The Hungry Woman

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death and antigay bias. 

Medea, Luna, and Chac-Mool live in a small community defined by the shared experience of sexual oppression. Following the political upheaval that took place before the start of the play, nations were formed around cultural and ethnic identities. In Aztlán, a community carved out for Latino, Hispanic, and Mesoamerican cultures, a new orthodoxy emerged. While ostensibly founded on cultural and ethnic solidarity, this new nation developed an even more pronounced antagonism against queerness and non-normative sexualities. As such, people like Medea and Luna were sent into exile. The play approaches the idea of sexuality from the perspective of those who have been physically dislocated from their homes (both old and new) because they do not fit into dominant expectations of sexuality. In the newly formed Aztlán, the ruling men expect everyone to conform to the identity around which they have built their community. As Medea, Luna, Mama Sol, and Savannah prove, this identity is not a monolith. These women do not conform to the expectations of the society, so the society responds by exiling them to the periphery.