- We have to see ourselves to know ourselves.

I feel like the lack of knowing sometimes comes from the lack of seeing.

When you see your stories you've been incorporated into life, you come to life.

(emotional music) - [Rolando] Raíces Theater Company is a very unique company that is from Buffalo.

- We are an ensemble-based company.

All of the plays that we produce are written by Latine playwrights.

All of our stories are culturally specific to the Latine experience.

We believe in the power of telling our own stories, and also believe it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for development of Latine artists.

(actor singing in Spanish) Raíces was initially formed in 2002 when a trio of Latino artists, myself, the co-founder of Raíces, Rolando Martín Gómez, and Lilliangina Quiñones.

We found ourselves trying to be working actors in Buffalo, and finding that difficult.

We all had a very strong relationship with Ujima Theatre Company, and talked to them about that desire to tell our own stories, and they opened up their doors to us and said, "Come on over and tell your stories here in our house."

So we did two productions there and then 2013, we all decided that we have to become a company in order to serve the community, and serve ourselves as artists.

- We all learn from each other.

We learn new things.

You see people learning to do costumes that have never done it, people who have done all the acting, all of a sudden they are writing.

- It's a place where you can feel at home, be all of who you are.

But mostly, when I think of Raíces, I think of celebration, because it's a place that truly acknowledges and embraces who we are as a people.

- Raíces' most recent productions were "Isleña" and "Bloom."

"Isleña," which means island girl, is a one act, one woman show written by myself and my sister.

And that is my personal story coming from Puerto Rico at a very young age, living in Buffalo, living in the diaspora, and at 40, finally going back to Puerto Rico.

The show is about how do you reconcile going back to your homeland when that homeland means so many different things.

(actress singing in Spanish) "Bloom" is the story of a mother and son, and in one hour, the unthinkable happens.

- Weed?

- Oh my god, it's soup.

- You put weed in the soup?

- It's a natural herb.

- It doesn't go in soup.

- Today, it does.

- What are you doing with weed?

- What am I doing?

- Giving your son... - The son is thrown, their character is thrown into a political prison for being non-binary and pansexual.

Their character is tortured for two weeks, 14 days, and they are thrown back into the family home with the request, demand, if you will, from the regime to the mother, to either kill her child, or have the rest of our extended family suffer the consequences.

And that's how the play begins.

So it's really been important to me to represent that experience as authentically as possible, and to maybe even start conversations between parents and children who may not have been able to find the words, or find the way to begin that conversation.

The power of true, authentic storytelling is a means of of changing the world.

- Through our work, I hope that people find themselves, people find that they do matter, that their experiences matter, that there is value to how they grew up.

The very reason why Raíces was born was because of impact.

- I want the community to be very proud of a Latino theater company that is in Western world, and that is telling our own stories from here.

- Raíces , to us, means the word itself, it's a sense of knowing how deep our roots go, knowing who came before us, and celebrating and honoring our people.

- My hope is that in some way, we function as a mirror, and that that mirror becomes the bridge towards healing and for hope.

(upbeat Hispanic music)