Venezuelan soap opera actress Eliana Lopez is scheduled to debut
her production, "Cuál es el Escándalo?" ("What is the Scandal?") on
Friday at San Francisco's Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Lopez is married to Ross Mirkarimi, who was charged in January 2012
with misdemeanor domestic violence and child endangerment counts
just five days after his installation as sheriff following a New
Year's Eve quarrel that turned violent.
In a cellphone video a neighbor recorded the day after the argument,
a tearful Lopez pointed to a bruise on her arm and said her husband
had grabbed it with such force that he left it black and blue.
Lopez testified before a city ethics panel that the neighbor
convinced her to document the bruise in case she and Mirkarimi
separated. Lopez said she feared her status as an immigrant could
cost her custody of her son if they separated.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/28/images/ads/current/LPL_small%201.gif) Lopez refused to testify against her husband in court and stood by
him throughout the proceedings, a position she aims to reinforce on
the stage.
"I made this play because I need to do it," Lopez told local public
broadcasting station KQED in March. "I need to say my side of the
story."
She told KQED that the political firestorm that swirled around her
as the controversy grew was overwhelming, but the performance will
also have lighter elements.
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"It's like, we are going to be laughing about a painful experience.
We are going to be reflecting the ironies and the big contradictions
that I felt in that moment," she said.
Mirkarimi, a co-founder of California's Green Party, struck a deal
with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge and was
sentenced to a day in jail and three years of probation.
He was suspended as sheriff by Mayor Ed Lee, but was later
reinstated and remains in the post.
Lopez is set to perform the play six times over its two week run,
according to the cultural center's website.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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