A Fundraiser for Freedom

I came to the United States of America from Costa Rica to pursue my career as an actor and dancer but the ‘plot’ of my story flipped dramatically after the pandemic left me in visa-limbo. My story is ready for a positive twist, and I’m asking for community support.

Just as I was beginning my application for an artist visa in New York, I lost my lawful status when the pandemic hit back in 2020. The pandemic’s impact on these governmental processes left my visa process in ashes.

A few years have gone by and I’ve had to make it work on my own, all with minimal support. I’ve had to do a lot over these past years to navigate the circumstances and the difficulties I’ve faced. Not having the right credentials has limited me from doing and achieving my goals.

About a year ago, I started doing massage therapy for work to be able to stay afloat while I figured out how to gain more permanent status in the US. Unfortunately, my hand was injured from doing massage, and this has stopped me from being able to continue until I’m healed (the Dr. says it will take many months to recover my hand’s regular strength).

Throughout all this, I’ve been separated from my family because I can’t leave the country until I fix my status and it has been heartbreaking.

Because of this, I’ve been in a period of anxiety. I’ve reached a point where I recognize that I can’t do it all on my own anymore. This is why I am raising funds: to get support to pay for the cost of physical therapy, to cover the fees and legal expenses required to gain legal status again in this country, and to cover some of the cost of living while doing all this. I hope that through your support, I can finally bring this rather traumatic chapter to an end and become a lawful person again. With the freedom to pursue my goals, to be able to see my family again and to have the freedom to move, to work, to have a normal life.

I still have a long way to go and your support can help me get it all started and be one step closer to having my freedom.

I thank you for your kind and generous donations. Community and collaboration are everything. Please be a part of the fabric that weaves my life back together.

In deep care and gratitude,

Luis Enrique

Lu

Donation methods:

Venmo @LuNatres

Cashapp $Luz10000

Paypal @Luisnajera

Zelle 9294185845

Here is a bit more about me and my background:

How it all started:

As a child, I would dance at home with my mother and sisters to the sounds of Boleros, Salsas and all the passionate rhythms. As a family of 5 to a single mother (who provided entirely for the family with her home sewing machine), dance and play were an essential source of joy and happiness for us.

My mother always encouraged us to be part of the various artistic activities at school (not an art school). We took part in dance performances and dressed up to perform at school events year after year. Starting as early as a young six year old boy, I got involved in every possible performative activity there was (the choir, talent shows, the flute club, the school band where we would perform in local and national parades). All of which exposed me to dance, music, rhythm, and performance. I joined the school band and started playing the drums when I was only eight years old. This began my path into music and performance.

In my early twenties after trying to get started with a different career path I finally enrolled in the National Theater Conservatory in 2008 and then the University of Costa Rica in 2010, with a major in Acting and a minor in Contemporary Dance. Through these programs I knew that dance and acting were my calling, and I decided to “go professional” with them. This felt like a natural evolution of my journey in life.

After having gone through several training programs for acting and dance in Costa Rica, I eventually started working professionally and teaching theater and movement clubs in schools. I also took part in a variety of performances: with the National Theatre Company of Costa Rica, Ballet productions, Contemporary Dance Festivals, and National Holidays Parades. I also was a judge for choreographic competitions for several years, and tutored theater clubs for kids, teenagers and adults in different schools and community centers.

My acting path started taking off after being cast in several plays in Costa Rica including El amor no es amado, a play with the National Theatre Company, Amadeus. I had the challenge of performing a number of characters, acting, dancing, singing; it was an incredibly fun experience with lots of growth. After that, I was cast in the first ever Broadway musical produced in Costa Rica: West Side Story. I played the role of Riff (the leader of the Jets), and it was an incredibly exciting part of my career.

After these successes, I started traveling abroad taking classes and workshops in dance and acting to broaden my knowledge and skills. I performed in two dance festivals in Calgary, Canada, and in New York City I collaborated with David Capps, a choreographer and Hunter College dance teacher.

I became very interested in acting for film and television, and this took me to film schools in Costa Rica where I started collaborating with film students in their school projects, short films and photo shoots as I continued to put myself out there for more film and TV projects and appeared in a couple of Costa Rican films, a number of short films, and eventually made it into the commercial television industry where I had a good few years making a living as an actor, running from a TV sets to theaters, to dance classes, to a photo shoots, etc. These were super fun times.

At that point I felt that I wanted to make it as an actor internationally. I had to do it sooner than later, and so I decided to travel to New York City. I left Costa Rica with less than $1000, a one way ticket with the goal of working in a broader industry of theater and film. While continuing to be able to provide for my family back home.

I thought to myself: I’m gonna go, knock on doors, show up, study more, learn more, audition for everything and work with those who are doing great things, those who have inspired me since the beginning of my profession. Once in New York, I took some acting and dance classes, collaborated in The New Short Play Festival at the American Theatre of Actors. I auditioned and was accepted to a couple of acting training programs — I just couldn't afford them at the time.

In 2019, I also auditioned for and was casted in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story — I was ecstatic! But after learning that I only had a tourist visa, they ultimately couldn’t hire me for the film. At that moment I knew that I was in the right place where I could get the jobs I wanted and work with those I look up to. After some research, I learned that there was a way to get an artist visa as a means of being able to work in films like this, and I started working my way toward it. But in the spring of 2020 when the pandemic began, my tourist visa expired, and the process toward getting an artist visa was also forced to stop. This began the multi-year struggle of trying to achieve my goal of working as a professional actor and dancer here in the US, while struggling to stay afloat with the limitations of my legal status.

So this is where I find myself now — I feel vulnerable yet grateful to be able to share my story and get the support I’m looking for. My heart is full of hope, love and trust that we’ll make it work out. Whichever the goal is, the dream, I believe in the power of us, the human kind and it is true that when there’s a will, there’s a way. For now, the show must go on. Keeping a positive point of view in spite of the different challenging chapters of this journey I express my gratitude.

L.

Some fun facts/gratifying moments about acting and dance:

When I was in dance school in Costa Rica back in 2010, I Auditioned for Madonna.

Being part of West Side Story Costa Rica.

In New York, for the Film at Lincoln Center’s 50th Anniversary, I chatted with Tilda Swinton. She’s someone I look up to as an actor.

At the same event also in New York, I had the pleasure to see some other film figures that I admire give a speech (just four rows away from the stage). They were: Martin Scorcese, Pedro Almodovar, John Waters, Darren Aronofsky, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Tilda of course.

I (gently) yelled GUAPO! ( it’s spanish for telling someone you appreciate them) to Pedro Almovodar right before he started his speech.

And, I was cast for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.

.

Knowing that I can get the jobs I’m looking for after being called back for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Is what keeps me going.

Gratitude