[Yvonne] Coming up in dance in Tucson, I was the only Chicana, Latina, Mexican American in contemporary dance, and I kept asking myself, "How is this possible?"

My work is the first step in building a robust community of dancers inspired by the multiplicity of voices, so that the most kick-ass dance is coming from the Southwest.

Hey, everyone!

I'm Yvonne Montoya here in beautiful Tucson, Arizona, just 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, with "If Cities Could Dance."

Let's go.

♪ emotive groovy Mexican trumpets with quirky hip-hop beats ♪ ♪ delicate Maya rhythm from Central America ♪ [Yvonne] Tucson is midsize southwestern city with expansive blue skies and a deep history.

There are original Tucsonenses here, who the border crossed, and the indigenous communities the Tohono O'odham and the Pasco-Yaqui.

It's a unique place.

♪ Maya rhythm from Central America ♪ I'm a child of the Southwest deserts.

I like to center family in my work because that is an integral part of my culture.

♪ uplifting Colombian electro cumbia with folklorico influence ♪ I am a Nueva Mexicana, the descendant of the Mexicans who the border crossed in 1848.

Those narratives get lost in the larger narratives of Latin American diaspora in the U.S. ♪ contemplative romantic Spanish guitar with enigmatic piano ♪ I began to express myself artistically through choreography and the stories, and the aesthetics I wanted to put on the stage was met with great resistance within the companies that existed at the time.

So I started Safos Dance Theatre to explore how our cultures in the region from which we come might impact the way that contemporary dance is expressed.

♪ intimate and moving traditional Latin folk song ♪ The first dance that I choreographed from "Stories from Home" was "Braceros."

My father was a migrant farm worker.

From the ages of 11 to 14 he picked cantaloupe and watermelon in the fields with the Braceros program outside of Yuma, Arizona.

♪ intimate and moving traditional Latin folk song ♪ During World War II, Braceros was a binational agreement to send over Mexican men to provide seasonal labor to United States.

Something interesting about my dad's experience with the Bracero program is he was from Santa Fe and a U.S. citizen.

The program needed bilingual people to work as liaisons between the farmers and the braceros.

His dad worked for the program because my grandfather was bilingual.

The job didn't pay well, and my dad's family was poor, so my dad and all his brothers went to pick in the fields with the braceros.

My father just recently passed, and I always wanted to do a dance based on his experiences.

The piece begins with my father's voice.

[Johnny] As a teenager, I worked in the fields with the Bracero program in Yuma.

$1.37 an hour.

♪ atmospheric and nostalgic minimal electronic composition ♪ You get up at five o'clock in the morning.

By 7:00-7:30, daybreak, we're out in the field picking cantaloupe or watermelon.

♪ atmospheric and nostalgic minimal electronic composition ♪ ♪ intimate and moving traditional Latin folk song ♪ [Yvonne] When he passed away, I realized that I needed to be the person that picked up this tradition of storytelling, so that my son knew the complexity and complicated history that is his legacy and where he comes from.

And I wanted to do it using the language I love most, which is dance.

♪ intimate and moving traditional Latin folk song ♪ [Ruby] Our bodies hold memories.

We have embodied knowledge.

My grandpa, his generations were the people that were coming up into the Southwest to work with the program, and even my parents crossed this border.

The history that is here, those stories need to be told.

♪ delicate Maya rhythm from Central America ♪ [Steve] The history wasn't taught to me in school.

To bring these ancestors, embody them, the things they did for themselves, for better futures, and bring that to the forefront is powerful and empowering to me.

♪ delicate Maya rhythm from Central America ♪ ♪ uplifting Colombian electro cumbia with folklorico influence ♪ [Yvonne] Being in a Borderlands community, I thought it was important to connect with colleagues in Mexico to create spaces for exchange, because as we are multicultural beings, (I'm) really interested in seeing where is dance traditionally practiced and not something that we're taught in dance schools.

(sound of folklorico footwork) [Salvador] I never felt like I was a professional dancer because the stigma of what you do that comes from the people, from your heritage, is not professional.

So what Yvonne is doing is trying to break that invisible barrier that exists.

♪ uplifting Colombian electro cumbia with folklorico influence ♪ [Steve] Having the opportunity to be a part of the Safos Dance Theatre, cultivating this art here, reminds us we deserve to take up space.

Dancers like myself, dancers of color, dancers of queer identities.

♪ uplifting Colombian electro cumbia with folklorico influence ♪ [Ruby] Being onstage, challenging those white supremacist and Eurocentric ways of working and performing and dancing, I feel seen in a whole different level.

♪ uplifting Colombian electro cumbia with folklorico influence ♪ ♪ emotive groovy Mexican trumpets with quirky hip-hop beats ♪ [Yvonne] There's a lot of talented dancers that are coming out of Arizona and the Southwest.

For the dancers that never saw themselves on stage, never saw their grandmas, never saw the sounds of their community, the sounds of their family, the colors, the shape of their body.

Dancers like me.

I hope they see themselves in the work.

Thank you for joining us with "If Cities Could Dance" here in Tucson, Arizona.

We hope you enjoyed our episode.

Please remember to like and subscribe, and let us know in the comments below where you would like to go next.

♪ emotive groovy Mexican trumpets with quirky hip-hop beats ♪ Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

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