Project Background

The character is a historical composite created by Dr. Denise Frazier in 2018 as part of Goat in the Road's immersive show, The Stranger Disease, and re-visited in the digital project, Sick Note: Letters from the Epidemic. Now, the company is creating a full musical experience based around Frazier’s work.

González is born in Cuba as an enslaved woman in 1829. In 1850, she is sold to a family in New Orleans, before gaining her freedom after the Civil War, and spending the Reconstruction era in the Crescent City. She returns to her homeland in 1878, becomes part of the Cuban War of Independence, is jailed and freed, and finally, reunited with her son and grandson. González is a healer, musician, petty thief, and ardent revolutionary. This musical will focus on the character’s ability to find power in spite of the enormous and oppressive forces arrayed against her. The show is also the story of her descendents: son Mateo, grandson Mateo Jr. (who immigrates back to New Orleans), and her great-great-grandaughter Carlota James, who is studying to become a doctor. Throughout the show these descendants are trying to make sense of González’s life and their own.