Collaboraction Theatre Company is thrilled to host a limited run of Unpacking Home by Chicago’s Raices to Roots as part of the 9th Destinos Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, September 18-27 at Collaboraction’s House of Belonging in Humboldt Park, Chicago’s live theater space for social change. 

Set against the cultural landscape of Chicago’s Puerto Rican diaspora, Unpacking Home is a multidisciplinary performance weaving dance, poetry, and music to explore a question that is both deeply personal and universally resonant: What does it mean to come home?

Performances are September 18-27: Friday and Saturday, September 18 and 19 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, September 20 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, September 24 at 8 p.m.; No show Friday, September 25; Saturday, September 26 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 27 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25-$35. Collaboraction is located at the Kimball Arts Center, 1757 N. Kimball Avenue, in Humboldt Park. For tickets and information, visit collaboraction.org.

Collaboraction’s new House of Belonging is a sleek, 4,000-square foot space featuring a new 99-seat flexible studio theater and a 50-seat cabaret with cafe/bar. Free and nearby street parking is available. For CTA riders, the 82 Kimball-Homan bus stops right in front of the building. The theater is also a short walk from the Kimball stop on the 72 North and 73 Armitage bus lines. For bikers and pedestrians, the Kimball trailhead on The 606 leads directly to the Kimball Arts Center. 

About Unpacking Home

Unpacking Home follows The Poet, a character in search of home, who receives a suitcase from their ancestors filled with items that unlock memories and guide their journey through the Chicago Puerto Rican experience. Dancers embody these memories—giving form to identity, love, struggle, and resilience. From Abuela’s kitchen to snowy streets and the domino table, each vignette reveals a layer of belonging. The performance culminates in an invitation for the audience to reflect and share, completing the search for home as a collective act of remembrance.

“Unpacking Home is a familiar journey to anyone who identifies with multiple origins,” said Luis Tubens of Raices to Roots. “When I created this show, I wanted to create something that felt like home. To me, home is Chicago, and home is Puerto Rico. Although I’ve never lived in Puerto Rico, like many other people from the diaspora, I connect very strongly to my roots through stories I heard from my abuela, the food, the music, and dancing.” 

“Bringing Unpacking Home to Humboldt Park is especially meaningful,” Tubens added. “For generations, Humboldt Park has served as a cultural and political center of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community—a place where identity is expressed through music, food, art, language, family, and neighborhood traditions. Performing this work in the community that has helped shape the very stories being told creates a powerful connection between the stage and world which inspired it. At its heart, Unpacking Home is an invitation: to open the suitcase, examine what we have inherited, and consider which pieces of our past we carry forward.”

Unpacking Home features María Luisa Torres as principal Spirit Dancer, Luis Tubens as The Poet, and Alyssa Harlston, Mala Mia and Eddie Andino Jr. as Spirit Dancers. Musicians are led by Peter Vale on congas, Brenden Cabrera on piano, and Jacob Delgado on flute and sax. Sandra Delgado directs.