Diego is a 15-year-old boy from Mexico. The scene opens with him in a very difficult situation. He is being held in a cage of sorts, but we find uncover that he is in a detention center. What would bring a 15-year-old 2 a border detention center? Diego shares the story of the loving relationship that he had with his father. That his father had been making the trip back and forth to America for years in order to work. But one evening as he sat with his mother and his sisters on the porch waiting for his father to come home, they soon realize that for whatever reason he is not coming back. Diego makes a simple promise to his mother that he is going to go to America and is not going to come back until he knows exactly what happened to his father or he brings his father home with him. This is a beautiful story about the relationship between a son, his mother and his father. The determination that a young boy has to make sure that as his mother moves forward, and he stands next to her holding her hand, the memory of his father will never be lost. But as Diego searches the detention Center for his father, he encounters a ruthless guard who in the midst of Diego’s trauma torments him in the worst way possible. Is his father alive, or dead? We find out that in situations of desperate times the most important thing to hold on to is… hope.
*This character needs to be Latinx and will speak Spanish throughout.
Picture of Hope
(Diego, Mexican, a fifteen-year-old boy, looks around, weak and saddened with a heavy burden stands closed off in a corner, avoiding eye contact but uber aware of his surroundings stands at a wall. He looks around again to make sure no one is paying attention to him then he opens his bag and takes out a small notebook and counts in a mumble to himself. Saying “thirty- seven days,” breathes a stressful sigh, takes out a pencil and marks down another day, “and today makes thirty- eight.” He takes a moment then reluctantly speaks to the audience.)
This place isn't a good place. It's not a good place for animals and definitely not a good place for children or women or … humans. The people here are not very nice. The people who keep this country safe are not nice people. I understand that they have a job to do but I wonder sometimes if they forget that their job deals with desperate people. People like me and people like my papa. There are so many people here we've had so many different life experiences, missteps or misunderstandings that have put them standing next to me (he winces at how close the person next to him then looks to the floor) or curled up on the floor underneath my feet. (To audience) Literally under my feet. I did not do what I did to seek asylum. I did what I did because I had to, not to escape a drug dealing cartel or to outrun the grasp of human traffickers- no that was not my life. (Looking around) That is the life of so many of the other people who are here. I just…I came for my papa. I came for him, and he came for work. (slight smile) The picture gets painted that people like me are criminals. People in these detention centers, Mexican people, Columbian, South American, Guatemalan every shade of Brown people- we are working people. My papa, Jose, he came here to work. I followed his path… and now here I am, in America… in a cage.