Summary
Amparo helps Dolores to fix a crack in the wall of Dolores’s house. After Dolores appeals to God for help, Amparo responds that working, not praying to God, is what changes things. Dolores retorts that she’s not going to Amparo’s protest. Amparo believes that their houses are sinking because they were built on top of a landfill. She says the government owes them money because they were lied to. All around them people are leaving the neighborhood. Amparo questions how Dolores can just passively accept what’s happening to them. Dolores replies that the last time she spoke up, her husband, Arturo, left her. Dolores wanted to shame Arturo after Cerezita was born; she told him that “half a father make half a baby.” Amparo leaves and the sound of a crop duster—an aircraft used for spraying pesticides—fills the stage.
Cerezita is reading a medical book and talking to Mario about the type of cancer that killed Memo, the most recent child to die in McLaughlin. Mario is fixing her raite, which squeaks every time it moves. She comfortably uses her mouth to turn the pages of the book and drop tools down to Mario. A car pulls up outside and beeps for Mario; Yolanda comes in and comments that the gringo or American who pulled up for Mario looks sleazy. Cerezita explains that Mario only spends time with him because the guy gives Mario gifts. Cerezita asks Yolanda to take her outside before Dolores gets home.
Juan comes to visit Cerezita. They are alone because Yolanda is taking care of Evalina, who is throwing up, and Dolores is talking to their neighbor. Dolores is trying to convince Don Gilberto to stop Amparo from leading a protest the next day. Inexplicably, Cerezita can hear them perfectly from the next house over as Dolores tells Don Gilberto to control his wife. Don Gilberto replies that he does not want to control his wife, but rather to love her. Juan wants to bring Cerezita to the protest, but Cerezita says Dolores never lets her go outside. Changing the subject, Cerezita tells Juan to touch her hair, commenting on how soft it is after Yolanda washed it. Tentatively, Juan touches her hair. Cerezita jokes that she has to keep her hair nice because she does not have much else going for her. She goes further saying all she really has is her imagination and her tongue. Juan is suprised. Continuing, Cerezita explains that her tongue, teeth, and chin have to take the place of hands: to point, turn pages, and pick things up. Cerezita points to a dictionary and tells Juan to look up the definition of "tongue." The conversation that follows is a back-and-forth, with Juan reading and Cerezita reciting definitions of tongue. The definitions become increasingly suggestive and flirtatious. The last definition for "tongueless" is “unable to speak freely.”
Bonnie and Don Gilberto are at McLaughlin Elementary school where Don Gilberto works as a janitor and Bonnie goes to school. She starts to tell Don Gilberto about a dream she had about Memo before he died. Bonnie is worried that her dream killed Memo and prays to God that she does not dream about any more children. Don Gilberto comforts Bonnie saying dreams are just a way for people to process their feelings when they’re worried or scared.
Ana Perez shows up at the school along with Amparo and a group of protesters. Mario, Juan, and Yolanda are also in the crowd. Ana Perez explains to the cameras that residents believe extensive aerial spraying of pesticides has caused toxic chemicals to seep into the public water system. They are protesting the school board's decision to refuse Arrowhead’s offer to provide free drinking water for the schoolchildren. In addition, most residents live in federally subsidized housing that was allegedly built on top of a dumpsite for pesticides. Amparo leads the protesters to the school grounds; Don Gilberto looks on admiringly, saying she’s going to get him fired. Amparo gets in front of the crowd and tentatively begins.
Amparo speaks of the false ideal of the American Dream that they’ve been sold. She says there is a misleading sense of abundance in the fields and endless water in the tap, but in reality, their homes are prisons. She asks: what good is endless water when you have to boil it three times so that it’s safe for children to drink? Gaining confidence, Amparo claims that they were better off in Mexico where, even if they slept outside, at least they could look up at the stars and see God. Amparo criticizes the school board for refusing to face the truth and rejecting Arrowhead’s offer to provide clean water.
The action shifts to Cerezita and Dolores, who observe the protest from inside their house. While Cerezita looks with curiosity out the window, Dolores disengages the controls from her raite and moves her away from the window. As Dolores begins cleaning up, she criticizes Cerezita for making a mess and reading all the time. Cerezita asks rhetorically what else she’s supposed to do. Dolores responds, “[N]othing. I’m suppose to do everything.” Cerezita retorts, “Martyrs don’t survive, 'amá.” Dolores finds a book with pictures of the human body and scolds Cerezita for looking at “dirty” books. Even without a body, Dolores admonishes, Cerezita can sin in her mind. Cerezita explains that she wants to go outside and see the world. Dolores re-engages her raite and challenges Cerezita, saying, "we'll see how you feel the first time some stranger looks at you with cruel eyes." The scene ends with Dolores caressing Cerezita and vowing that she’ll never let anyone look at her daughter “that way.” Cerezita remains rigid under Dolores’s touch.
The scene shifts to Mario and Juan sitting on a park bench. Mario explains to Juan that Dolores never lets Cerezita out of the house because she’s trying to protect her from ridicule. Juan tells Mario that Cerezita and the family need him, but Mario says he needs to get out of McLaughlin. Mario is tired of living two lives and wants to finish school. In high school, Mario recalls that when he used to watch the cars pass by their town on the highway he imagined how free those drivers were, how full of purpose. He thought of how drivers pass the endless fields and never realize people lived out there. Juan tells Mario he understands because he grew up in the San Joaquin Valley too. Mario is twenty-five and vows not to get trapped in the valley. Mario confesses to Juan that he smokes, does drugs, and sleeps with anyone who will have him. A car honks for Mario from the street, as Mario walks off he asks Juan why he came back to the Valley.
Analysis
The conversation between Dolores and Amparo portrays how differently the two friends respond to the suffering and injustice around them. Amparo is a fighter and expresses her political convictions. She believes that the community must force the government and Arrowhead to take responsibility for their actions and how they’ve impacted the residents of McLaughlin. On the other hand, Dolores wants nothing to do with politics or the public eye. Instead, she turns to God and religion. Dolores blames herself for Arturo leaving the family: she says men cannot take the humiliation that women can. Amparo points out that this is a double standard and reminds Dolores of Arturo’s failings as a father. However, Dolores remains firm that she will no longer speak out publicly.
The theme of disability is explored through the actors’ physical movements on stage. Moraga’s stage directions demonstrate both Cerezita’s limited mobility as well as how she’s learned to adapt. Cerezita uses her chin and mouth as if they were hands. Yet, she must rely on her family for something as simple as going outside. Cerezita is subject to their goodwill or whims. Yolanda and Mario want her to be a part of the world and help her go outside to get fresh air. However, Dolores disapproves of the protest and moves Cerezita away from the window to stop her from watching. Although Cerezita can control her raite with her chin, others have the power to disengage the automatic feature. In doing so, they take away Cerezita’s mobility and autonomy of movement. This act reveals how dependent Cerezita is on others and how much control Dolores exerts over her daughter in the name of protecting her from the outside world.
Cerezita pushes back against Dolores’s control. Cerezita wants to see the world, to be given a chance to see how the world reacts to her. However, Dolores refuses to see her daughter as anything but innocent. Dolores believes God made Cerezita without a full body because he wanted her to remain pure. Dolores views the body as dirty, something connected to sin. Yet Cerezita now has a teenager’s curiosity and desire. Cerezita finds an opportunity to explore more of herself and the world through her relationship with Juan. Juan is one of the few people outside of her family with whom Cerezita has contact. She tests his boundaries, seeing how far she can go as they banter over the definition of "tongue." Although Juan is uncomfortable at first, he goes along with her game of wordplay and adds his own definitions, like “scold,” when she becomes too overtly sexual. Moraga heightens the tension in the scene with pauses and the back-and-forth style of dialogue, weaving double meanings into many of the definitions. The last definition of tongueless as “unable to speak freely” is an allusion to both the town and Cerezita. Due to Dolores’s over-protective nature, Cerezita is unable to speak freely with others. She’s prevented from sharing her thoughts about the events unfolding around McLaughlin, even though her life experience is deeply tied to the crisis. On another level, Arrowhead uses intimidation and repression to prevent residents from speaking the truth about why so many of them are sick.
At the protest, Moraga continues to develop the themes of environmental racism and sickness as further details are revealed about the unhealthy living conditions in McLaughlin. The federal government built subsidized housing on top of a dump site for pesticides. The clear disregard for residents’ health when choosing a build site shows how institutions and their policies create environmental racism. Amparo is incensed that those in power, such as the school board, are refusing to prioritize the health of the residents of McLaughlin. Although nervous, Amparo’s anger at the injustice gives her the courage to speak. Protesters come into the audience and pass out pamphlets with information about pesticides. While the play is fictional, it is based on historical events. The farmworkers in California and their fight to end hazardous work conditions are all real. Moraga’s decision to break the fourth wall, an invisible division between the audience and the actors of a play, involves the audience and sends a political message. It is a reminder to the audience that this play is very much tied to reality, and we should think about how our food is produced and by whom.
Mario is a loving brother. Motivated by the high rates of sickness in his community, Mario wants to be a doctor, but has been unable to finish school. Mario shares his medical books with Cerezita, as both have an intellectual curiosity about the body. However, Mario is unhappy in McLaughlin and wants to get out. In his conversation with Juan, Mario confides that he’s tired of living two lives, seeming to allude to the fact that he cannot be fully open about his sexuality. There are other hints that Mario is gay: the man who often picks up Mario and whom Yolanda refers to as his “friend,” and Mario’s comment that he’ll “suck up anything and anyone who will have me.” Mario is unhappy and turns to casual sex and drugs as he dreams of escaping McLaughlin.
