CEREZITA VALLE, the head

AMPARO, the comadre and activista

ANA PEREZ, the news reporter

DOLORES, the mother

BONNIE, a neighbor’s child “adopted” by AMPARO and DON GILBERTO

YOLANDA, the hairdresser sister

MARIO, the sometimes-student brother

FATHER JUAN, the “half-breed” leftist priest

DON GILBERTO, the compadre, AMPARO’s husband

POLICEMAN

EL PUEBLO, the children and mothers of McLaughlin; THE PEOPLE/PROTESTORS/AUDIENCE participating in the struggle (ideally, EL PUEBLO should be made up of an ensemble of people from the local Latino community)

Notes on CEREZITA

CEREZITA is a head of human dimension, but one who possesses such dignity of bearing and classical Indian beauty she can, at times, assume nearly religious proportions. (The huge head figures of the pre-Columbian Olmecas are an apt comparison.) This image, however, should be contrasted with the very real “humanness” she exhibits on a daily functioning level. Her mobility and its limits are critical aspects of her character. For most of the play, CEREZITA is positioned on a rolling, tablelike platform, which will be referred to as her “raite” (ride). It is automated by a button she operates with her chin. The low hum of its motor always anticipates her entrance. The raite can be disengaged at any time by flipping the hold on each wheel and pushing the chin piece out of her reach. At such times, CEREZITA has no control and can only be moved by someone manually.

SETTING

The play takes place in McLaughlin, California, a fictional town in the San Joaquin Valley. The year is 1988.

McLaughlin is a one-exit town off Highway 99. On the east side of the highway sits the old part of town, consisting primarily of a main street of three blocks of small businesses–the auto supply store, a small supermarket, the post office, a laundromat, an old central bank with a recently added automatic teller machine, a storefront Iglesia de Dios and, of course, a video movie rental shop. Crossing the two-lane bridge over Highway 99, a new McLaughlin has emerged. From the highest point of the overpass, a large island of single-family stucco houses and apartments can be seen. The tracts were built in the late ’70s and reflect a manicured uniformity in appearance, each house with its obligatory crew-cut lawn and one-step front porch. Surrounding the island is an endless sea of agricultural fields which, like the houses, have been perfectly arranged into neatly juxtaposed rectangles.

The hundreds of miles of soil that surround the lives of Valley dwellers should not be confused with land. What was once land has become dirt, overworked dirt, overirrigated dirt, injected with deadly doses of chemicals and violated by every manner of ground-and back-breaking machinery. The people that worked the dirt do not call what was once the land their enemy. They remember what land used to be and await its second coming.

To that end, the grape vineyards, pecan tree orchards and the endless expanse of the Valley’s agricultural life should be constant presences in the play and visibly press upon the intimate life of the Valle family home. The relentless fog and sudden dramatic sunbreaks in the Valley sky physically alter the mood of each scene. The Valle family home is modest in furnishing but always neat, and looks onto EL PUEBLO through a downstage window. Scenes outside the family home can be represented by simple, movable set pieces, e. g., a park bench for the street scenes, a wheelchair for the hospital, a set of steps for the church, etc.

— 2 —

At rise in the distance, a group of children wearing calavera masks enters the grape vineyard. They carry a small, child-size cross which they erect quickly and exit, leaving its stark silhouetted image against the dawn’s light. The barely distinguishable figure of a small child hangs from it. The child’s hair and thin clothing flap in the wind. Moments pass. The wind subsides. The sound of squeaking wheels and a low, mechanical hum interrupt the silence. CEREZITA enters in shadow. She is transfixed by the image of the crucifixion. The sun suddenly explodes out of the horizon, bathing both the child and CEREZITA. CEREZITA is awesome and striking in the light. The crucified child glows, Christlike. The sound of a low-flying helicopter invades the silence. Its shadow passes over the field. Black out.

— 3 —