Summary
Juan tells Cerezita that the United Farm Workers are planning a hunger strike and he has agreed to join. Cerezita thinks it's a good idea for a priest to participate; with such a visible role in the community, he’ll get more attention. She says she’d join too if anyone would notice. Juan says that the reason he moved back to the San Joaquin Valley is that he saw a picture of Cesar Chavez in the newspaper taken while he was on hunger strike. Cesar Chavez was one of the leaders of the farm workers' movement in California. Juan comments that Cesar Chavez looked like a saint in the photo. Juan reveals that he became a priest because he liked the idea of being a “man of the cloth”—that donning a priest's robes would somehow tranquilize his body. Cerezita says that it’s a priest's job to make people see clearly and questions Juan if he practices what he preaches. In response, Juan says that most people are more liberated than priests, and that he’s always had a fantasy of dying a sixteenth-century martyr’s death.
Amparo and Dolores come home from work slightly tipsy and singing ranchera music. They’re exhausted and begin describing the physical strain that work places on their bodies: how standing in one place all day makes their feet hurt and causes varicose veins. Bonnie rides by on her bike and after listening to them offers to massage Amparo’s feet. Yolanda has been dyeing a customer's hair inside, and comes out on the porch to talk for a bit. Dolores asks Bonnie to get them a couple of beers. Then Amparo explains that she was fired from work because of her participation in the protest and for giving out information about the United Farm Workers union. Her bosses claimed she set a bad example for the other employees.
From inside, breaking news interrupts the music to announce the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in San Salvador. The priests were killed for speaking out against the right-wing ruling party. Dolores yells for Cerezita to lower the volume, saying they have enough bad news without hearing about the rest of the world. Continuing, Dolores complains that Mario and Juan are getting Cerezita involved in things she has no business knowing about. Yolanda says that Mario is leaving McLaughlin on Saturday. Dolores would rather avoid saying goodbye, but Amparo wants to see him before he goes.
The next moment, Juan walks by reading in the newspaper about the murdered Jesuit priests. He runs into Don Gilberto and they briefly discuss the incident. Juan goes up to the Valle house and asks for permission to give some books to Cerezita. Dolores invites Juan to the goodbye party on Friday for Mario before he heads off to San Francisco. Juan accepts and heads inside to see Cerezita. Yolanda remarks that she does not trust Juan. Amparo jokes that men will always be men, whether they’re priests, uncles, or brothers.
At Mario’s going away party, everyone is having a good time. Norteña music is playing, people are drinking and dancing, and Cerezita is playing loteria (Mexican bingo) with Bonnie. Don Gilberto drunkenly tells Juan that Mario is like a son to him. Don Gilberto continues that Dolores truly loves her children and would do anything for them. Juan becomes distracted and stares at Cerezita, who looks radiant. Reluctantly, Juan pulls his focus back to Don Gilberto who explains how difficult it has been for Dolores and the family since Arturo left. Don Gilberto declares that when a man leaves his family he’s no longer a man. After Arturo left, Don Gilberto stepped in as a father figure for Mario. Don Gilberto divulges that he is infertile. He and Amparo wanted to have children, but have had to create family in other ways. Don Gilberto asks Juan why he does not have a family. Surprised, Juan replies he’s a priest. Don Gilberto jokes that that did not stop the priests who came with the Spanish conquerors, adding that half of Mexico has priests for fathers. Proudly Don Gilberto toasts to Mario, saying he’s going to be a doctor one day and cure everyone.
Mario steps out onto the porch for a smoke and Dolores comes out to join him. A crop duster passes overhead and Dolores wonders why they spray at night. He answers that it’s so no one can see them do it. Dolores questions Mario about his motives for leaving McLaughlin, saying he’s leaving with a secret. Mario tells her it’s no secret, but she’s the only one who does not want to see it. Dolores says she has known Mario was different since he was little; she asks him why he wants to make himself into a woman and hurt the people who love him. Dolores tries to convince Mario he could still get married, but Mario explains that he cannot separate his body from his heart like his father did. Dolores tells Mario to forgive Arturo before his resentment poisons him.
Mario tells Dolores that the two of them are alike: that they’ve always been lonely and that they just wait for someone to come along and show them a bit of kindness. Dolores is disgusted, but Mario replies it’s just because she sees herself in him. Dolores asks Mario why he wants to lower himself into “half a man,” to suffer like a woman, when God made him a man. Tired of fighting, Mario asks for his mother’s blessing before he leaves. Dolores refuses, saying people like him are dying of “that sickness” and she cannot bless him when he’s just going to throw away his life. She says God sent this sickness to punish people for what they’re doing. Resigned that she won’t understand, Mario leaves without bidding Dolores farewell.
The party is over. Don Gilberto is asleep, Amparo and Juan are washing dishes, and Cerezita is looking out the window. Cerezita says to herself that Mario will not come back, that he will fall ill, and the family will ignore this child who failed his manly destiny. In the kitchen, Amparo jokes to Juan that he cannot tell Dolores she let a priest help with the dishes. Then she wakes Don Gilberto up and helps him home. Juan comes up to Cerezita, who tells Juan she wishes she could leave just like Mario. Cerezita understands that there’s nothing for him in McLaughlin. Juan asks if she needs anything, and in desperation, Cerezita tells him she wants to get out onto the street, and says that she does not have time for people who won’t help her. Juan hesitates, and without saying anything he leaves. He passes Dolores on his way out just as a crop duster passes overhead. Dolores yells at the sound saying, “Why don’t you just drop a bomb, cabrones! It’d be faster that way!”
Analysis
The conversation between Cerezita and Juan highlights the differences between the two. Cerezita sees the potential in a priest’s role to help people with the “spiritual practice of freedom.” Although Juan is the priest, it is Cerezita who displays a level of spiritual maturity and insight that he does not. Her outwardly focused thinking stands in direct contrast to his more egotistical fantasy of dying as a martyr. His fantasy is less about others and more about seeing himself as a heroic and misunderstood figure. In talking about Cesar Chavez, Juan fixates on how saintly Chavez looked rather than on the cause he’s fighting for.
Amparo is punished by her bosses for speaking out. They do not want their employees organizing for better working and living conditions. Firing her is an act of intimidation, and a threat to other workers who get involved in the union. The news story about the murder of Jesuit priests in El Salvador is another example of how violence and threats are used to silence those who speak out against those in power. Secrecy is used as a tool of control to maintain the status quo: economic and political systems that favor the few at the expense of many.
In her own way, Dolores perpetuates secrecy within their family. Even as she talks with Mario about his sexuality, neither of them actually says the word "gay." Moraga explores the theme of shame and secrecy through their conversation. Dolores holds very traditional views about marriage, gender roles, and sexuality. She views Mario’s sexuality as something shameful, and thinks that being gay makes him less of a man. Dolores loves Mario but does not accept him, preferring to ignore or hide his truth. Mario’s refusal to do so is one of the primary reasons he chooses to leave McLaughlin.
Don Gilberto’s joke highlights the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. Priests are forbidden from having sex. However, he jokes that such rules have not stopped priests in Mexico from fathering countless children. These contrasting ideas about priests are repeated throughout the play. Dolores subscribes to the idea that priests are superior and above the concerns of daily life and the flesh. Yet, Don Gilberto and Amparo’s jokes about priests’ sexual activity highlight their very human imperfections, and the darker side of the power they wield in communities. Furthermore, they call into question Juan’s interest in Cerezita and foreshadow events to come.
After Mario leaves, Cerezita predicts that Mario will get sick and not return. She speaks with an omniscient authority, almost as if she was delivering a prophecy. Juan comes in to see if she needs anything, but Cerezita is frustrated with him. His offer seems hollow given that he will not actually help her with the one thing she truly wants: to escape the house. She refers to herself as a canary trapped in a cage and again repeats the refrain, “Martyrs don’t survive.” This repetition highlights the line's importance. Is Cerezita a martyr for being forced to live locked away?
In a rare show of anger, Dolores yells at the crop dusters as they pass by. The continual presence of the spraying of pesticides is another reminder of her inability to stop the suffering of her family and community as they’re slowly poisoned to death. It is the gradual nature of the pesticides' effects that allows them to go unnoticed; yet as Dolores notes, their impact is just as deadly.
