Barrio Hollywood.

Romero, Elaine

SCENE 7

The present. MICHAEL arrives at the front porch.

Michael: Am I late for class?

Graciela: So?

Michael: So what?

Graciela: Did you find anything out?

Michael: Yeah.

Graciela: And.

Michael: It's very complicated ...

Graciela: Locked-in Syndrome?

MICHAEL seems surprised she knows about this.

Michael: What?

Graciela: I was up half the night trying to figure out the possibility that Alex has this Locked-in Syndrome thing--like it says in the book. It says that the patient can blink and that makes everybody, especially the family, think that the person's still in there but they're not.

Michael: He's locked inside his body. I'm sorry, Gracie.

Graciela: That's Alex's name for me. (MICHAEL tries to hold her.) People think, if you have a boyfriend, you really love him, and maybe you do, but your brother, that's someone who's been with you almost every day of your life--that's someone who stays with you no matter what--'cause he's your brother.

There is an awkward silence. MICHAEL hands her a handkerchief. She wipes her eyes.

Michael: You might want to think about letting him go. When you feed him, you keep him alive.

Graciela: Yeah.

Michael: Letting him die.

GRACIELA: Oh.

MICHAEL: Just think about it.

GRACIELA: He's got to be in there. Somewhere. (Choking up at the end.) I'm not going to starve my brother and make him suffer! He's going to be OK.

MICHAEL: I wish that were true.

GRACIELA: He's my little brother; I'm supposed to take care of him.

MICHAEL: I am so sorry this happened.

GRACIELA: (Retreating to the daze of her mourning.) I can still see him there. (ALEX boxes behind the scrim, agile and healthy.) Fighting that first fight. Winning. He was beautiful to watch. The most beautiful boxer I've ever seen. It was because of the dance he was like that. I never found another dance partner like him after he quit. He moved like the wind. Have you ever watched the wind? The way it crawls into every little place unseen.

And you know it's been somewhere because of how it changes everything around it.

MICHAEL: I'm sorry.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) They really loved him in Mexico. El Lobo de Magdalena.

MICHAEL: I've heard tell.

GRACIELA: Where?

MICHAEL: I've been known to watch a little Spanish television.

GRACIELA: Since when?

MICHAEL: Since I met you.

GRACIELA: You've been trying to learn Spanish?

MICHAEL: Poquito.

GRACIELA: Why?

MICHAEL: (Beat.) I'm sorry to be the one to tell you the news.

GRACIELA: Well, I think maybe one of those little miracles you told me about might happen. You think?

MICHAEL: Sure.

GRACIELA: Say yes, Michael. It would really mean a lot to me if you said "yes" instead of "sure."

MICHAEL: (More positive.) Yes.

GRACIELA: You're very kind when you lie.

MICHAEL: Now, don't go and ruin it.

GRACIELA: You're very kind. (Beat.) Alex is never going to wake up again.

MICHAEL: (Sadly.) He can't.

GRACIELA: OK, wa.

Lights fade.

SCENE 8

The past, days before Cinco de Mayo. Lights come up to happy times on the beach in Kino Bay, Sonora, Mexico. Sound of waves splashing. GRACIELA dances folklorico on an upside down boat. She is trying to lift her brother's hand, so he will join her.

GRACIELA: C'mon. (ALEX resists like hell. ALEX looks around. It appears that he might do it.) It's not like anyone's going to see you.

ALEX holds his ground. He is not going to do it. GRACIELA slips, straddling the boat. It was not such a great surface to dance on anyway. They both break out laughing, especially ALEX.

ALEX: That was graceful, Gracie.

GRACIELA: You wanted to dance with me. (ALEX lifts his hands up in defense.

GRACIELA smacks him. He reacts. GRACIELA quickly leans against ALEX back to back. This is a game they've played before.) Beat you to the ground. I'm faster.

ALEX: I doubt it. (GRACIELA and ALEX lower their bodies, bending their knees. GRACIELA slides past ALEX easily.) You cheated. (GRACIELA lifts her hands in denial. They slide down back to back.) Did I ever tell you I love you, Little Sis?

GRACIELA: Hey, I'm older.

ALEX: I'm taller.

The mood shifts as they relax.

GRACIELA: You did the right thing bringing Ama here. She loves the water.

ALEX: By the end of the month, we'll have lobster every day. Promise.

GRACIELA: You should save some of that money for yourself.

ALEX: It's for you guys.

GRACIELA: She'll suck you dry. She even wants a trip to the Canary Islands. She saw it on Telemundo and said, "It looks real pretty, mija." Papi would be ashamed if he knew. I can still hear him. (Quoting him.) "I am not a Mexican. I am not a wetback. You got to give me my minimum wage."

ALEX: What a jerk.

GRACIELA: I really believed that line about the welfare. Just an excuse to take off with that woman and her three kids.

ALEX: We're on vacation.

GRACIELA: Sometimes I think you live your whole life for him. Like all the hatred you have for him fuels you to want to be some big boxing champ. That is so twisted.

ALEX: I don't hate him. But I might be a little twisted.

GRACIELA: He'd be too embarrassed to come home.

ALEX: He's not coming home, Gracie.

GRACIELA: (Wistfully.) It would be nice. If he did.

ALEX: Let him go.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) Are you still fighting right before Cinco de Mayo even though you won in Hermosillo?

ALEX: Nope.

GRACIELA: Some guy from Brownsville got caught by the boxing commission playing both sides of the border and he lost his purse.

ALEX: Risk noted.

GRACIELA: Twenty-five K.

ALEX: Ouch.

GRACIELA: They repossessed the car he bought his mom. Had her grandson in the back seat and everything.

ALEX laughs.

ALEX: You'll believe anything, won't you? Hey, enjoy the water and chill.

GRACIELA: I can't believe you won again. What's it like--to always win?

ALEX: I don't always win. Just most times.

ALEX giggles.

GRACIELA: You're gonna be real famous someday.

ALEX: You think?

GRACIELA: Alex Moreno--the poster.

ALEX: Something for teenage girls to masturbate to.

GRACIELA: God, Alex.

ALEX: I fucked that guy up last night--kicked some Mexicano butt.

GRACIELA touches his face. Last night left some marks. Sloe starts their routine.

GRACIELA: (Affectionately.) You look like shit.

ALEX: So do you.

GRACIELA laughs lightly. She starts embroidering one of three of ALEX's boxing trunks.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) Aren't you worried that people are going to figure out you're not from Mexico? If you keep making mistakes with your Spanish ... It's not la boxeo--you sound like a sissy.

ALEX: And they love the Magdalena thing because of Colosio. "If Colosio hadn't been shot down in Tijuana while he was running for president, then everything would have turned out beautiful." Like if he would've been president, he would've cleaned up the pinche government.

GRACIELA: He would have.

ALEX: Don't tell me you believe that shit.

GRACIELA: That's why he got assassinated, pendejo, because he would have cleaned up the pinche government.

ALEX: OK, OK.

GRACIELA: So ignorant.

ALEX: Did you see those guys from Magdalena there acting like they knew me from school? They're like, "!Orale, vato!" I love Mexico. It's OK to have a little pride. It's OK to lie to look good.

GRACIELA: I'm almost done.

ALEX reads the embroidery on the waistbands of his boxing trunks. ALEX: (He likes this.) Mi vida loca. ?Te quiero?

GRACIELA: Well, you guys are always up there hugging and shit. ALEX: El bailador. I'm not wearing that. It's a total folklorico thing.

GRACIELA: No one will know what it means. ALEX: You just want to make me look like a wuss.

GRACIELA: You do dance. That's what they said in KO Magazine. "He's got the grace of a dancer and the swing of a--"

ALEX: "Tiger."

GRACIELA: Why'd they say that?

ALEX motions with his hand, indicating that ex-boxers have scrambled brains.

ALEX: 'Cause they're written by ex-boxers. (GRACIELA does not get it.) They drag one leg, slur their words. Duh. Duh. Duh. You've seen los veteranos at the gym. You've seen Rainman.

GRACIELA: Rainman's not retarded?

ALEX: Hey, he had his day in the sun. He was regional champion. Three years in a row. But that was back when boxing was real dangerous. They used to schedule their fights too close together.

GRACIELA: (Anxious.) Muhammed Ali--(got brain damage)

ALEX: I thought we'd retired Muhammed Ali.

GRACIELA: Papi had those tapes of Ali, remember?

ALEX: I thought we'd retired Papi, too.

GRACIELA: "Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee." Ali was our hero and look at him now.

ALEX: Ali has Parkinson's.

GRACIELA: What makes you so special that you think it's not going to happen to you?

ALEX: Hey, I am not Muhammed Ali here. Cassius Clay had a huge fat ego. He let himself take too many hits. Whereas I wear boxing trunks that say "Te quiero." I am that macho. I am that confident. I am the only man con huevos en mi familia.

ALEX indicates his crotch.

GRACIELA: You're pretty enamored with your balls.

ALEX: I'm not enamored.

GRACIELA: You grab them like they're gold or something.

ALEX laughs a special laugh that will echo later.

ALEX: Hey, if I didn't have balls, I'd be a shitty boxer. And if I wasn't a boxer, we'd never get out of that hell hole. I'm gonna buy us a house far away from Barrio Hollywood. C'mon, a river with no water? Someone ought to condemn our entire street. I'm gonna give Ama everything she ever wanted and she'll forget about the past.

GRACIELA: Like everything with you has to be so profound.

They stand and brush the sand off themselves, walking away from the water. ALEX waves at AMA on the deck.

ALEX: Hey, Ama.

GRACIELA sees her and waves.

AMA: (Offstage.) That trip to the Canary Islands, Alex? Why don't we make it a cruise?

ALEX: Lo que quieras, Mami.

GRACIELA nudges him.

GRACIELA: Kiss up.

ALEX: You're cashing in on this, too.

GRACIELA: You know I don't care about money.

ALEX: What do you want for your thirtieth birthday?

GRACIELA: A dance studio with more room than the "Y," so I can teach my classes the steps I learned in Veracruz. Got enough money for that? And--

ALEX: What?

GRACIELA: You to dance folklorico with me again.

ALEX: Has it ever occurred to you to get someone else?

GRACIELA: Someone else isn't you. They don't understand.

ALEX: How do you know when you've never even looked for someone else. Take some risks, Lil' Sis. Get somebody new.

GRACIELA: They think it's wrong how much I love you, but I don't care. Just dance with me again, Alex. We dance so beautifully together. You know we do. C'mon.

ALEX: God, Gracie. Never. No fucking way.

GRACIELA: You don't have to hurt my feelings.

ALEX: Sometimes it seems like the only way to make you understand.

GRACIELA: OK, I promise to never bring it up again.

ALEX: I bet.

GRACIELA scoops up a handful of sand, sifts some of it into ALEX's hand.

GRACIELA: Here. (He looks at it confused.) A grain of sand for each promise. (ALEX puts the sand in his pocket.) What are you doing?

ALEX: Keeping track.

GRACIELA whacks him. They laugh. Lights fade on the beach.

SCENE 9

The present. Inside the Moreno home. Lights come up on AMA, who wears a large-brimmed straw hat and a Hawaiian short/top ensemble. She carries a suitcase. She sings to herself.

AMA: (Singing.) I love ME! Me. Me me.

GRACIELA enters.

GRACIELA: (Singing.) You you you.

AMA drops the suitcase.

AMA: I was just ...

GRACIELA: Having a love fest? (Beat.) How's Alex doing?

AMA: He should be OK.

GRACIELA: Haven't you checked on him? I've got to get to rehearsal.

AMA: I poked my head in a few times. He was sleeping.

GRACIELA: Ama, he's been the same since he came home from the hospital. Unconscious. Where're you headed?

AMA: Nowheres.

GRACIELA: Do you always pack to go nowhere?

AMA: Just dreaming.

GRACIELA: You packed to dream?

AMA: I'm dreaming again about the Canary Islands. Sitting in the shade with the canaries looking down at me. I packed my bags, my bathing suit, the first day of May. Alex had already given me some money, but I waited four days to see him fight. Four days and he would have $25,000. (Short beat; suddenly upset.) I really want to go there.

GRACIELA: Maybe someday.

AMA: Maybe never. Because of Alex. (Beat.) Lo quiero tanto.

GRACIELA: We both love him.

AMA: Even if his mind took a little break like that Dr. Morris said. But these things, this mind, can come back again. It can reappear. It's gray and fuzzy so it goes away, and then one day, it comes back and it's bright like a painting, como el sol, or that lipstick at the bottom of my purse. Red and alive. Like breathing. I keep waiting for that. For the red to come back to his face. But I can't wait anymore. I can't look at him in bed like that anymore.

GRACIELA: Do you think I want to look at him? We have to, Ama.

AMA: For how long?

GRACIELA: Forever.

AMA: Maybe if I go away, he'll wake up, like when you are really hungry at a restaurant and you go to the bathroom and you come back and your food is already there. Like a miracle. (Beat.) Last night I turned him over. (She points to her rear end.) He had cuts right here. On his nalgas.

GRACIELA: I hope you put alcohol on those. They can get infected.

AMA: I--

GRACIELA: I'll do it.

AMA: I just can't--

GRACIELA: Shhh.

AMA: I'll go away, he'll get better. I know he will. (AMA measures how small the vacation would be with her fingers.) Un viaje corto. Para tu mama.

GRACIELA: It would be OK with me if we didn't have to take care of Alex.

AMA: I was looking forward to things like that. Taking classes. Making things with my hands.

GRACIELA: I know.

AMA: I wanted things, too. Yo tenia suenos. Just like you want your dance studio. (Short beat.) I'll just be gone for a little bit. I can't help you anymore, mija. I can't help Alex. Let me go, so he can get better. I'll just close my eyes and God will make Alex well. Trust me, it will work.

GRACIELA: Don't leave us, too, Ama.

AMA: You have everything, mija. You have an Anglo doctor who loves you who won't run off with some puta.

GRACIELA: It's a little early to call it love.

AMA: You'd be crazy not to marry him. I won't be long.

GRACIELA: Ama, you have to stay. Don't leave me here alone. Please. (No response. AMA gives up.) Promise you'll be here when I come back.

AMA: I promise.

GRACIELA exits.

SCENE 10

That night. The lighting gives the effect that there is something unreal about this place. Perhaps MICHAEL is framed in blue light or in sharp edges. MICHAEL wears pajamas and boxes fiercely. The only sounds we hear are MICHAEL's grunts as he takes on a singular opponent. ALEX appears behind the scrim, boxing with a master's skill. MICHAEL and ALEX blend into one--a transference of power. Their physical movements, for a split second, mirror each other. It is as if MICHAEL is possessed by the spirit of ALEX.

The sound of ballet folklorico music comes up. When the music begins, MICHAEL is thrown off balance. Graciela dances La Negra. Her moves have a direct impact on MICHAEL'S and ALEX'S heads. The stomping of her feet becomes the pounding of their heads. The lines mimic what happens to them physically. It is no longer clear if MICHAEL has a singular opponent or multiple opponents as he takes hits from all sides.

MICHAEL: Trapped. Inside my body. Want out. Want freedom. From hand to head, nothing happens. Know how to take a punch--how to give one. Body stuck. Mind locked inside. Stuck. No freedom--can't speak--no voice. Better to drive on outta here. Drift on away.

ALEX disappears. GRACIELA enters in a white nightgown and lies down on the ground under a light cotton blanket. MICHAEL has joined her under the blanket as though they were asleep for the night. A boxing bell rings. MICHAEL jerks up, awakening from his dream. GRACIELA does not stir. Michael instinctively gets up to check on ALEX. Bleary-eyed and a little clumsy, MICHAEL crosses into ALEX'S room. He is gone for several seconds.

MICHAEL: Graciela! (GRACIELA stirs, rolling over onto her side. MICHAEL enters distraught.) Graciela. (GRACIELA looks up at him.) Alex is dead.

GRACIELA leaps to her feet, pacing with her hands on her head. She stops moving, gathers her composure.

GRACIELA: Ama! Ama! (Graciela goes to AMA's room. She comes out pale and a bit spooked after a long beat.) Oh my God. She's gone.

Blackout.

Act Two

SCENE 1

The next day. GRACIELA leans in front of the outdoor barrio altar--El Tiradito. GRACIELA lights candles. It's a private moment. She is distraught--visibly shaken. In fact, her hand shakes so hard, she can hardly light the candle. The match goes out. Flustered, she lights another match. MICHAEL enters.

MICHAEL: Did you want me to get that for you? (The match goes out when

GRACIELA turns, startled, to look at him.) I didn't mean to startle you.

GRACIELA: I--

MICHAEL: Shh.

GRACIELA: I--I can't ... see--

MICHAEL: Shh.

GRACIELA: --Him.

MICHAEL holds her.

MICHAEL: It's time, Graciela. The police are ready for us.

GRACIELA: I keep ... looking. I don't ... see him.

MICHAEL: (Comforting.) Shh.

GRACIELA: I saw him--every day. (As if looking at ALEX'S face.) His face.

MICHAEL: I know.

GRACIELA: I never memorized him. (She strikes her own heart.) My heart ... (he holds her hand there) forgot. (MICHAEL takes her hands.)

MICHAEL: Your mind remembers everything it's ever seen. It's the most amazing organ--the human brain.

GRACIELA: Not that amazing. When I get a scratch on my skin, my skin knows to grow back.

GRACIELA leans on MICHAEL as he leads her away.

SCENE 2

Later that day. The police station. GRACIELA sits in a chair on stage right. MICHAEL sits in a similar chair on stage left. It should be clear that these interviews are not happening in the same room although they are occurring simultaneously.

GRACIELA: About 10 p.m. That's when I last saw Alex alive.

MICHAEL: Her brother basically died the night of the fight. Sure, when she came into the hospital that day, I fell in love with her. I'm not going to defend that.

GRACIELA: Then at about 10:30 my boyfriend, Michael, came to spend the night. (Nervous laugh.) I don't usually have men over-MICHAEL:

Her love for her brother devastated her. I wanted to be part of a person who could love like that.

GRACIELA: You're not thinking Michael did this, are you? There's no chance that he did it. You don't understand what was going on.

MICHAEL: Maybe God just found a way to set Alex free.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) But we didn't have the heart to do what he suggested.

MICHAEL: The doctor didn't bother to tell them what they could do.

GRACIELA: Maybe we should have. (Beat.) Don't you know?

GRACIELA looks up at them. They don't get it. She motions pulling an IV out of his arm.

MICHAEL: To stop feeding him.

GRACIELA: Can you picture a family doing that?

MICHAEL: (Agitated.) It happened because his mother had propped him up to watch Saturday Night Boxing on Mexican TV. His head fell back and got caught between the rails of the headboard.

GRACIELA: (Reality starts dawning on her.) Oh, I have no idea where my mother went.

MICHAEL: (Beat.) She's scared. She sure as hell isn't going to come here to talk to you.

GRACIELA: We acted like we never smelled him, but we did.

MICHAEL: A beautiful woman like Graciela all closed up in that house. It was a waste.

GRACIELA: Maybe my mom just stepped out for some fresh air--to talk to God. She'll be back.

MICHAEL: (In love.) Graciela? How can anyone be objective about Graciela? You should see her dance. So much class. Like a queen. Made up perfectly like a photograph. Her hair pulled back tightly in a bun. And the eyes ...

GRACIELA: (Long beat.) She wanted to believe.

MICHAEL: The way I see it is Alex's mother made a simple mistake and Alex choked on the headboard. That's why his windpipe collapsed. Now, those two nice ladies get to go on with their lives. The whole thing just makes you want to have faith.

GRACIELA: See, where I come from, if you have faith, God has pity on you and makes things better. It's like He reaches His hand into your head and captures whatever picture you hold there. And if you imagine it just right, He'll set his hand down on earth and set that picture free. He makes it real. But you've got to believe. That's the first rule of faith. (Beat.) My mother? She does what she wants. (Realizing she's incriminated AMA.) Well, she wants what's best for us. Me and Alex. That's all I meant.

MICHAEL: Look, I'm a doctor. If I'm not willing to deal with the sick, I'm a hypocrite. (Beat.) There is no murderer here.

GRACIELA: (Upset.) Murder? My brother was a VEGETABLE. (Beat.) Fucking chota. Here. Why don't you arrest me instead? If you have to blame someone, why don't you blame me?

GRACIELA offers her hands.

SCENE 3

Later that day. Lights shift to AMA, who enters handcuffed. It is clear she is in a separate space from the other two.

AMA: My son. My child is dead. And you blame me? He killed him. Michael took Alex's throat in his hands and he killed him. I saw the whole thing. That horrible man murdered my son. I am a witness! I want that man to go to the electric chair! I want him dead! Let him feel what it feels like to be murdered. (More upset.) My son was going to be fine. He had a difficult few months, but he was going to be fine. (Short beat.) I did not sneak off. I went out for some air. (Short beat.) No, I did not know he was dead when I left. I had no idea until you said it to me. What do you mean--contradicting myself? (Beat.) You already have ideas in your head. I can see them floating around in there. I can see that! I didn't go to school. I don't have perfect English like you, but I can see this. This is not right. (Short beat.) I saw everything. Don't pretend. When you know. (Breaking down.) The truth.

Let me see Graciela. She knows why this happened. (To herself.) Taking me from my church. From my prayers. When my God comforts me. That's who I love. That's who I listen to. El siempre esta conmigo. You and your fancy cars. You and your guns. You've never done nothing good for me. (Short beat; yelling to someone as if he's leaving.) Give me back my suitcase! My son gave me that. Para mi cumpleanos. For my birthday trip. He's giving it to me as a gift. When Graciela turns thirty, I turn forty-eight. Only two days apart. (Getting emotional.) I saw that pretty island on Channel 52. I saw it in Spanich. It was a beautiful place with canaries up in the trees. And water--bluer than your eyes. You can see little canaries there like lizards in the desert. Singing all the time. Making everybody happy. And everybody could be happy if some people let God do His job.

(AMA starts crying.) Simple things. That's all I ever wanted. (Short beat.) I didn't kill Alex with my hands but by wanting so much. And he wanted so much to give me those things. He fought when he was bleeding. When he couldn't see. He fought for money. But I kept wanting more. And you know how God feels about that! You must accept what He gives you. And smile. BECAUSE THAT IS HOW GOD WORKS! He makes the rules. He decides. And you take it. Whatever hand you're dealt. But you gotta keep your poker face on. You gotta look like you're winning or you lose that much more. My grandfather taught me that. He was a poker player from Chihuahua. He knew how to fool people into believing him. (Quickly.) That's not what I meant.

Blackout.

SCENE 4

A week later. Lights come up on the jail. AMA and GRACIELA are separated by a clear screen. AMA, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, looks around for bugs.

GRACIELA: Ama, it's private. They assured me. No bugs.

AMA: You never know. I saw a telenovela once where this woman said something to her daughter in the pinta and they used it against her in court. They gave her the electric chair. Her hair was sticking up to the ceiling. Like this. (She motions and laughs nervously.)

GRACIELA: They're not gonna give you the electric chair. This case is totally bogus.

AMA: Who said so?

GRACIELA: I said so.

AMA: (Registers disappointment.) They told me they want to put me in the prison. That I have to confess. I told them I'm guilty, but they want more. They want me to tell them every part. And I tell them, I don't remember. Every part. Only that I'm guilty, and I am, mija.

GRACIELA: We'll get you out of this.

AMA: How?

GRACIELA: We'll figure out a way.

AMA: I lied to them. I had to. Four hours they kept me in there. With no water. They didn't let me go to the bathroom. I had to pee! (Beat.) They just kept telling me to sign that little piece of paper and everything would be all right. But I'm too smart for them. Too smart to fall for their tricks. I know the police here think you're supposed to call them first when somebody dies, but I couldn't do that. You can't trust la chota.

GRACIELA: You can't.

AMA: (Slowly, whispering.) He was dead already when I left. But I don't think they need to know that. Why would they need to know? (AMA looks around carefully to make sure no one is hearing her.) That's why I went to the church. To talk to him. I missed him already. But we've missed him since Cinco de Mayo, ?que no? I just wanted to talk to him before all the craziness started. Before they took his body away. Because I saw this coming. I saw it ahead. Just like my ama used to see things and warn me before they happened. I could see the little pictures in my brain. And I didn't want them to be real for us. Para nuestra familia. But it's true. I put my hand on his neck and he was dead. His skin felt hard like a rock, and I lied about it.

GRACIELA: Why did you tell the police you saw Michael do it when you know he didn't?

AMA: I didn't stop him, mija. I didn't stop him because part of me wanted Alex to be dead. But it wasn't right. Alex should have died when God wanted him to die, not Michael.

GRACIELA: It wasn't Michael's fault.

AMA He had ideas in his head. I hate him.

GRACIELA: I love him.

AMA: Promise me you'll never see him again. It's not right to turn your back on a sick person when you're supposed to be helping him.

GRACIELA: Maybe it was what had to be done--all that could be done. (Tearing up.) Don't tell me you believe Alex was going to spring back to life and shower you with gifts? And kiss you on the cheek like you liked him to. He wasn't. He wasn't ever going to wake up again.

AMA: Michael left no place for God to do His miracle work. And God owed me one. He did. God was doing a miracle for Alex to make up for the years I spent with your father. (Breaking.) He owed me that. And He was this close to doing it. I could feel it. He was thinking about doing something special just for us, and Michael had to come in and spoil everything.

GRACIELA: Don't blame Michael. Alex's head fell back by itself. I don't see why we have to blame someone. Why does someone always have to take the responsibility?

AMA: I'm not afraid of taking the responsibility. I'm not afraid of dying.

GRACIELA: (Beat; offhandedly.) Do you want me to just say that I did it so you can leave?

AMA: No. Don't lie to them. I already lied to them. We don't need you lying to them, too.

GRACIELA: Ama, I did--

AMA: It's a lie and I don't want to hear it again.

GRACIELA: It would get you free.

AMA: (Firmly.) No. I want to die. Maybe it would be a relief. I could just leave this earth. Like a breath.

GRACIELA: Don't say that.

AMA: I would see Alex again. At the end of a dark tunnel, there's a light. I read it in the National Enquirer. And all your familia waits for you there.

Heaven--it's beautiful. The mountains and the trees. I could see him there. Again. I do love him. (Back to reality.) Oh, I love you, too. You know that, don't you?

GRACIELA: I know.

AMA: Do you know how much?

GRACIELA: (Crying.) I think I might.

AMA: It's hard to show you when I feel frozen inside. Like the meat in the freezer with little bits of ice in the cracks of my skin. I don't like this feeling, mija, because it is no feeling. No siento nada. I try and try to push my tears out, but there is no water left inside me.

GRACIELA: We cried a lot when he first got hurt. That's when we said good-bye.

AMA: (Sighs.) I hate it here. They don't let me light my candles or nothing.

GRACIELA: I'll light one for you at home and at El Tiradito, too.

AMA: Would you?

GRACIELA: Of course. (Crying.) I light a candle for you every night. I pray for you. Because I know you are innocent and someday you will come home.

AMA looks up at the clock on the wall.

AMA: Thank you for visiting your ama.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) Let me change this.

AMA: You cannot change this.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) You know I can.

AMA: (Firmly.) You will not change this, Graciela.

GRACIELA: But--

AMA: (Almost harsh.) Don't.

It becomes clear AMA won't relent.

GRACIELA: (Conceding.) OK, wa.

AMA: Don't let him into our lives again, mija. You and I do much better on our own. We do. We don't need some gabacho telling us what to do. We don't need some gabacho killing us in the middle of the night. I'd sleep better if you just let him go back where he belongs. Over there, ?Verdad? (Beat.) Please. Do what I say. (GRACIELA begins to walk away.) Graciela.

SCENE 5

Later that day. El Tiradito. GRACIELA is alone praying in front of the altar.

GRACIELA: You're not allowed to see me, so go away.

MICHAEL: That's not how you feel.

GRACIELA: Ama has her rules.

MICHAEL: You've broken them before. We made love in your bedroom. (Short beat.) Three-and-a-half times. (Michael touches GRACIELA. Emotionally.) You love me.

GRACIELA: You need to go.

MICHAEL: (Beat.) Does it bother you to feel something for me?

GRACIELA: I promised I wouldn't.

MICHAEL: You promised your mother you wouldn't love me? (Beat.) Because she hallucinated that I killed Alex? (No response.) You don't believe that bullshit, do you?

GRACIELA: (Softens.) I don't know what I know.

MICHAEL: (Short beat.) You love me.

GRACIELA: I was starting to. I could feel it in there, like a little sprout trying to burst through the hard earth. A little flower in my heart, but you killed it.

MICHAEL: Well, mine was more than a sprout. It was kind of like a whole tree.

GRACIELA: Do you think true love can grow that fast?

MICHAEL: All I know is what I feel for you is pretty damn special. I want to feel that way forever.

GRACIELA: (Fishing; calm.) Why'd you say Alex choked on the rails of the headboard?

MICHAEL: I didn't do it. You know I didn't.

GRACIELA: I just want to know why you said it.

MICHAEL: I was trying to protect your mother.

GRACIELA: (Disappointed.) Oh.

MICHAEL: Why do you think I said it?

GRACIELA: They should let her come home. She deserves that, don't you think?

MICHAEL: She confessed, Graciela. Jesus. Of course they're going to hold her.

GRACIELA: She confessed because she feels guilty. (Yells.) Because she has a conscience. Because of some fleeting thought she had one day.

MICHAEL: She feels guilty because she did it. It was her mistake.

GRACIELA: You don't understand us at all.

MICHAEL: I didn't want to see the police breathing down your throats because of some corpse with a heartbeat. That's why I made the head rail comment. I didn't off your brother. Frankly, I don't care why she did it. It was an asinine way to kill him. That is my only thought on the matter. (Beat.) Someday, we could have a really beautiful life together. You and me.

GRACIELA kisses him on the side of the mouth.

GRACIELA: (Solemn.) It's spoiled--paradise. It's like all the canaries have died and God doesn't live here anymore.

MICHAEL: You have no faith.

MICHAEL moves in closer to GRACIELA. She resists the attraction.

GRACIELA: It wouldn't work anyway. You don't understand my language.

MICHAEL: I'm studying Spanish.

GRACIELA: That's not the language I'm talking about, Michael. The language of my heart. (Beat.) My family moves in me. Like breathing itself.

MICHAEL: You're turning me down? (GRACIELA remains tight, doesn't relent.

MICHAEL remains in disbelief. Beat.) I know how to love, Graciela. I'm a person who knows how to do that. You don't have a corner on love or family just because you're a Mexican. I have fought for your rights in this case. I have fought for the rights of your mother. I have fought. And if that isn't understanding the language of your heart, I don't know what is.

GRACIELA: Just leave.

MICHAEL: (Long beat.) So, you're just going to rot away doing your dance classes forever? You're going to do that when you're sixty and you're living in poverty here in this fucked-up place?

GRACIELA: This fucked-up place is my home.

MICHAEL: I didn't mean--(that).

GRACIELA: Sure, you meant that. (Beat.) I'm not going to be your pity-wife. (Short beat.) So leave. I can clean up my own family's mess.

MICHAEL: (Realizing.) Did you clean up your own family's mess?

GRACIELA: Leave.

MICHAEL: I love you anyway.

GRACIELA watches him walk off. Blackout.

SCENE 6

Lights up on GRACIELA at the police station. She has a bag full of visual aids. She pulls out specific items to punctuate her points. She is on stage alone facing the police detective.

GRACIELA: Detective, you've gotta see this. I really think there's been some confusion here. (She pulls the IV apparatus out of her bag and sets it on the table.) He ate out of this. (She sticks the bedpan on the table.) He shit in this. (She pulls out a sheet with red bloodstains.) And if we didn't turn him enough, he'd bleed all over this. (Beat.) You and your men combed my house for evidence. There just isn't any proof that my ama, or anyone, calculated in any way to kill my brother. What do you have? A head rail. Evidence of some fanciful murder. Alex had his pride. He wouldn't have wanted his sister cleaning his bedpan. What do all these things prove, Detective?

To live you have to think. You have to laugh to be alive. (Beat.) Alex was this miserable piece of flesh we prayed over. (Beat.) How could God sit up there in heaven and watch us go through this and do absolutely nothing? (Up to God.) How dare you, God? How dare you? Oh, He's not there, I know, but I still like to pretend. (Upset.) Because He used to bring me comfort.

Blackout.

SCENE 7

Later that day. Lights shift. GRACIELA is alone on stage in the semi-dark. She lights a candle with a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it. She is in front of her altar.

GRACIELA: Ama's free, Virgen. The cops let her go. Not enough evidence, I guess. I'm just letting you know what happened. In case you're not paying attention. In case you're too busy with India or the Middle East or something. In case other people in the world have problems that are so much worse than ours. Is it true, Virgencita? Do you always forgive like Ama says? Will the words I speak on earth be swept up with the wind and somehow catch your ear in heaven? (Beat.) You wouldn't punish me for wanting us to be free, would you? For wanting to dance--to hear their applause. Every time they put their hands together, I feel it in my heart like one very loud beat. (GRACIELA claps her hands together, once and slowly.) And I keep on living. (Beat.) I can't sleep. Not since that night. (Beat.) Do you really spy on us from behind your cloud like Ama says? (Long beat.) You could let me know if you do. You could bring me roses in winter or something. Like you did for Juan Diego. To help me believe. (GRACIELA lifts the candle skyward.) Can you see my little candle? It's just one tiny light and the world is so big. Free me. Like you did her. Free me. From that picture of what I did to him stuck in my mind. Virgen, I want you to know that I loved my brother. With everything inside me. And if there is any way in your great big heart that you can find a space for me, where I can sit and rest for a moment, I ask that you let me in there.

GRACIELA closes her eyes in prayer. ALEX enters. They are now inside the Virgin's heart--red, pink, and beating. GRACIELA opens her eyes and sees him.

GRACIELA: (Hard to say.) I ... killed you.

ALEX: I thought I recognized that half-assed manicure job.

GRACIELA: It's not funny.

ALEX: You were praying for forgiveness.

GRACIELA: They would have left you unconscious forever. We would never have danced again. Could you see me with my feet pinned to the ground? You-pinned to a body that couldn't move?

ALEX: Heaven's better. Tougher boxers.

GRACIELA: (In a tizzy.) I'm imagining you, right? Because I haven't slept. I'm trying to get strong. Trying not to die. Dying seems so easy sometimes--dying seems like it sneaks right up on you when you're not paying attention. Do you forgive me? (ALEX nods. She touches ALEX.) You're back. (Beat.) I can see you in my mind again. And you're not the way you were at the hospital at all. (Delighting in the memory.) But you're bright and awake. And we're laughing like we used to. We're getting ready to perform and we're standing in the dressing room and my hair is all stiff from the hairspray. And my face is red from the rouge. And you're putting on your pants, trying not to notice that every girl there, except me, is watching you buckle yourself. You tap your foot. That's my cue. It's just a simple tap at first. (ALEX starts to tap his foot. It is the beginning of a simple folkorico step. GRACIELA begins to slowly tap in unison with him. She stops.) I have to call the police. I have to turn myself in.

ALEX: I can see things now I never imagined. I can see your soul.

GRACIELA: Does it have like a big black stain on it?

ALEX: No. (GRACIELA opens her mouth to protest.) You'll just have to trust me on that.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) Did you ever feel like you failed the one person you loved most in the world?

ALEX: I was never going to wake up again. It was brave what you did, but you always were my protector--the one. The only one I could count on. In this life. For reals.

GRACIELA: I feel like you're leaving me.

ALEX: I am.

GRACIELA: In Barrio Hollywood, you will always be alive to me. Like a lively ghost. With hands and feet. Who sometimes likes to dance. Who strokes your face when you're crying. Who grasps your hand when you feel alone. (Beat.) Don't go yet.

ALEX: Gracie, we're dance partners. I'm a part of you, and you're a part of me.

ALEX strokes GRACIELA'S face as she is crying and grasps her hand. He kisses her good-bye.

GRACIELA: Did I ever tell you I love you, Little Bro?

ALEX: (Giggles. Beat.) You know what would really make me happy, Gracie? If you let yourself love somebody else.

GRACIELA: But I love you.

ALEX: Somebody who isn't family.

GRACIELA: They don't understand--when they're not family.

ALEX: Somebody alive.

ALEX hands her some sand.

GRACIELA: (Surprised.) Sand? A grain of sand for each promise.

ALEX: You can do it. I know you can.

GRACIELA: (As he walks off.) Just one more dance, Alex. Just one more dance.

It is too late for him to answer, and the Virgin's heart disappears.

SCENE 8

Moreno home. MICHAEL bumps into AMA while she is outside watering the plants. AMA crosses back into the house without saying a word. GRACIELA hangs up a paper cut-out streamer that says "Welcome Home."

GRACIELA: Go back out there. I'm not done yet.

AMA: He's out there.

GRACIELA: I didn't invite him over.

MICHAEL: (Still outside.) I love her!

GRACIELA hears this from inside the house. She can't help but smile.

AMA: Screaming out there. For all the neighbors to hear. (GRACIELA starts to leave.) Don't--(go).

GRACIELA opens the door.

GRACIELA: I'm just gonna ... tell him to leave. (GRACIELA steps outside.) Hi.

MICHAEL: Hi.

GRACIELA: You came back.

MICHAEL: Didn't know where else to go really. Just wandering around out there. In the desert. Driving.

GRACIELA: Do you wanna come in? Actually, let's just stay out here.

MICHAEL: OK. (MICHAEL and GRACIELA sit on the top step of the wooden porch. The night sky has made a display of stars. He takes her hand.) Feels good--holding your hand.

GRACIELA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: I'm sorry.

GRACIELA: No, I'm sorry.

MICHAEL: Most women would give up after a fight like that.

GRACIELA: (Long beat.) Do you think killing your little brother is love?

MICHAEL: It can be. The truest, purest act of love.

GRACIELA: "Thou shall not kill." One of the Ten Commandments.

MICHAEL: When they hang on like that, it can go on for years. And it's the family who suffers. You did the right thing.

GRACIELA: It was an asinine way to do it.

MICHAEL: You're a woman who knows how to love, Graciela. You're a person who knows how to do that.

GRACIELA: (Touched.) Stop. (Beat.) It's hard. To let yourself love somebody ... different. (Beat.) It's hard. (Beat.) For me. (Beat.) But I love you. Phew! I've never said that to a man before.

MICHAEL: I don't believe that.

GRACIELA: (An admission.) It feels like I've never said it before.

MICHAEL: I love you, too.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) You're really different from us, but you know you are. That's what makes you special.

MICHAEL: (Beat.) Is your ama gonna have trouble if we get back together?

GRACIELA: Yeah.

MICHAEL: (Disappointed.) Oh.

GRACIELA: Just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

MICHAEL: Does she know what really happened?

GRACIELA: Little girls don't commit murder. I'm supposed to agree that you did it.

MICHAEL: Wow.

GRACIELA: It's complicated family stuff.

MICHAEL: I understand.

GRACIELA: I don't think it will ever come up again if that helps.

MICHAEL: OK, wa.

GRACIELA laughs.

GRACIELA: Now we got you saying "wa."

MICHAEL: I've always said "wa."

There's an awkward silence. Then, they relax more into the silence. They look at the sky.

GRACIELA: (Beat.) If you could do one thing in the whole world that you've never done before, what would it be?

MICHAEL: Let me think.

GRACIELA: C'mon, you're not supposed to think. You're supposed to just say it.

MICHAEL: I can't just say it. That's not the way my mind works.

GRACIELA: Come on. Blurt.

MICHAEL: (Long beat.) I'd learn to dance the dance with you. I'd hold my head in place and have that serious look, and have my hand against my waist right over my belt buckle, and you would find me attractive. And nobody would say, "What's that white guy doing up there dancing like that?" Nobody would even notice. They would just see two people dancing and they would know I'm a part of you and you're a part of me.

The echo of ALEX's words moves GRACIELA. GRACIELA kisses him gently. A quiet moment.

GRACIELA: (Long beat.) Listen. Can you hear ... my little brother laugh?

MICHAEL strains to hear, gives up.

MICHAEL: I guess I don't live in the magical world that you do.

GRACIELA grabs MICHAEL'S hand.

GRACIELA: Stay with me. And you will.

In the distance, there is the faint sound of ALEX'S laugh. MICHAEL registers it. GRACIELA stands and pulls MICHAEL toward her, teaching him the first steps of the folklorico dance she danced earlier with ALEX. In the Tucson night sky, a storm brews. The thunderous crack of a summer thunderstorm. Lightning lights up the sky. A light rain begins falling.

As they dance in the rain, lights dim. ALEX's laugh cracks again and grows faint, but they don't hear it because they are wrapped up in each other. Lights fade to black.)

End of play

Appendix A

BARRIO HOLLYWOOD Additional Cast and Production Information

Barrio Hollywood had its professional world premiere at New Theatre, Coral Gables, Florida (Rafael de Acha, Artistic Director; Eileen Suarez, Managing Director) on October 14, 2004. The creative team included movement director Ricky J. Martinez, set designer Michael McKeever, lighting designer Pedro A. Remirez, sound designer Ozzie Quintana, and production stage manager Joseph M. NeSmith. Eileen Suarez provided photography. The production was directed by Rafael de Acha with the following cast:

GRACIELA MORENO Beatriz Montanez
ALEX MORENO Euriamis Losada
AMA Marta Velasco
MICHAEL John Baldwin

Barrio Hollywood was first produced at Borderlands Theater, Tucson, Arizona (Barclay Goldsmith, Producing Director) on March 27, 2003. The creative team included folklorico coach Karl Rodriguez, boxing coach Vicente Medina, choreographer Eva Tessler, set designer John Longhofer, lighting designer John Dahlstrand, sound designer Jim Klingenfus, costume designer Carmen Gastelum, stage manager John Sweeney, and production stage manager Glenn Stockellburg. The production was directed by Kent Nicholson with the following cast:

GRACIELA MORENO Marissa Garcia
ALEX MORENO Mario Figueroa Lopez
AMA Rosanne Couston
MICHAEL Dana Jepsen
SHADOW BOXER Eduardo Vega

Barrio Hollywood was subsequently produced by the Miracle Theatre Group, Portland, Oregon (Olga Sanchez, Artistic Director Miracle MainStage; Jose Eduardo Gonzalez, Founder and Executive Director; Danel Malan, cofounder and Artistic Director Teatro Milagro), on September 26, 2003. The creative team included dance coach Sylvia Malan-Gonzalez, fight coach John Armour, set designer Mark Loring, lighting designer Peter West, sound designer Gerardo Calderon, costume designer Virginia Belt, and stage manager Emily Carr. The production was directed by Olga Sanchez with the following cast:

GRACIELA MORENO Ina Strauss
ALEX MORENO Ricardo Delgado
AMA Nurys Herrera
MICHAEL Anders Liljeholm
SHADOW BOXER Tom Eveland

Barrio Hollywood was given a staged reading at San Diego Repertory Theatre under the direction of William A. Virchis with dramaturgy by Nakissa Etemad. The cast included Alida Gunn, Sol Castillo, Catalina Maynard, and James Newcomb.

Elaine Romero is a prolific, award-winning playwright who holds an MFA in playwriting from UC Davis. Her plays have been performed not only throughout the United States, but also in Toronto, Sydney, and Panama. These works, including Barrio Hollywood, Wetback, Mother of Exiles, Ponzi, A Work of Art, Walk into the Sea, Secret Things, !Curanderas! Serpents of the Clouds, and Graveyard of Empires, have been developed and produced at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Alley Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, Chicago Dramatists, Arizona Theatre Company, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and Borderlands Theater, among many others. The Goodman Theatre's Playwrights' Unit launched Romero's A Work of Art in a co-production with Chicago Dramatists and the Goodman Theatre. Orlando Shakespeare Theatre commissioned a Spanish translation of Barrio Hollywood, which premiered at Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Other organizations that have commissioned her work include the Goodman Theatre, the National New Play Network (NNPN), the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Cornell University, ZACH Theater, and the Magic Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Initiative (for Walk into the Sea, which was written at the Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming).

A past guest artist at South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Denver Center Theatre Company, Romero serves as playwright-in-residence at the Arizona Theatre Company, judging its National Latino Playwrights Award. She has participated in NBC's Writers on the Verge Program and the CBS Diversity Institute's Writer's Mentorship Program, and she has been in residence at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, ENVISION Retreat, Voices at the River, and the Orchard Project.

In 2012-2013 she was the Djerassi Fellow in Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other awards and recognitions include the Edgerton Fund for New American Play Award, the Theatre Communications Group/Pew National Theatre Artist in Residence grant, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts playwriting and project fellowships, the Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the Sprenger-Lang New History Play Prize, the Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Award, and the Chicano/Latino Literary Award.

Romero has taught at the University of Arizona, Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Linfield College, and she has served as a judge for the Theatre Communications Group, the NEA, and the Kennedy Center.

Her many plays have been published by Vintage Books, Samuel French, the University of Arizona Press, the University of Iowa Press, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts Inc., Heinemann, Simon & Schuster, and Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

Currently Elaine Romero is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and lives in Chicago.