Introducing ELMO-MENTO

Image referenced from “The Lives Behind Times Square Cartoon Characters” by The New York Times (2025). Cartoon by Peter Quach.

NYC. September 15, 2026

Venezuelan multi-disciplinary artist and choreographer Miguel Alejandro Castillo asked me to collab with him on this project some three years ago. He knew I coproduced a community-led play in New Jersey with my debut book’s coauthors about the findings of our four-year ethnographic fieldwork among the undocumented Latinx population of Freehold Borough, and he wanted to co-create a performance with people who work as cartoon characters in Times Square. He had a name for it: ELMO-MENTO. Also an image: A 2014 picture published by The New York Times by photographer Damon Winter of a performer getting dressed as Elmo in the subway station. Elmo’s head lies on the floor to the side as the performer’s own head hangs, apparently looking down at his/Elmo’s red feet. The person behind the costume.

Miguel es mi amigo y compañera suramericana en esta ciudad que las dos llamamos hogar. Hemos compartido llantos de tristeza y felicidad. Hemos bailoteado y voltereteado al son de la salsa, la cumbia, la bachata, la champeta, el merengue y el techno. Le conocí cuando yo aún mantenía mi cuarto en mi coop de Brooklyn after moving to London. Miguel and I shared my room for some years: I lived there when he wasn’t there and vise-versa. It was a gorgeous Bed-Stuy room full of light and plants. I know and love Miguel, and I loved this collab idea.

Three years later we are entering the thick of this project which started with a name and a picture. The researcher and the dancer, or the artist-researchers. Miguel and I have secured funding from the Abrons Arts Center, the Times Square Alliance and the 2025 National Dance Project Grant. Our creation begins with ethnographic field research to learn about the neighborhood’s history and dynamics and build relationships with performers. We are in the process of conducting paid interviews with twenty street performers, with the idea of casting five of them for the final production. After our research period, the performers will collaboratively devise the work under Miguel’s direction. The project will support the cast in developing skills in dance, performance, and writing; gaining new tools to shape and share their narrative; and using performance as a means of creating community. The devising process will build on Miguel’s choreographic practices, combining exploration of personal memory and history, the movement patterns of the cartoon characters the performers embody, and the repetitive gestures and walking patterns they engage in while working. I will be working on the music along with a dream team put together by Miguel.

In today’s political climate, our project is significant as it challenges perceptions of immigrant communities while uplifting their artistry. As Venezuelan and Colombian immigrants, Miguel and I place immigrant narratives at the center of our creative and research processes. Throughout the work, we will provide performers with tools to share their stories and connect them to resources and social services via our partner organization, Henry Street Settlement (part of Abrons Arts Center) to help them navigate socio-economic barriers. Depending on each individual’s needs, Henry Street’s breadth of social services available to immigrant families include: ESOL classes, legal service referrals, direct access to basic needs (food, clothing, diapers), assistance navigating and enrolling in public benefits (health insurance, SNAP), emergency cash assistance, job training/placement, after school enrollment for families, and mental health care. 

So! Premiering at Abrons Arts Center on April 29, 2027 ELMO-MENTO is a multidisciplinary dance-theater work, centering the stories of immigrant New Yorkers who make a living as cartoon character street performers in Times Square. By blending personal narratives with surreal embodiment, ELMO-MENTO will immerse audiences in the lives and imagination of the performers, who reveal their perspectives on the costs and value of the American Dream. This visually striking and thought-provoking performance will challenge audiences to consider who is seen, who remains invisible, and what it means to truly belong.

ELMO-MENTO has brought me back to New York City, my favorite place in the world, and to Times Square of all places. The first time I came here it was on New Year’s Eve. I was a child and felt overwhelmed by the screens and the crowd. And most New Yorkers, me included, will tell you that this is far from their favorite place in the city. Today I landed in JFK and this is the first place I went to because my project starts here, under the bright Times Square lights. This, lil Caro could have never imagined.

Lo primero que aprendí es que todos los caminos conducen a Times Square. Después de vivir en central Brooklyn y trabajar en New Jersey por 10 años estoy acostumbrada a un long commute and at least one transfer in public transit to go to work. No en este caso. Llegué a la estación de Jackson Heights en Queens y encontré que todas las líneas de metro que paran ahí van a Times Square. El centro de este mundo. Salí del metro justo en la calle 43 con Broadway, al frente de los gigantes New York Police Department and military recruitment stations. The heart de este centro. It is New York Fashion week. A runway on Broadway between 46th and 47th streets. Techno remixes of pop songs being played by a DJ that I couldn’t locate in the crowd.

Something I loved about my previous project in Freehold Borough was working with Mirian Mijangos García, my fellow researcher and coauthor of my debut book. I brought Mirian along to the project from early on in the grant application process. Mirian calls herself a Guatemalan dreamer who expresses her feelings through singing and song writing. A mother and daughter, she loves to write. Mirian is a naturopath and an ethnographer in the movement for immigrants’ rights in the US. In 2015 she cowrote and coproduced the play Undocumented/Unafraid with me and two colleagues about the rights of undocumented immigrants in the US. Our book Decolonizing Ethnography, coauthored by the same group of people, was published by Duke University Press in 2019. Mirian recently started the process to obtain legal immigration status after 16 years in New Jersey. She finished a certificate in Business Administration this year and is a member of various workers’ rights organizations including the National Alliance of Domestic Workers and Casa Freehold. For our ELMO-MENTO promo material artist Peter Quach adapted Damon Winter’s Elmo picture to show Mirian’s face, her eyes looking straight at the viewer.

Mirian always has a sweet smile when she greets me. Seeing it again in Times Square in the context of this new ethnographic project that we are launching today was very exciting and somewhat emotional. It has been 15 years since we last started a project. Once Mirian, mi compañera etnógrafa, was by my side I immediately felt more confident that we can actually pull this off. We saw someone dressed like Chapulín Colorado holding a huge photo camera. Mirian walked straight to him. Quiero preguntarle a qué horas trabaja, she told me. We ended up deep in conversation. Chapulín es un influencer y fotógrafo con 3M de followers en Instagram. Trabaja de 3PM a 12AM en Times Square desde que empezó el COVID-19 en 2020. Varias veces Chapulín nos dijo que a él lo confunden con un street performer todo el tiempo. Pero él de ninguna manera es une de elles.

En el screen justo encima del NYPD station está la imagen de una mujer desnuda con cara de sexo que se tapa las tetas con un balón de fútbol y uno de football. Abajo dice simplemente “Just Sports.” Tuve que leer la letra pequeña para entender que lo que vende es una plataforma para apostar en deportes. El corazón de este centro. Cuando nos aburrimos de ver el desfile de modas caminamos con Mirian sobre Broadway entre las calles 41 y 46. Nuestra primera interacción investigadora con este campo que es Times Square. Vimos dos gorilas, un Pokemon, varios Spiderman, dos Minnies, un Mario, un Transformer. Descubrimos que la evening is just the beginning of the concrete jungle life en este centro del mundo. We have got to come late at night.

Cuando terminemos las entrevistas quiero hacerme una foto con Chapulín en Times Square con Mirian y Miguel. 10 bucks for a picture, 20 for a video. Hell, maybe I’ll get the picture AND the video.

Full of dirt and surprising adventures, te amo para siempre Nueva York ❤️