Bocon Summarry

Kiana McClellan

        We first meet Miguel in front of a judge in Los Angeles after being captured by state troopers. Miguel takes us back in time explaining how he had arrived in America, he goes on to explain he is from a small village in San Juan De La Paz, México. He goes on by saying him and his family were poor farmers who worked in the fields to grow and sells things such as coffee, tortillas, and Maltas while always having a fun time with the people in his village. Although in his village, and others, the people are taken over by a repressive military regime, having the people keep quiet on what the government was doing. Miguel was a young boy with a big mouth, which the soldiers were not fond of nor would allow as long as they were around. Therefore, one day his parents were taken by the soldiers after speaking out before Miguel’s eyes causing him to lose his voice.

 Miguel's story as it continues to be broken down will explain the corruption of Mexico by going into depth of their governmental problems and living situations of the citizens as they fight through their struggles on their own during the corrupted century. During the play, before Miguel’s parents were taken away his father states “God was not happy with Adam for attempting to sells his apples. Because of this God made Adam into three different people using his body. The head became the rich man who had a huge head and tiny arms for grabbing. The arms became the poor man used to do labor. And the foot became the soldier. The foot of the soldier was used to kick the poor man to do the rich man's work.” It can be inferred that the lower class, including Mexicans and Indians, are forced to do the work of the “rich man”. 

After Miguel’s parents were taken and his sister told him to leave, Miguel fled into the jungle to go north toward the “Border of Lights” (aka Los Angeles) in order to get away from the soldiers. This is where he had his first encounter with La Llorona, legend of the grieving woman who had thrown her children into the river and then killed herself for what she had done. Children are warned not to go out in the dark, for, La Llorona might snatch them and never return them. Yet, when Miguel had encountered her he did not fear her as much as he feared being captured by the soldiers. This had upset La Llorona as she stated, “ I’ve screamed and wept over four hundred years to scare children back into their homes to be with their families, but now they rather face me instead of going home because of these soldiers”. This infers that young children of Mexico had to face the harsh realities and put their childish fears aside as there were bigger problems to face such as being silenced just as Miguel’s parents and many others were. Although not all children made it across, like Miguel as soon as he made it to “The Border of Lights” he was captured by border patrol or state troopers.