Cerezita Valle
Cerezita Valle is the protagonist of Heroes and Saints. She is an 18-year-old Chicana woman with a disability. Due to the high exposure to pesticides while Dolores was pregnant, Cerezita was born without a body. She is described as a “head of human dimension.” Unable to walk or move on her own, Cerezita spends the entire play on a rolling, table-like platform referred to as a raite. She has learned to adapt by using her mouth, teeth, and tongue to perform basic functions, but ultimately has limited mobility and is highly dependent. Dolores keeps Cerezita hidden away in their house to protect her but also out of shame; she views Cerezita as “sick.” Cerezita longs to connect with the outside world and spends much of her time reading and looking out the window.
With limited options, Cerezita uses the gifts she has been given: her voice and eyes. Cerezita seems to have a deeper understanding of the world, and is presented as a prophetic figure. She finds intellectual companionship with Juan, but also wants to explore a physical relationship with him. Cerezita is determined to stop all of the death and sickness in McLaughlin that is caused by exposure to toxic pesticides. Although she doesn't believe in God, she understands the power and influence of religion and uses it for political means. Cerezita transforms herself into the Virgin of Guadalupe. In the Virgin’s likeness, Cerezita takes on even greater religious authority which she uses to speak to the people in her community and spur them into action. Knowingly, Cerezita and Juan risk their lives to bring Evalina’s body into the grape vineyards. Their act is a refusal to let any death go unacknowledged. They get shot down by Arrowhead’s helicopters and die a martyr's death.
Dolores
Dolores is the mother of Cerezita, Yolanda, and Mario. She’s a slender woman in her late forties. Dolores is a deeply religious and conservative woman. When Cerezita was two years old, Dolores’s husband abandoned the family. Afterward, Dolores raised her children on her own, working in factory jobs with hazardous health conditions. Dolores loves Cerezita, however, a mix of protectiveness and shame leads her to keep Cerezita hidden away inside their home. Dolores worries about how the outside world will treat her daughter. Dolores disagrees with Amparo’s choice to stand up and fight openly against the injustices their community faces. Instead, she turns to religion, believing that only God can help them. Dolores suffers deeply as a mother, feeling the pain her children go through. Feeling abandoned by God, Dolores begins to pray to her own daughter Cerezita, calling her a little virgin. After Evalina’s death, Dolores’s mental health declines. She is awed by Cerezita’s transformation, believing a miracle has come to protect their family.
Amparo
Amparo is a stocky woman in her fifties. She’s married to Don Gilberto and a close friend and neighbor of the Valle family. She immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, and thus, like most of the characters in the play, is Chicana. Amparo is politically outspoken about the damage the pesticides are causing in the community. Over the course of the play, Amparo becomes more involved in seeking justice, working to hold the government and the agricultural industry accountable for their actions. Amparo is threatened and eventually fired by her bosses for “setting a bad example for the other workers,” however, she refuses to be silenced. Amparo gathers evidence to prove that the pesticides are causing all the health problems in McLaughlin, a fact that those in power continue to deny. Amparo organizes a group called Mothers for McLaughlin, and becomes a leader of their movement. During a protest in Sacramento, Amparo is beat up by a police officer and severely injured. Moraga named the play Heroes and Saints, and within this binary of the play Amparo represents the hero, someone who chooses to boldly stand in front of the movement despite the risks.
Yolanda
Yolanda is Cerezita’s older sister. She works as a hairdresser and practices hairstyles on Cerezita, making sure that Cerezita’s hair always looks nice. Yolanda has a baby daughter named Evalina Valle. When Evalina starts to get sick, Yolanda becomes worried that her daughter will develop cancer like many other children in McLaughlin. Eventually, Evalina is taken to the hospital where she dies. Yolanda grieves for her daughter and is furious with the Arrowhead company and the bosses for killing her daughter. She participates in the protest in Sacramento, wanting to make them pay for all the harm they’ve caused.
Mario
Mario is Cerezita’s older brother. He’s well built and “endearingly macho in his manner.” At twenty-five, he’s desperate to get out of McLaughlin. He decides to move to San Francisco with the intention of finishing school; surrounded by sickness and death at home, he hopes to become a doctor. Mario is gay, a fact that everyone but Dolores acknowledges. He’s tired of living a double life and hopes to find freedom in San Francisco. Mario feels broken and looks for love, acceptance, and healing through drugs and casual sex. Dolores disapproves of Mario’s sexuality and guilts him for leaving the family. Mario asks for Dolores’s blessing but she refuses unless he promises to change. In San Francisco, Mario breaks off contact with his family. He finds that San Francisco has just as much suffering and death as McLaughlin, and contracts AIDS. Despite this, Mario does not regret his decision to move to San Francisco. Mario returns to McLaughlin after Evalina’s death, but feels that he’s not strong enough to face his family and reveal that he’s sick. However, he ends up going to Evalina’s funeral and reuniting with Dolores. After Cerezita is shot, Mario starts the call to burn the vineyards.
Father Juan
Juan is a biracial Catholic priest who moves to McLaughlin. As a child, Juan grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and is prompted to move back after seeing a photo of Cesar Chavez on hunger strike in the newspaper. Juan frequently visits the Valle family and develops a close friendship with Cerezita. The two connect intellectually, although their relationship develops into something more. Juan struggles with his role as a priest. He has fantasies of making a difference, but his fear often gets in the way of him taking action. By comparison, Cerizita often seems to have a better insight into spiritual matters than Juan, and he looks to her for inspiration. Juan battles with his vows of celibacy, admitting that part of the reason he became a priest was to “calm his body.” He loses this battle, in a sexual encounter he has with Cerezita which he later feels a great deal of shame about. At Evalina’s funeral, Juan decides to help Cerezita hang Evalina’s body on a cross out in the vineyards. However, Arrowhead’s helicopters shoot the pair while they’re out in the fields, giving Juan the martyr's death that he so often fantasized about.
Don Gilberto
Don Gilberto is Amparo’s husband and a close family friend of the Valles. He works as a janitor at McLaughlin Elementary school. Don Gilberto is unable to have children and so he and Amparo, who both wish to have children, unofficially adopt a girl named Bonnie who lives in the neighborhood. Don Gilberto loves Mario like a son, and was a father figure to him after Mario’s biological father left the family. Don Gilberto is a simple man, he offers a different example of masculinity that is not based on machismo. Don Gilberto loves Amparo deeply and supports her activism. He participates in the protests against the McLaughlin school board and in Sacramento.
Bonnie
Bonnie is a neighborhood child who is unofficially adopted by Don Gilberto and Amparo. She spends time at the Valle house. Even as a child, Bonnie picks up on the sickness and death all around her. Throughout the play, Bonnie mirrors this reality as she plays with her dolls: nursing her doll when it’s sick, decorating a coffin for it, and crucifying it. Bonnie speaks about death with a child’s openness, saying what others are thinking but will not say out loud. At the protest in Sacramento, Bonnie slips. When Amparo goes to help her up, Amparo is singled out and beaten by a policeman. Along with other children, Bonnie helps Cerezita with her transformation to take on the likeness of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Ana Perez
Ana Perez is a news reporter who works for Channel Five news. She is covering the story of McLaughlin: the cancer cluster, the widespread health problems, and the town’s reaction to it. Ana Perez interviews Amparo and covers the protests. She is one of the only characters from outside McLaughlin to witness the town’s plight while the rest of the world is indifferent to their suffering. Ana Perez represents the media, and the complicated relationship it has in both supporting and also misinterpreting marginalized communities.
Arturo
Arturo is Dolores’s husband and the father of Mario, Yolanda, and Cerezita. He never appears in the play but is discussed by the other characters. Arturo was unfaithful during his marriage. When Cerezita was born, Dolores believed that her disability was God’s way of punishing Arturo for his infidelity. After Dolores accused Arturo publically, he left the family and never returned.
