Jose Rafael Prieto

Soul Jose Rafael Prieto

Soul takes us on the tumultuous journey of a multiracial family rooted in the nightmarish slavery of the Puerto Rico of the 1800s. It plunges us into traditional Yoruba religion and its spiritual philosophy ruled by the Orisas in which many slaves believed. As modern descendants of that family living in 1980s New York City, a mother and her 26 year old son play out the drastic and painful drama of their present and their past. Pepe never imagined his mother, María, terminally ill with cancer. When he becomes her ally and champion, after years of a strained relationship, she becomes his greatest life lesson. While their new dynamic resurrects their demons, it also creates the possibility for necessary reconciliation, forgiveness, and a new opportunity for finally loving each other. Ultimately, it is María's newly acquired lens on life, their ancestry and the history of their family's resilient legacy that offers the promise of a new vision for living for Pepe and for those who will follow him. It is from a new state of being that the life Pepe has lived thus far, and all on which his mother María looks back, redefines them for the better, forever.