. The color composition created by the lights is that of the Peruvian flag.
The OTHERS are wearing entirely black clothing. IKUMI is wearing a traditional Peruvian skirt (“pollera”). There is dry blood in her thighs, as though it recently streamed down them.
IKUMI
They gave me a word. Five letters. Three syllables. Ikumi, childless mother. They spat it at me, their voices full of hate. They wrote it with a flaming iron on my chest. With their scalpels, they spelled it in my belly. Ikumi, ikumicha! Little woman, childless mother.
OTHERS
(they begin to circle her, taunting her)
Poor woman. Sad woman.
IKUMI
My name is Josefina Quispe. I am an indigenous woman from the Peruvian mountain ranges. I am thirty-three years old. I have five children.
OTHERS
Sad woman. Stupid woman.
IKUMI
I don’t know how to read or write. I work the land. I break my hands. My blood, like the soil, is black. I carry the economy in my back.
OTHERS
(they begin to crawl around IKUMI)
Stupid woman. Poor woman.
IKUMI
It is 1990. Alberto Fujimori says he will decrease poverty rates if he is to be elected. He says he will attack the root of the problem. To him, I am the root of the problem.
OTHERS
Poor woman. Mad woman.
IKUMI
Every day, there is a man who comes to my village offering free medical treatment. He knocks on my window and smiles at me. He says it won’t hurt. He says it’s free.
A MAN
(he stands up and assumes a casual posture, changing character. OTHER #2 continues to crawl and writhe)
The president is paying for it, Josefinacha. What are you going to do with one more child? Your husband will agree, ask him and you’ll see. Come with me. It’s just a small procedure and then you won’t have children until you can support them. Don’t be stupid, Josefinacha. You’re a poor woman,
OTHER #2
Poor woman.
A MAN
a stupid woman,
OTHER #2
Stupid woman.
A MAN
What are you going to do with one more child? Come with me. You won’t regret it.
(after saying this, he joins OTHER #2 on the floor. OTHER #1 walks back and assumes the role of A WOMAN)
IKUMI
I did as he told me. I walked with him to the medical center. It was a small place, dirty, smelled of blood. They took my data. Name? Josefina Quispe, I said.
OTHER #1
Stupid woman. Poor woman.
A WOMAN
Age?
IKUMI
Thirty-three years.
OTHER #1
Young woman. Sad woman.
A WOMAN
Five children already? These countryside women. They know what they’re good at. Ignorant for everything, but very clever on the sheets, eh Josefinacha?
(after saying this, OTHER #1 stands up and they both stand behind and on both sides of IKUMI, looking down with one hand on each of her shoulders)
OTHERS
Promiscuous woman. Sad woman.
IKUMI
Silence. I take the robes they give me and I put them on in the bathroom. I count one, two, three mice. I go to a room and lay down in a filthy bed. Next to me, there are five other women sleeping. A restless slumber.
OTHERS
Poor women. Stupid women.
IKUMI
A man carelessly inserts a liquid in my veins and I go to sleep. My dreams are plagued with the dead.
(IKUMI is pushed to her knees by the hands on her shoulders)
I see my firstborn’s face when I buried him in my crops, he died of cold. I see my youngest daughter calloused hands holding a pen, she used to go to school every other day.
(IKUMI is pushed to stand on her hands and knees)
I see the face of my mother between my legs, crying as she pulls my third child from my insides. She also had many children.
OTHERS
Sad woman. Mad woman.
IKUMI
(as she mimics the pain she describes)
I wake up in a pool of my own vomit. I clutch my stomach. I scream.
OTHER #1
(looking up and running to one side)
What have you done to me?!
IKUMI
I cry.
OTHER #2
(looking up and running to the other side)
What have you done to my belly?!
IKUMI
(she stands up and runs, almost crawls, to the front of the stage)
I can’t walk, and yet I’m forced to go back to my village. My breasts hang dead over a putrid scar. I look back. I see their scornful smiles. They have their radio on. The president laughs. The problem has been uprooted. Poverty is no longer a problem.
OTHERS
(they come back to IKUMI, joining hands with her)
Poor woman. Infertile woman.
IKUMI
Mine is just one of over 400 000 cases of forced sterilizations that took place in Perú in the 90s. President Alberto Fujimori, organizer and executor of this health campaign to reduce the natality rate, targeted poor, illiterate, indigenous women, He was found not guilty of charges of genocide. This is considered to be the most gruesome Human Rights violation to take place in Peruvian land.
I survived to tell my story.
OTHER #2
Many women died from their infected wounds.
OTHER #1
Many died from an analgesics overdose.
OTHER #2
Many killed themselves from shame and pain.
IKUMI
Ikumi, they called me. Childless mother. Your tears will feed the earth and give birth to life, but your belly will never again bear a living child.
THE THREE OF THEM
(raising their fists)
¡Somos las hijas de las campesinas que no pudiste esterilizar!
IKUMI
In the protests, we scream “We are the daughters of the peasant women you couldn’t sterilize!”
We scream
OTHER #2
For the poor women.
OTHER #1
For the illiterate women.
OTHER #2
For the indigenous women.
OTHER #1
For the mournful women.
IKUMI
For the childless mothers. The ikumi women.
We remember them.