What I’ve learned from Ludlow By Archie I read the script in Tony Garcia’s Class. I took the script home and read it twice. I was not provided a cover page so the playwright was completely anonymous in my head as I read the script. It was tongue and cheek, it was insightful and like a modern Hollywood film, it had a clever twist. It spanned three generations so it was technically an epic. But at its core it was a story about a family and how they stayed together through such a dark chapter in US history. US history, that includes multiple peoples from all walks of life including Mexicanos, Blacks, Asian, Europeans, etc. I went back to Tony and asked who had written the play. He simply replied, “I did.” I looked at him in disbelief and said a long “No!” He knew what I was referring to with my smart-ass “no” and proceeded to explain (as a good teacher does) how the play came about. He had time to write, to do the proper research, and even visit the site and visit with the people in southern Colorado to interview them. If I wasn’t in awe from the finely crafted script before I sure was from the process. But what stood out to me was that consideration to listen. To listen to your community, figure out what is important to them, what has value and distill it into a two-hour epic. By doing this, Tony Garcia reinforced what the community values: family, history, and our struggle as human beings. Now when I caught wind that Su Teatro was going to do the show I was ecstatic. I auditioned and was given the role of Pepe, the eldest of Sarah’s two boys. Pepe is angry from losing his father and because of the financial burden he has to carry with his family. Complex stuff, and he’s not even the main character. All the characters in this show have something to offer. The piece itself offers itself as a demonstration on the resilience of women and the burdens they carry. Amelia, the fragile modern woman is the granddaughter of the headstrong and resilient Sarah. Both characters were played by the same actress, had their own quirks and challenges. This is where the piece really shines and demonstrates something else. Forget Shakespeare and Arthur Miller, we as Chicanos have our own complexities and Su Teatro is there to tell those stories. What I ended up walking away from reading this script and then being a part of the production is that we have a common struggle, on the social level, on the familial level, on the human level. Now I’m not from New Mexico, as is the case with a lot the younger generation of Chicanos. Their roots lie in the rest of Latin America. But I argue that what ties us together is our struggle and labor, and our connection to the earth. The face of Chicanismo is changing. It simply boils down to the desire to achieve the “American way of life” or more bluntly put: a fair share and the ability to provide for our future generations. Some people see this as a threat and will fight to keep things uneven. We all come from similar places suffered the same indignities. Whether we are from New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, California, Mexico, & South America, somos una raza de mestizaje. For this purpose the story serves as a callback to our ancestry and one that is not so distant, one that we might have seen unravel and disappear right before our eyes. A past that can affect us in a way we can’t imagine and in the process help us give value to something previously seen as worthless/burdensome/trivial. Often times we disregard our elders due to our own lack of understanding of what they experience or accomplished. But as humans, let’s do ourselves a favor and dig a little deeper into our past. Who we are and where we came from can help us understand where we are going.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:42:19 +0000
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