In ‘Highest Heaven,’ a Boy Spreads His Wings

A frightened, lost boy’s odyssey of discovery and growth parallels the life of the migrating monarch butterfly in “The Highest Heaven,” a thought-provoking play now touring Southern California schools.

Playwright Jose Cruz Gonzalez said he was inspired by two somber realities: the racial tensions that he has observed between Latino and black youth in his work in schools, and the emotion-packed issue of immigration.

Gonzalez, associate professor of theater at Cal State L.A. and the former project director for the South Coast Repertory’s Hispanic Playwrights Initiative for 11 years, wove those themes into a spiritual and coming-of-age adventure undertaken by a 12-year-old boy during the Great Depression, when 400,000 people were involuntarily repatriated from the southwest United States to Mexico--”whether they were citizens or not,” Gonzalez said.

“My grandmother was a child on one of those trains,” he added.

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The West Coast premiere of “The Highest Heaven” is being presented by the Mark Taper Forum’s theater company, P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth), after workshopping at the Kennedy Center in 1996 and then premiering at Childsplay in Arizona. The play is touring Southland elementary and secondary schools and will have several performances for the general public.

The play begins when 12-year-old Huracan is separated from his mother in the chaos of the forced repatriation. He ends up in a mountain village, hungry and alone, confronted by evil in the person of greedy landowner Dona Elena.

He finds both friend and father in a fellow sufferer, an isolated, elderly black man who has fled the States and a dark past and who now safeguards the monarch butterflies’ winter sanctuary.

“It brings these two people together,” Gonzalez said. “A boy who is searching for home, and an old man who is dealing with his ghosts. It’s not only about survival, but it’s about the spirit and soul. The old man, the awful thing he did on the other side, he has been trying to atone for; his question is, can I be forgiven? This little boy helps him in that.”

In return, the old man helps the boy find his inner strength and a new maturity.

“It doesn’t matter what color you are,” Gonzalez said. “It’s what’s inside of you. I think that was important to say to children. Here are two folks reaching out, searching, and they find each other and become parent and son to one another.”

Another message that Gonzalez hopes will come through the fantasy and the broad humor is “that no matter how dark it may be ahead, you will survive and you will get on in life. I think a lot of children are always struggling. It’s a message saying, ‘It [may] not be easy, but you’re going to be OK.’ ”

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Director Diane Rodriguez, co-director of the Taper’s Latino Theatre Initiative, enhanced the play’s historic elements by having the actors initially portray traveling members of the Federal Theater Project of the 1930s, about to put on a show.

“We’ve really drawn from Depression-era music, too,” she said, “from black spirituals and Mexican corridos, all indigenous to that time period. And we have a lot ofa capella and song rounds.”

Rodriguez thinks audiences will enjoy the comedy--”the villainess [is] very frightful, but she’s very funny too”--but the friendship between the boy and the elderly man “is what’s going to hook the kids.”

The many images of the ethereal butterflies in the play are symbols of folklore and a metaphor for Huracan’s own blossoming from child to man. They also reflect themes of migration, fragility and strength.

“There are no borders for butterflies,” Gonzalez said. “It is a beautiful thing, a delicate thing, yet it survives this tremendous journey.” When the butterflies cluster in their sanctuary, “it’s like a sacred thing to see.

“I think that’s what children are.”

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* “The Highest Heaven,” Saturday, 11 a.m.: Cal State Northridge. Feb. 24, 6:30 p.m.: HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles), 3300 Wilshire Blvd. Feb. 26, 10:30 a.m.: King Drew Magnet High School, 1465 E. 103rd St., Watts. March 4, 2 p.m.: Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Road. These performances are free and open to the public. (213) 972-7587.