Downtown on Allen Street everybody’s blasting music – bachata, merengue and salsa. Everybody’s cooking – plantains, paella, and empanadas. In his living memoir Juan Francisco Villa uncovers the treasures of his family’s dark legacy in the streets of New York.
After a sold-out run in New York with Ballybeg at the Barrow Group Theatre, Empanada performed in Chicago in 2012 as part of the Yo Solo Theatre Festival and at Los Angeles Theatre Center. A haunting love song to the Lower East Side, Juan’s return to his childhood neighborhood is a dangerous and hilarious tale about growing up by getting out and coming back home.