Playwright and University of Notre Dame alumna Dolores Díaz ’05 returned to campus on March 26 for a staged reading of her play George Washington’s Mexican Birthday at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Set in Laredo, Texas, the play follows a group of high school students preparing for the city’s George Washington birthday celebration — a setting Díaz uses to explore identity, ambition, radicalization, and the pressures placed on Latiné students as they imagine their futures. It was originally developed at the 2024 Goodman Theatre New Stages Festival.
Directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent, the reading was followed by a post-show conversation moderated by Anne García-Romero, professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and faculty fellow with the Institute for Latino Studies.
Student participation was central to the performance. The cast and production team included students Ryan Madrid, Eny Ramirez, Jenisse Jarquin, Diego Ramos, and Annika Fernandez, along with Notre Dame alumnus Timothy Merkle and local professional actor Jared Fernley. The visit also extended into the classroom, with Díaz and Randle-Bent visiting García-Romero’s “Playwriting” and “Adaptation” courses, as well as associate professor Sarah Gitenstein’s “Acting and Directing New Work for the Stage.”
Annika Fernandez, an undergraduate who participated in the staged reading and played Magdalena Santos, said the experience pushed her into unfamiliar but rewarding territory.
“Although I had no prior acting experience and felt hesitant at first, learning more about the storyline sparked my curiosity about the character and encouraged me to take on the role,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez also added that working with Díaz, Randle-Bent, and the rest of the cast was “truly a rewarding experience,” and that the rehearsal process revealed “the level of commitment and passion shared among the entire team.”
Stephania Sanchez, an ILS Latino Studies Merit Scholar, served as an undergraduate research assistant on the project and said the play’s themes resonated deeply.
“Serving as an undergraduate research assistant on this project was especially meaningful, as its themes of Hispanic labeling, navigating multiple identities, and cultural celebration deeply resonated with me,” she said. “Bringing Dolores Díaz back to Notre Dame as an alumna felt powerful, and her work skillfully builds tension for characters you might initially dismiss and ultimately challenge your assumptions.”
Sanchez added that students walked away with “a deeper understanding of identity and a renewed appreciation for storytelling as a way to humanize complex experiences.”
The reading was co-sponsored by the FTT, ILS’ literary initiative Letras Latinas, the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, and the Teaching Beyond the Classroom program provided by Mr. Earl Linehan and Mrs. Darielle Linehan. The event also grew out of a larger collaboration between ILS and FTT.
Before the performance, Díaz also met with students for an informal conversation in Bond Hall, discussing growing up in Texas, her path from science to the arts, and the questions of identity and belonging that shape her work. She also reflected on how leaving home can make identity suddenly feel newly visible.
“You don’t really think about our identity,” she said, “because it just feels like home.”
That tension between home, perception, and self-definition was central to the day’s conversations. Díaz told students that some of the play’s questions grew out of her own experience coming to Notre Dame and encountering new expectations around how identity is understood and categorized.
She spoke candidly about the challenge of finding belonging on campus, recalling that “it took me a while to find my people.” In another moment, she described her artistic interests as grounded in places where “identity is unstable enough that it is both serious and at times absurd,” a line that helps illuminate the play’s tone and its layered treatment of race, performance, and belonging.
Díaz’s visit brought students into conversation not only with a working playwright but also with an alumna who reflected openly on the path that took her from South Texas to Notre Dame and eventually to the stage.
“Focus on the work,” she told students. “Focus on what you can control.”
Originally published by at latinostudies.nd.edu on April 23, 2026.
