Here is Rene Rivera playing his father, who is talking to "mijo," or "my son," as a young boy in San Antonio, Texas.
RENE RIVERA: "Tonight you, with your dark skin and foolish tears, you have that blood running in your veins, mijo. Your ancestors were the kings and the queens of the desert."
BARBARA KLEIN: Rene Rivera's wife, Stacey Martino, is a playwright. She wrote "The King of the Desert." She wanted to explore her husband's Latino roots as a family project, as a way to teach their young daughter.
STACEY MARTINO: "Rene really identifies as an American. And I kept saying 'But you're a Mexican American.' I want to understand the Mexican part. So I sat down and I researched a lot about the stories and the legacy of the Mexican culture. And from that, I decided to really write my version of Rene's personal mythology."
STEVE EMBER: The story begins in the barrio, a poor area of San Antonio, Texas where many Latinos live. Rene Rivera says strong family ties and a shared Catholic faith helped people deal with the hard life in their community.
RENE RIVERA: "There's a very poetic beauty in that, in that kind of urban war zone Americana that is not really known, not really talked about, not really seen, and yet it is part of the spine of America."
But he says there was too much alcohol and too little communication. And sometimes there was violence.
RENE RIVERA: "And with that, we hear fireworks. We're thrilled, until we realize it's still daylight and the fireworks are in actuality gunfire. The gangs in our barrio are awake. I lie on the ground covering my head."
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25