Summary
Evalina’s body lies in her coffin surrounded by candles and flowers. While Cerezita is sleeping, Dolores takes one of the candles, places it on Cerezita’s raite, and kneels down to pray. Dolores says that she can no longer pray to God because he does not listen. So, with nowhere else to turn, she prays to her virgin, Cerezita. She asks Cerezita to show her how to alleviate the pain that persecutes them in this valley of tears. Cerezita wakes up to Dolores praying to her and tells Dolores to rest while she watches over Evalina’s body. Blowing out the candles, Dolores states, “I miss my babies, my Evalina, my Mario, and my Cerezita.” Cerezita reminds Dolores that she’s still alive, but Dolores is confused. Dolores talks as if to Arturo, remembering when she was pregnant with Cerezita and the house was full of babies. Dolores continues muttering as she walks off.
As if talking to Evalina, Cerezita states that before the adults come to bury her, the children are going to put her body up on a cross. Yet by then, Evalina will no longer be a part of her body, and the act will just be symbolic. Juan enters excitedly, carrying a duffle bag with supplies for the crucifixion. Cerezita observes that Juan is glowing and that she’s never seen him like this. Juan warns her that Amparo knows what they’re planning and that helicopters will be prepared to shoot anything that moves in the field tonight. Given the danger, Cerezita decides they should leave the children out of their plan. Juan agrees, scared but excited. He blesses the coffin, remarking how peaceful Evalina looks. Cerezita reminds Juan that regardless of what they do to Evalina’s body it will not disturb her peace. Juan responds that he’s supposed to know that.
Changing the subject, Cerezita asks Juan if the Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador became saints. He states that they’re martyrs and heroes because they spoke out against the government. Cerezita questions if the same is true for the housekeeper and her daughter who were also killed. Maybe, one of the priests was the daughter’s teacher, and maybe, Cerezita continues haltingly, she fell in love with him. Pausing, Cerezita tells Juan to touch her hair. He complies, also caressing her cheek. Cerezita lifts her face to his and they kiss. Cerezita tells Juan she wants to taste him. However, he moves to press his pelvis into the back of her raite, embracing her head from behind. Cerezita tries using her teeth to tug on his shirt and pull him back around to face her. Cerezita asks Juan to look at her, to help her, and that she needs his hands, but he does not respond. Instead he brings himself to orgasm and then grabs his duffle bag and runs out.
After running out of the Valle house, Juan bumps into Mario lying on a park bench. Juan asks why Mario never answered any of his messages. Mario admits he tried to visit home but was unable to. Despite a persistent cough, Mario asks Juan for a cigarette, adding that lung cancer is the least of his worries. Mario is pensive, noting that it feels like he’s never left and that the Valley will not let him leave again. Mario states that San Francisco is the same: Latinos are dying everywhere, from pesticides in the Valley and from crack and AIDS in the city. Mario does not regret going to San Francisco. Mario reflects that he has always loved sex, feeling it could cure whatever was bent up and twisted inside him. Mario describes at times feeling convinced that, through sex, he could cure someone of death. Yet, time passed and Mario realized that his family was dissolving before his eyes. Juan asks about Mario’s blood family. Mario answers that he had to choose, that he is not strong enough to carry the weight of despair as women do. Getting up to leave, Mario tells Juan to tell his family that he’s sick.
Yolanda is getting ready for Evalina’s funeral and mentions to Cerezita that she’s worried about Dolores. Lamenting, Yolanda says they barely have any family left. Every time Yolanda thinks about Evalina, she lactates. She shares with Cerezita how painful it is, and how nobody told her body that Evalina is dead. Pulling at her breasts, Yolanda wishes she could rip them off her body, saying it feels as if she’s bleeding milk. Watching helplessly, Cerezita wishes she had arms to hug her sister. Cerezita advises Yolanda to leave McLaughlin and start a new family, but Yolanda is worried that her womb is poisoned. Desperate to help, Cerezita tells Yolanda to let her take the pain away. Yolanda opens her blouse and brings Cerezita’s face to her breast.
Cerezita watches as Bonnie cuts off her doll’s hair; she beckons Bonnie over and whispers something in her ear. Aloud, Cerezita states, “after this there will be no more sacrificial lambs.” Bonnie leaves and Juan enters. Cerezita questions why he left the children waiting last night. Juan admits that after their encounter, he lost heart. Angrily, Cerezita accuses Juan of letting his fear stop him from executing their plan. Juan feels guilt about their sexual encounter, stating that as a priest his body is not his own. Frustrated, Cerezita explains that she did not want his body but her own. She wanted to feel what she has been denied, if only for a few minutes. “I miss myself”, she says. Cerezita is sick of all the dying. She tells Juan that he’s a waste of a body and, if she had his, she would change things in McLaughlin. Bonnie enters carrying a cross with a group of children behind her. Cerezita tells Juan she will not let anyone stop her from taking action.
Juan leaves, and in half darkness the children surround Cerezita. Bonnie cuts Cerezita’s long hair while the rest of the children transform her appearance. They disperse and Dolores enters just as a beam of light washes over Cerezita. Cerezita is draped in a blue-starred veil and her eyes are downcast just like the Virgin of Guadalupe. A cross lays at the foot of her raite. Dolores takes in Cerezita’s appearance; dropping to her knees, she whispers, "my virgin."
Evalina’s coffin is brought out. Yolanda enters to see Dolores praying in front of Cerezita. Shocked, she questions Dolores, who calmly responds that it’s a sign from God. Now, Dolores states, their virgin will protect them. Yolanda becomes more distressed and begs Cerezita to speak. Accusingly, Yolanda asks Dolores what she did to Cerezita. Outside, people from the town arrive for Evalina’s funeral. Yolanda tenderly lifts up Evalina’s coffin and joins the procession. At Juan’s invitation, Ana Perez joins the mourners to record the funeral. Evalina is the tenth child to die from cancer in McLaughlin. People in the procession try to catch a glimpse of Cerezita but Dolores stands in the window blocking their view. Ana Perez narrates that, while funerals have become commonplace in McLaughlin, this one is attracting more attention due to rumors of a miracle in the Valles’ household. Hearing that there are plans for another crucifixion, Yolanda hurries over to Evalina’s coffin to protect it.
At the service, Juan leads the townspeople in prayer. In the Valle house, Dolores prepares to head to the funeral, but Cerezita stops her. Cerezita tells Dolores to let her go, that she knows how to stop death. Dolores asks her daughter if she’s seen the face of God and Cerezita replies yes, but that she’s not free. Cerezita says that Dolores ties her tongue, and that without arms and legs Cerezita needs her tongue to heal. Again, with resolve, Cerezita tells her mother to let her go. Dolores is stunned but compiles, wheeling Cerezita to the church. When they enter the church, a hush falls over the crowd. Juan whispers to himself, “Cere, what have they done to you?” Dolores calls out to Ana Perez, inviting her to see how Cerezita has become a saint. Singing to the virgin, the townspeople walk forward with pictures of their dead and sick children and offer them to Cerezita.
Addressing the crowd, Cerezita speaks of a “miracle people.” who live in a valley where rivers run with blood, just like the blood in their veins. She talks of fields soaked in blood that bear no fruit. Cerezita reminds the crowd that they too are the miracle people. One day, Cerezita predicts, the valley will flood red with their courage and they will be free. Mario appears, and he goes up to Dolores and embraces her. Bonnie approaches Juan and gives him a cross, and another child hands him a rope. Juan makes his way to Cerezita. They turn to Yolanda who kisses Evalina and then silently offers up her body to Juan. On the way out, Cerezita stops in front of Dolores, who blesses Cerezita. With the crowd silently looking on, Juan and Cerezita make their way out to the vineyard (which is offstage). Helicopters pass overhead and there’s the sound of machine gun fire. People scream, covering their heads in terror. Mario raises his fists in the air and shouts, “Burn the fields!” The people take up his cry and everyone rushes into the vineyard yelling, "Murderers!" A few moments later, fire spreads across the vineyard and consumes the Valle home.
Analysis
The death of Evalina takes a toll on Dolores’s mental health; in her grief, she starts to lose her grip on reality. As if in a trance, Dolores speaks to Arturo as if he’s there and as if Cerezita is dead. Meanwhile, Evalina’s death spurs Cerezita into action. She is determined to make Evalina’s death visible, enlisting Juan and the children to help her. Juan dreams of heroic actions but lacks follow-through. Inspired by Cerezita’s plan, he feels a new sense of purpose. Cerezita confesses her love to Juan and the two get wrapped up in a moment of passion. For Cerezita, being with Juan is less about him and more about her being able to feel what it would be like to have the body she was denied. She yearns for her missing flesh as one might a ghost limb. Yet Juan gets caught up in feelings of shame over breaking his vow of celibacy. He moves behind Cerezita, shutting her out of the experience. Given her limited mobility, his act selfishly denies her the corporal experience she craves. Cerezita tries to express her needs, but Juan is so consumed by his own guilt and pleasure that he ignores her needs.
Mario tries to escape all of the death and sickness in McLaughin by moving to San Francisco, yet he finds sickness and suffering everywhere. Through Mario’s experience, Moraga highlights how the Chicano community faces multiple systems of oppression that lead to higher rates of sickness in both urban and rural settings. Although Mario was born with a healthy body, he speaks of his “twisted limbs'' on the inside. While Cerezita manifests her trauma from the pesticides physically, Mario bears wounds that are emotional and mental. He tries to find healing, both for himself and the men he sleeps with. Instead, he contracts AIDS and fulfills Dolores’s fears that he would “get the sickness.” Mario is unable to face his family and break the news to them, asking Juan to do it for him.
Yolanda’s grief over the loss of Evalina is raw and painful, manifesting both physically and emotionally. Yolanda is at a loss of what to do as her body continues producing milk, even though her daughter is dead. Moraga describes vividly a mother’s pain at losing a child, portraying how one’s body is changed by the experience. Yolanda becomes increasingly desperate at her lack of control over her body. She feels that death is clinging to her, and compares her breastmilk to blood. Unsure of how else to relieve her sister’s pain, Cerezita offers the only thing she has, her mouth.
While not religious herself, Cerezita understands the power that religion has over people. Desperate to stop the death and suffering of her community, Cerezita recreates herself in the likeness of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Cerezita enlists the help of Bonnie and other children in town to help with her transformation. Children, like Cerezita, are viewed as innocent but powerless victims of their circumstances. Both Juan and Yolanda assume that someone else dressed Cerezita up as the Virgin, recognizing neither her power of will nor her autonomy. Cerezita’s choice to ask the children for help proves their ability to take action when adults hesitate.
Moraga fills Heroes and Saints with religious imagery. The Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint, is so ubiquitous in Mexico that her image is immediately recognizable to the Chicano characters in the play. As tragedy continues to befall their family, Dolores feels abandoned by God. She views Cerezita’s transformation as a miracle, a sign that the virgin saint will protect them. Dolores pitied and underestimated Cerezita because of her disability. However, after transforming into the Virgin, Cerezita commands respect and authority. For the first time, Cerezita is able to convince Dolores to let her outside to speak to the people of McLaughlin.
With the newfound respect she commands, Cerezita addresses the people of McLaughlin. In her speech, Cerezita draws connections between the people and the land, showing that their fates are intertwined. As immigrants who left their homelands to come to a new, hostile one, this connection to the land is also a reminder of their roots and power. Cerezita ends her speech by telling the people of McLaughlin that they can name this land “mother earth, sacred mother, liberation mother.” Moraga develops another layer of the theme of motherhood, exploring how the land can be a type of mother. While the greed of the agricultural industry has poisoned the land and the people, Cerezita claims that through blood both can be cleansed and the land can once again become a nurturing source.
As she makes her way into the field, Cerezita knows the risk she is taking. Cerezita offers herself up as a martyr, understanding that her voice and sacrifice can motivate the people of McLaughlin to rise up. Although the action happens offstage, the helicopters sent by the bosses of Arrowhead see Juan and Cerezita in the field and shoot them. The people of McLaughlin see this blatant disregard for their lives and all of the tension and suffering they’ve borne now boil over. Spurred on by Mario’s cry, they burn the fields of the growers. The last image of the play is the vineyards and the Valle house going up in flames, an act of defiance and perhaps of renewal.
