"Elián" by Rogelio Martinez; Directed by Michel Hausmann at Miami New Drama Oct-Nov 2022.
“Jonathan Nichols-Navarro, whose roles include Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcón and the ghost of Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) founder Jorge Mas Canosa, is compelling and sometimes wry as Elián’s great uncle Lázaro, whose Little Havana home was ground zero in a media circus.
Nichols-Navarro also transforms before our eyes into Lázaro’s older brother Delfin, a former political prisoner who was first in the González family to come to Miami. He delivers a speech in Spanish about La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, Cuba’s patron saint, linking her to Elián’s rescue. The actor’s performance of that passage is so powerfully heart-wrenching yet filled with faith and joy that you cannot fail to be moved, even if you don’t know a word of Spanish.”
