Themes of Assimilation in "The Migrant Farmworker's Son" Script
Silvia Gonzalez S.
The daughter of immigrants from Mexico, playwright Silvia Gonzalez S. (Scherer) was born in San Fernando, CA, and grew up in the barrio of Pacoima, near Los Angeles. Her plays include Boxcar, the 1989 winner at the Multicultural Playwright's Festival with the Seattle Group Theatre, Alicia in Wonder Tierra (or, I Can't Eat Goat Head), Don't Promise, The Migrant Farmworker's Son, Los Matadores, U Got the Look, and Waiting Women.
Though Gonzalez does not specifically identify as Chicana, many of her plays deal with issues inherent to the contemporary Latinx identity. Boxcar/El Vagon speaks up about illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States, telling the story of six men trapped in a boxcar in the desert trying to cross the border. Her play Alicia in Wonder Tierra (or, I Can't Eat Goat Head) creates a Mexican-American parallel of the classic story of Alice with Alicia, a Hispanic Valley Girl teen. U Got the Look deals with assimilation in the LA acting scene, following Rich as he decides whether he is too Latino or not Latino enough to fit the roles he is cast in.
The Migrant Farmworker's Son
Set in Arizona in the years between 1970 and 1985, the play explores tensions in the family of a man and his wife who emigrated from Mexico to Arizona in the hopes of finding a better life. We see Henry, the teenage son, dealing with questions and issues inherent in the challenge of living in dual cultures. While Henry's mother urges her son to assimilate and become American, his father wants him to retain his Mexican roots and feels increasingly isolated from his son as a result of Henry's strides to become a full American. Throughout the play, there are moments where the tension between the two cultures comes to a head and depicts the struggle many Latinx young adults face today: how to keep the roots of your ancestors and home country alive when your surroundings urge and sometimes force you to assimilate into American culture?
The script pages from The Migrant Farmworker's Son below depict specific examples of this kind of cultural tension in the assimilation process.
For instance, a transcription that follows of the seventh page of Act I, Scene 3 of the Final Manuscript shows Henry talking to his father about a school dance. After using Spanish to thank his father for allowing him to go, the Dad character urges Henry to truly learn the language of his home country for his own good. While Henry does not take him seriously, his father takes the dismissal as a shunning of the family's culture and a sign that Henry cares more about becoming Americanized, in part by social events like school dances.
Henry: Gracias Papa.
Dad: You should learn Spanish. It's good for you. If you forget the language, you'll be lost. You'll never know yourself, or your history.
Henry: No hablo español.
Dad: ¡Vete!
Henry: (laughing) Adios Papa.
Dad: (under his breath) Go kill yourself.