hello and welcome back. i'm damian trujillo. today, we talk about "the vagina monologues" in spanish coming to san francisco. the actress is here in our studio. plus, our musical tribute to the band mystique. we begin this morning with worthy recipient he is of one of the nbc universal's 21st century solutions grant. that grant went to silicon

valley children's fund. with me here, preya mystery with the band and lupe is a scholarship recipient, go through the program. welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> till us, if you will, about the children's fund and what y'all aim to do with it. >> fantastic. so we work with foster youth in our community, in silicon val y valley. our county. we have 1300 kids in foster care and we are working to help increase the education opportunities and get them out of the cycle of poverty and make sure that they have education opportunities less than only 3% of the this case are actually attending foster care, attending college from foster care do graduate. >> ma kind of alarm did that sound when you saw that statistic? bells had to be ringing all over the place. >> just knowing that such a low percentage are actually graduating versus even looking at the number that are actually attending. we know knew we needed to do

something. we started a scholarship 14 years ago but took so much more than a scholarship, more than financial support to actually get them to where they need to be. we create a lot of wrap around supports and thanks to support of like nbc we started a new program called the rise program. and that really helps us help the students into the college setting and provider is voips the college campuses. lumme spay a recipient of the scholarship and instrumental in actually making that happen. >> all right. we showed a clip from your website one of the success stories from your program. lupe, tell me when you realized, i don't know your history, when you realized that you were in foster care around how that was like. >> i went to foster care when 1i6s 3, 14, my sister and i got

separated. i went to aer and my high school life and i got to know preya and the scholarship. i went to the community college and found out about the support and i applieded and i had a really low gpa. i was still living in my car after high school. i was tired of everything, the instability. i told them, i have a 1.7 gpa. preya was the one that interviewed me five years ago. i went to four community colleges before i transferred. i will graduate this year. the program is great because it's a one stop shop and actually on site. >> you hear that statistic, how easy is to fall to know that pattern, to us at excuse, i'm a foster child, i'm not gonna make it? you kind of bucked that trend. how easy is it for a foster

child to say, you know what it's stacked against me, i'm going to go this route and not go to college? >> very easy because what's the basic needs are, a home. you know, food. that's really what they provide us with, a pass when you're 17, 16, doing a lot of couch surring and -- surfing, they have become my family. i keep in touch with them, my other peer, got it to go to the graduation and stuff. i tell them, you guys are my family, i don't know where they find these people that i get to tell them my crazy stories and a lot of people can't handle it you know? they are just like this is what you need to do. >> what is it that made you kind of snap your fingers and say, un-unh, not me, i'm not gonna do this? >> you know what as cliche as it may sound, it really took someone else to believe in me, to tell me, you are going to go

great. we are not used tod to being i positive environment. full of positive of a fir racial, you are doing great, you are doing great. let's keep it going. >> that's what your organization is all about i would imagine? >> exactly. exactly. we try to provide the mentorship opportunities and the connections and understand where the gaps are and keep improving the program to fill those gaps and a lot of that happens from the feedback that our actual students give us and we build a program to continue improving it. >> how helpful is it to find success stories like lupe? those students who do snap their fingers and say i'm not gonna fall into that trap? >> it's what keeps us going. know everybody has the potential to reach what lupe has and just a matter of the community coming together and making sure that they have the supports. >> any final thoughts, lupe? >> no i just want to say thank you. >> all right. well, thank you. you've inspired i'm sure a lot of people out there in the bay area. the silicon valley children's fund. there is the web address for

more information them do provide a lot of support for foster children. any final thoughts, preya before we let you go? >> thank you. just the visibility you're helping provide really helps us in engaging a lot of the 1300 foster kids that are out there. we appreciate your support. thanks so much. >> good luck to both of you. up next here, act ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪

♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] only yoplait light and yoplait greek 100 are endorsed by weight watchers. so many delicious flavors that taste outta sight. she is a critically acclaimed actress playing a role in "the vagina monologues." [ speaking spanish ] >> tell me the reason for doing this in spanish and tell you what my mom would say.

>> i moved to san francisco three years ago, first i was with my son, i don't have family here. now my son is in preschool, i said, okay, i want to go back to act. i grew up in theater. i had a career for more than 20 years working in tv, movies and theater and i say, okay what am i going to do? then i start looking for a company i can working with and realize there is not a lot of spanish-speaking shows, for our community, even though we have a huge bilingual and spanish-speaking population we don't have a lot of shows and we have actors here. we have designer, directors, latinos that wants to work and they don't want to move to l.a. or miami. they want to stay here. so i say, okay, maybe what i have to do is preproduce the show so i can act again and i can be in a spanish producing theater in spanish, my son can

be -- not going to be the only one speaking spanish, i'm receiving a lot of support from local business, community supports, so i'm very happy that i'm going to be acting again in spanish in san francisco. >> well, good luck. this is happening again through valentine's weekend at the bravo theater in san francisco. we will have all the info for you in just a bit. did you -- when the topic came up about doing the mono logs, did it -- did you give thought or did your people give thought to how is that going to go over with our people? >> in venezuela, when "vagina monologues" was there, my father, he is 85 now august theater direct, said what is that? we are not going to see that. they are going to be making jokes about us, i'm not okay with that. and then last year, here in san francisco, i was invite to act

in english. so, i read the script in english and i thought, oh, my gosh, my prejudice. i was missing this powerful play all these years. this year has been performed in 140 countries, from 1996. so, it is a powerful play. it is important for us and also is important for latinas. our culture is very macho, so we need to go to the theater and have the experience see the actor there and say i thought that that was what i was feeling but didn't have the words to express that. and that is the magic and the powerful experience of the theater. so i invite, don't think it's going to be something that you will feel bothered. it is going to be a play you

feel connect, you feel happy, where you are going to be laughing and crying, with all this experience. i'm so happy we are going to have "vagina monologues requests requests in spanish. >> how would you get my mom there? her first reaction would be what are they doing there? how would you get somebody like my mom, old school. [ speaking spanish ] >> this play is more than 200 interviews, 200 interviews. and one of the most powerful and beautiful monologue is a woman, 70 years old. so, she is 70 years old, her experience about her family. we are mothers, daughters, sisters. and we have a powerful and beautiful world inside that we need to share. i not only invite your mom but

also invite the father, the sons, the husbands to understand more what sometimes we don't know how to express wove that feelings inside. >> maybe provide us with more understanding, more respect toward women and the female body? >> yeah. absolutely. and also, we live in a world where men, the power is men. everything is moving. >> my house, but everywhere else. >> and we put aside the -- just the -- together. [ speaking spanish ] only way to have a new life, create a new life. we have to respect women and this is a beautiful play that women are different ages, lesbians, 70 years old woman, daughters, little girls talking

about rape, about their motherhood, about relationships. i was reading this play with my dad, 85. we were crying. right now in december, i told him, look this, we have been missing this. and he was like, oh, my gosh this is so beautiful. everybody those see this because it is a serious play and also very political. it's very -- [ speaking spanish ] and empowering our women in our community. and in the late tina community, i think it's very important to see vagina mon logs. i think it's very important to see vagina mon logs. so come.

[ speaking spanish ] >> we will be back and talk more about this great performance. stay with us. [ male announcer ] start engine.

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we are talking about "the vagina mop know logs" with acclaimed actress, elena gonzalez on her show. you are maria conchita alonso. tell us what happened. >> i was very happy i would be on the stage with maria conchita alonso. a beautiful career and opened a lot of doors for latinas in the industry. unfortunately, that couldn't happen and she decided to resign because she didn't want to -- that this show she loves, she didn't want the show to become something that is not real, the

play. so, yes, she resigned and we are very grateful for that. and now is coming alva. i'm happy the cast is not the names but actors there performing and the only way, just professional actors, is the real power of the play can really go to the audience. so, i'm very happy that we are going to have -- and we have all these local business supporting us and it's really from the community to the community. >> it sure seems that way. you just finished a run in

miami, the performance did well? >> they have been doing this show in miami and in new york. in new york, they were sold out, and also in miami t is a proven success. come out, have fun that lovely weekend with us. also, for the latino community, we bring a lot of singers, bands, music, festivals, parades, that is very nice. the experience of the theater is -- >> you have seen it on youtube, clips on television, but this is -- it's unique. it's in espanol. >> yes. >> do you think anything is lost in translation or -- >> no.

it is not. it's not. in spanish is very -- you know, i read it in english the last year. and when finally i read in spanish, it was so much powerful. it's not the same to use your own language, that another language. so, in this case, now that i'm working with these characters, i feel more connect with them. and thanks for the language. >> well, great. any final thoughts before we let you go? >> please come and join us, this is the first step, i hope we can bring more theater in spanish to our community. because, as i say, a lot of latinos that won't to work and produce theater here this is a great opportunity to start that path. >> very good. great, thank you so much. thank you for coming. >> thank you. thank you. >> up next, our musical tribute to ed of mystique.

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now, here's what's happening in your community.

[ speaking spanish ] pick up your newspaper and support your bilink walls across the bay area. follow me on twitter, my news handle at news damian. we thank you for sharing another part of your sunday with us again. we want a musical tribute to a

good friend of mine, lost him a few weeks ago, made his day d.a. i by here in 1997. so here he is with mystique. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] pillsbury grands biscuits. delicious, but say i press a few out flat, add some beef, sloppy joe sauce and cheese, fold it all up and boom!

delicious unsloppy joes perfect for a school night. pillsbury grands biscuits. make dinner pop. so i should probably get the last roll... yeah but i practiced my bassoon. [ mom ] and i listened. [ brother ] i can do this. [ imitates robot ] everyone deserves ooey, gooey, pillsbury cinnamon rolls. make the weekend pop.

♪ >> the highest honor and country can put on a citizen is declare their birthday a national holiday. only a few times in our nation's history this has happened. in 1968, a grief-stricken congressman from dietrich called upon the nation to honor dr. martin luther king jr., this would only four days had passed