Bridging US and Peruvian Immigration Stories

February 24, 2025

An Interview with Moyra Cecilia Silva Rodriguez

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT

Moyra Cecilia Silva Rodriguez is a Peruvian dance artist currently based in London whose work delves into the fusion of performing and visual arts with dance anthropology. Inspired by her Chinese Peruvian ancestry, her interdisciplinary projects address themes of identity, migration, and belonging. She has recently teamed up with Lenora Lee, a choreographer based in San Francisco, to create A Bridge to Now/Un Puente hacia el Presente, a multimedia dance collaboration between US and Peruvian dancers expanding perspectives on immigration in the Americas by looking at the legacies of racialized labor exploitation and anti-immigrant sentiment in both countries. Moyra shares the impetus behind the piece and why looking at immigration from the South American perspective adds more nuance to how we understand immigration stories.

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Can you tell me a little about your background in dance? What shaped you as an artist?

I started dancing when I was four, doing creative dance in Lima, Peru. I also trained in circus, theater, and music. That experience with dance and theater as a child was key – the playfulness and freedom. I think it’s because of doing interdisciplinary art as a child that my work now intertwines different languages and methods.

I studied performing arts at PUCP University in Lima and began working as both an actor and dancer. I felt a call to learn martial arts as a way to connect with my ancestors. My great-grandfather on my mother’s side came from China. I never learned any type of traditional dance directly from my family, but when I was introduced to kung fu, it felt familiar, like something was waking up in me. This made me wonder if there are dormant things in our bodies – something from a lost ancestor – that awaken through dance.

I continued working on projects in South America as part of a theater group. Our projects were based on a collective creation method. As directors/actors, we created something together, sharing and changing roles. I also started a solo project collaborating with female artists (theater, dance, visuals, and music). I never felt it was a solo because of the exchange – artists coming together, bringing their points of view, and transforming the work. These experiences have given my work a strong foundation in collaboration.

An example of this is the work I developed with Adele Fournet, an artist currently based in New York, working in music and dance. We co-directed the community dance film project Limas Utopicas in 2019, questioning the status quo of Lima (my capital city) and exploring the concept of utopia.

Then, after many years of working in the field, I received an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for a Master’s in Dance and Anthropology. That same year, due to COVID, we were in total lockdown in Peru. I left the country to embark on a theoretical experience after years of practical work. Navigating a theorical experience for two years shaped my artistic approach, incorporating more anthropological perspectives and reflecting on dance knowledge and migration.

What was the impetus for A Bridge to Now/Un Puente hacia el Presente with Lenora Lee Dance in San Francisco? What has the choreographic process been like?

I met Lenora because of my Master’s thesis research about overseas Chinese migration and dance. I was interested in dance in public space and Chinatowns. I discovered that Lenora was working on a project in Boston. I had been learning about the Chinese migration in Peru and have been very passionate about Chinatown in Lima because I wanted to learn about one side of my family’s story. At that time, I was in Norway, and contacted Lenora and was planning to do my fieldwork with the company. Due to COVID, I couldn’t travel to the US. A year later, we reconnected, and I worked with her for the first time on her dance performance In the Movement. I rehearsed remotely with the US cast while I was in London. This experience taught us how to collaborate from a distance, and working (remotely and in-presence) with Lenora Lee Dance was a very successful experience. Moreover, the experience opened possibilities for continued collaboration. I had always dreamed about a project exploring Chinese migration in Peru and Lima’s Chinatown, and this dream became real in 2024. Un Puente hacia el Presente / A Bridge to Now is a challenging and ambitious project. We performed it in a Encuentro Internacional Danza PUCP and made a dance in public space intervention in Capon (Lima’s Chinatown) in Peru. Now we’re preparing to present it in the US.

Creating a project that connects the Americas is ambitious. It was important for me to explore the bridge through this project because in general, people are familiar with the North American context, especially the US context, while the South American perspective is often overlooked. The idea of “America” as a country tends to forget the fact that we are two continents, and what happens in South and Central America, as well as other countries of North America, matters too. I know I won’t change the world, but I believe in small changes – transforming and expanding my own knowledge, and perhaps that of the dance collaborators and audience. These exchanges of cultural experiences, stories, and testimonies are crucial for promoting understanding and empathy, from the individual to the collective. We dedicated immense effort interviewing Chinese-Peruvians and scholars, then transcribing, translating, and editing, as well as the rehearsals connecting different countries. I feel very excited that a dance project has such extensive research as a crucial part of the process.

What have you learned about the struggles and cultural contributions of Chinese immigrants in Peruvian and US societies while working on this piece?

In both the US and Peru, Chinese migration was massive. The contributions of Chinese immigrants since the early 19th century are an integral part of everyday life today, yet we often don’t realize it or even know about it on so many levels, from the economic to the cultural spheres. During the later half of the 19th century, the first wave of migration, most Chinese immigrants who arrived were men who came to work as laborers under inhumane conditions. Many lost their lives during the boat journey and afterward when working in las haciendas (plantations), and only after finishing their contracts were they able to become independent and start their own businesses. In Peru, there was significant opposition to Chinese immigrants, an awful social reaction from elites who claimed that Chinese immigrants were bringing diseases and negatively affecting the genetics of the Peruvian population. This sentiment can be found in various articles and comics in magazines from that time. In the US, discriminatory laws prevented Chinese immigrants from bringing their families or marrying US women. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In comparison this did not happen in Peru, there were no official laws, but social discrimination was and is still strong. Mixed marriages were largely rejected. However, cultural influences are still experienced in the way we eat and cook, our daily ingredients (ginger, rice, soy sauce), and the integration of celebrations such as the Chinese New Year.

Moreover, this project presents excerpts from the testimonies of Chinese Peruvian descendants who have developed careers in various fields and professions. For me, it is so touching and beautiful to learn how they have sought to connect with their ancestors through their own professions and life experiences. These historical narratives are not found in books. This project wanted Chinese immigrants and their descendants the opportunity to share their stories from their own perspective.

What do you hope audiences take away?

Most of the stories are from Chinese Peruvians, even though we are soon presenting the project in the US. I hope these stories will create connections and people will realize there is more in common than we think. Also, to have the experience of comparison; to learn about the America Latina experience in the context of Chinese migration. Besides, in the US, there is big migration of both Chinese and Latin communities. I want to let these two communities come together and be onstage and then for people to share their own stories and be surprised at the commonalities and empathize.

Why is it important to continue to make work about immigration?

Coming from South America, we have a lot of knowledge to share about migration. One experience is what happened when European countries came to colonize, or as they called it, to “discover America.” What were the effects? Even now, those effects continue negatively, but we cannot simply put up a border to stop them from continuing the extractivism in our lands. Another case is the Chinese migration to Peru, which began more than 175 years ago, but its influences continue and that history lives in our bodies.  In the US, Chinese immigrants were forbidden from racially mixed marriages, but in Peru, this didn’t happen. People say, “You’re Latin,” and put us in a box, an exotic one, a touristic one. There is deep knowledge and experience in the complexities and difficulties of different communities encountering each other, in the many layers of identity we carry.

Now, in Europe and the US, there are strong anti-immigration reactions. But if we look at the past, we may understand what’s happening now and create a future for all. Instead of blocking migration and building walls, we need to look at our roots, our ancestors, our immigrant family stories. Integration is already within us. Migration keeps increasing due to factors like climate change and global conflict, to name a few, and those walls will fall anyway.

Any other thoughts?

I want to thank and highlight the work Lenora has been doing for 15 years in the US, focusing on communities such as Asian and Latin ones through performance. She creates space through art to share their realities, complexities, and achievements. Her work is empathetic and crucial, and we need more opportunities for its growth and expansion.

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To learn more about Moyra’s work, visit moyrasilvaportfolio.my.canva.site or on Instagram @moyra_silva.

To learn more about Lenora’s work, visit www.lenoraleedance.com.

A Bridge To Now/Un Puente hacia el Presente will be performed in San Francisco on March 28^th through March 30^th in San Francisco, CA.