Environmental Racism
One of the principal themes in Heroes and Saints is environmental racism, which is defined as “the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards placed on people of color.” Due to systematic and policy choices, communities of color are much more likely to be exposed to toxins. This is the case with the Chicano/a community of McLaughlin. McLaughlin is a (fictional) town surrounded by fields owned by large agricultural companies such as Arrowhead. The model of industrial farming to which these companies subscribe demands high levels of production, and as a result, Arrowhead pumps the land with pesticides. These pesticides are sprayed on the fields from above and make their way into the community’s tap water. The residents live in houses that the federal government knowingly built on top of an old dump site for pesticide waste. Over time, this exposure to toxic chemicals creates high instances of cancer and birth defects in the population. Though it is aware of the danger of pesticides, Arrowhead chooses to prioritize profits over the Chicano families who work for them. As an increasing number of children die of cancer, people in town try to raise the alarm. Government institutions, such as the local school board, maintain that there is a lack of proof to connect the high instances of sickness with pesticide exposure. The government's failure to protect the community’s health is a clear example of how environmental racism plays out. It seems that because they are poor Chicano/a immigrants, the town’s residents are not prioritized and their lives are of less value to the rest of society.
Religion
Given the hardships the community faces, some characters turn to religion as a source of comfort. Dolores is a religious woman who believes that only God can relieve their suffering. When Dolores starts to feel abandoned by God, she turns to Cerezita, “my little virgin,” for protection. Moraga also includes critiques of the Catholic Church. When Juan visits the Valle family for the first time, Dolores notes that very few priests visit families unless they have money. Amparo and Don Gilberto make jokes about priests, and how despite their vows of celibacy many of them engage in sexual activity. These add up to a less-than-positive view of the Church.
Heroes and Saints is full of religious imagery. There are frequent allusions to Christ, saints, martyrs, and virgins. From the first scene, the audience sees a child being hung up on a cross in the middle of a grape vineyard. These symbolic crucifixions allude to Christ and his suffering: the children, too, are innocent and dying for the sins of others. Lighting is an important tool for developing the theme of religion. At various moments throughout the play, beams of light shine down on Cerezita, giving her an otherworldly or enlightened appearance. This lighting adds to the perception that Cerezita is a saintly, prophetic figure. Cerezita uses this to her advantage, dressing up as the Virgin of Guadalupe. She understands the power of religion and uses it to inspire those in town to liberate themselves from the oppression they face.
Disability
Cerezita was born with a disability. She is described as a head without a body. While this is not a strictly realistic possibility, through her character of Cerezita Moraga is able to explore the theme of disability. Cerezita cannot walk, move, or even touch others on her own. Although she has adapted to use her tongue, teeth, and mouth as limbs, she still must rely on her family for many basic functions. Moraga specifies that the actor who plays Cerezita must navigate on the stage in an electric wheelchair, further visualizing the experience of people with disabilities. People in Cerezita’s life tend to view her either with pity or as defective. Dolores hides Cerezita away at home, partly to protect her and partly out of shame. Cerezita expresses frustration that Dolores will not let her experience the world outside her home. Given that she spends all of her time reading and looking out the window, Cerezita observes the world around her with greater insight than many. In dressing up as the Virgin of Guadalupe, Cerezita asserts her agency. She recognizes that she has a message to share with the town that could inspire them to stop the abuse they face. Despite being regularly underestimated, Cerezita uses the gifts she has been given: her eyes and voice. When the people of McLaughlin see Cerezita, they are confronted with the reality of what pesticides can do to the human body. This, coupled with Cerezita’s saint-like appearance, and later sacrifice, spur them to action.
Sickness
Due to the toxins in their environment, sickness is a daily part of reality for the people of McLaughlin. As Amparo’s map illustrates, in nearly every household there is someone suffering from cancer, tumors, birth defects, miscarriages, or minor health problems. The agricultural industry’s greed, their desire to always produce more, causes them to overwork the land and spray it with chemicals. In doing so they poison the land and the people who work it. There is a false sense of abundance, fruit that grows big and plentiful, but this masks the reality that the land is sick. When Cerezita looks out at the vineyards she sees death and despair, she describes the grapes as “syphilitic sacks” with “grey wintered skin.” This imagery of sickness mirrors what’s happening in the community as people are slowly withering away and dying. Sickness is so prevalent that when Bonnie plays with her doll, she enacts scenes of going to the doctor and burying her doll in a coffin. Her child's play reflects the reality of her daily life. Although Mario tries to escape this reality by moving to San Francisco, he too ends up getting sick. Mario contracts AIDS and in despair comments that Chicano/as are dying everywhere. Although the causes change from rural to urban contexts, the links between poverty, agricultural policies, and illness remain.
Shame and Secrecy
Shame and secrecy play out in both the private and public worlds of Heroes and Saints. Cerezita’s parents treat her disability as a source of shame. First Arturo and then Dolores tried to hide Cerezita away from the public eye. Dolores keeps Cerezita in the house and literally hides her behind a curtain when people come to visit. Although she loves Cerezita deeply, Dolores views her disability as a sickness. Dolores becomes worried that people will see Cerezita through the window, and sneaks outside at night to check. Dolores also shames Mario for being gay. While Mario is open with his sisters about his sexuality, with Dolores he only mentions it once. Mario decides to move to San Francisco where he can live openly. However, secrecy and shame have their impact and Mario confesses to feeling broken inside and constantly alone. He looks to sex for momentary feelings of love and connection. Many characters feel a great deal of shame around their bodies. Dolores calls the human body dirty, and as a priest, Juan is ashamed of his sexual desires and his inability to keep his vow of celibacy.
Secrecy also operates on a societal level. As long as Arrowhead keeps secret how the pesticides are harming the community, they do not have to change anything. For this reason, those involved in political activism in McLaughlin focus on lifting this veil of secrecy. Amparo is one of the few in town willing to talk to the press, hoping to raise awareness. The symbolic crucifixions are another way to make visible how children are dying from pesticide exposure. Arrowhead tries to silence them using threats, intimidation, and outright violence. These acts escalate throughout the play and culminate in helicopters shooting and killing Cerezita and Juan killed for entering the company’s field.
Motherhood
Dolores and her daughter Yolanda are both mothers. Dolores has three children: Mario, Yolanda, and Cerezita. Dolores was distraught after Cerezita was born; she believed that Cerezita’s disability was God's way of punishing Arturo for his infidelity. After Arturo left, Dolores raised their three children on her own. With limited options, Dolores is forced to work dangerous and physically tiring jobs in packing plants. Used to doing things on her own, Dolores has a great amount of pride and views receiving help as begging. Dolores worries a great deal about her children. In an impassioned speech, Dolores shares her experience with motherhood: how she gives so much of herself to her children that she feels like she’s walking around full of holes. Yolanda lives through a mother’s pain of watching her daughter, Evalina, slowly die from cancer caused by pesticides. Yolanda expresses her grief through anger, raging at the injustice of no one being punished for Evalina’s murder. Moraga explores the weight of caretaking, and how sickness adds to the burden and suffering of motherhood. Yolanda and Dolores express the pain of watching their children suffer and feeling helpless to fix it. The play examines another type of motherhood as well: that of Mother Earth. In Cerezita’s speech at the end of the play, she talks about the people reclaiming their relationship with the land as a nurturing and life-giving force. She calls the earth Mother Earth, Sacred Mother, and Mother Liberty.
The Land
Grape vineyards, pecan tree orchards, and endless fields are a constant presence in the setting of Heroes and Saints. The characters of the play are farm workers, and McLaughlin is surrounded by land. Many of the Chicano/a townspeople immigrated from Mexico where they and their families worked the land. An epigraph at the beginning of the play states, “Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops.” Although the people of McLaughlin work the land, it is not their own. The agricultural company Arrowhead owns the land and decides what happens on it. After children erect a symbolic crucifixion in one of their vineyards, Arrowhead sends helicopters to monitor the fields. Moraga notes that the fields are no longer living: they’ve been too overworked, stripped of their nutrients, and then pumped with chemicals so that they can produce. She no longer calls it land, but dirt. The land used to be a nurturing source of life, but now it’s killing the community. In Cerezita’s speech to the town, she draws a connection between the fate of the land and the people. She reminds them that the same blood that runs in the rivers is in their veins. Cerezita foretells that once the land is free, the people will be too. When the people rise up and burn the fields, it is an act of rebellion against Arrowhead and all the harm they have caused. This fire can be seen as a ritual fire, cleansing the land and allowing a new beginning.
