Street Theater Dramatizes Aliens’ Rights : Those Eligible for Residency Learn to Avoid Pitfalls of Fraud

Figures of death--two masked women wearing clothes painted with skeletons--opened the play Sunday, marching and singing “Ya murio Senor Don Gato, ya lo vamos enterrar” (Senor Don Gato’s dead, let’s bury him). Writer, director and actor Jaime Gomez welcomed the audience at Santa Ana’s Fiesta Marketplace, then turned to the women and played on their former vanities: “Why are you skeletons, still lovely as you are, wandering around predicting someone’s death?”

The two proceeded to tell Gomez their personal immigration tragedies: One had moved and forgotten to notify the authorities of her new residence and her residency status had thus lapsed. The other was told by neighbors that she would have to put up lots of money to gain her green card, so she had never bothered to apply and had died an alien resident. Neither had had enough money for a proper burial, so they were condemned to an existence of ghostly wandering.

The message of “La Verdad” (The Truth), commissioned by the Orange County Coalition for Immigrants’ Rights and produced by the 10-year-old Teatro Cometa street-theater troupe, is to inform aliens who are eligible for residency of their rights and how they can avoid immigration fraud.

And in a coincidental example of life imitating art, coalition member Michele Garcia-Jurado handed out playbills to passers-by before the play began, another woman boasted to Garcia-Jurado of how she could arrange residency status for farm workers--for $400.

“What this woman is doing right here is exactly what this play is about,” Garcia-Jurado told the audience, “and the performance will tell you what your rights are and how to prepare yourself to combat deceptions such as these.” “This is all lies,” said the second woman, who later identified herself as Dolores Garcia. Nevertheless, she stayed for the performance and heckled, supplementing the narrative on stage with her own remarks.

Once the play began, a backdrop for the afternoon production placed the actors in an Orange County bean field, with painted rows of leafy foliage in front of gray skyscrapers.

“These buildings don’t provide shade,” the foreman said, pointing toward the structures. “They will soon creep onto the field and we will all lose our jobs.”

Jesus (Luis Carino), a farm worker soon to become a permanent resident of California via the Amnesty program, plays the straight man, essentially stating the law and requirements in his speech. He’s off to his English class, which, as pointed out in the play, is not a requirement, though he is taking it anyway for his own edification and to enjoy a fuller citizenship.

Three female farm workers (Yolanda Gomez, Emma Malagon and Lukie Ramos) sit and talk during their lunch hour. As two of them pull out baseball gloves and throw a softball around, con artist Don Gato (played by Jaime Gomez in a dual role), comes on stage with a cart loaded with goods, and opens his coat jacket to show them strands of gold or silver chains. He can sell them jewels, clothes, shoes, statues “por fe “ (on faith).

He’s also selling English classes, along with a guarantee of citizenship upon completion. The women immediately begin giving him what money they have, when Jesus returns from his travels and exposes him as a fraud.

“He’s insulting my honor,” says Don Gato. “I’m a friend of humanity, of small children and animals.”

“Your nine lives are over, Don Gato,” Jesus says. “Your scam is up.” Don Gato is pronounced dead and the ghosts return to claim one of their own. Don Gato dons one of the masks and they sing his death song again.

“La Verdad” was performed in Spanish by Teatro Cometa before a crowd of nearly 100 people gathered at the Fiesta Marketplace in downtown Santa Ana.

“The play tells a story and people get some information,” says Jaime Armando Gomez, actor, playwright, director and founder of the troupe.

“The target audience is newly legalized residents” and the play teaches “how to be a good consumer,” said Robin Blackwell, of the Immigrants’ Rights coalition.

With Blackwell’s input, Gomez wrote a play stressing the message that people need not be fearful when asked to identify themselves with their green cards for purposes of health, education and work. It also advises farm workers that they are not required to take English classes or take any test to achieve residency, even though, as Jesus says, taking those classes for their own sake isn’t a bad idea.

The play concluded with a question-and-answer session, led by Michele Garcia-Jurado, about the immigration process, and most of those in the audience remained for the session.

For instance, CASAS, the California Assessment Services Assn., reported in interviews with immigrants whose residency applications were in the works that 49% still believed, erroneously, that they had to take English classes or a written test.

Teatro Cometa has a core group of six actors and is a grass-roots company. Gomez, its founder, was born in Mexicali and recalls coming to Southern California when he was 4 or 5. He has lived in Fullerton much of his life and began acting while attending Fullerton College and continued his involvement in theater by founding Teatro Cometa in 1979.

“Teatro Cometa started from (my) being an actor,” he said. His play writing touches on political issues affecting the Latino community and specifically Mexican-Americans. “I’m interested in the advancement of issues,” he said, and theater “is a good avenue to use.”

Of the three women in Sunday’s performance, all of whom are core members, two (Yolanda Gomez and Lukie Ramos) are related to Gomez. The third, Emma Malagon, is his fiancee.

But “people come around” who have seen the troupe’s work and are interested in participating, Jaime Gomez said. Luis Carino, the actor who played Jesus, works at Comcast Cablevision in Santa Ana on a station that recently debuted as the first cable channel in Orange County with programming entirely in Spanish.

The social message in the play is what’s important to him, Carino says. “There’s a lot of information that farm workers should know--about deception” and immigration fraud. Teatro Cometa is “popular theater, street theater,” and there should be more of it. Carino, currently a scriptwriter, has been a newspaper writer for Union Hispana and Azteca News.

“La Verdad” has been performed throughout the county’s strawberry farms, labor camps, factories, community groups, community festivals under the sponsorship of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights. At a performance at labor camps in the Irvine strawberry fields, car headlights illuminated the production.

“La Verdad” will be presented on Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m. to members of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional at their monthly assembly, Santa Ana Senior Center, at Ross and 3rd streets. The play also will be a part of the Santa Ana City Golden Days festival on the weekend of Oct. 22 and 23. And another nine performances at various locations around the county are in the works. For information about performances, call Florinda Mintz-Yoder at (714) 647-5306, (714) 667-5019 or (714) 680-3691.