S.A. revives classic by Rivera on OLLU stage
One of the many tragedies surrounding the life of Tomás Rivera is that his seminal work, “… Y No Se Lo Tragó La Tierra,” has faded away.
It’s too rarely assigned as required reading, too seldom mentioned among the classics of Chicano literature.
Rivera, whose name remains on academic buildings here and in California, died in 1984, never reaching his 49th birthday. The boy from a migrant farmworking family who grew up to earn a PH.D. never saw his book made into a movie.
He became a professor and a university chancellor but he wasn’t around to accept invitations to book festivals or to lead workshops, the avenues that would have reminded people of his coming-ofage book, first written in Spanish, then translated into English.
Semi-biographical and published in 1971, “… and the Earth Did Not Devour Him” won the first-ever Premio Quinto Sol, a literary award that was once bestowed on the best work of Chicano fiction.
“Tragó” was among the earliest published works that reflected the U.S. Mexican American experience, tapping into the struggles of a migrant family from the perspective of a boy.
It’s regrettable that it’s no longer assigned reading, especially for those whose ancestors worked or continue to do fieldwork.
Rivera offers a window into that history, of sacrifice layered atop exploitation and racism.
As the Latino bookshelf has grown, other works have captured readers.
But “Tragó” isn’t done, at least not in San Antonio, where it has an advocate in playwright, director, actor and singer José Rubén De León.
The book’s tenderness and harshness pulled him forward.
This weekend he’ll bring his adaptation of Rivera’s classic to the Thiry Auditorium stage at Our Lady of the Lake University for a 7 p.m. show on Saturday and a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Both are free.
The production was made possible by grants from the San Antoniobased National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the city of San Antonio’s Department of Arts and Culture.
De León has brought other works of Chicano literature to the stage, including Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” and Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street,” both at the Classic Theatre of San Antonio.
De León couldn’t locate a copy of the adaptation of “Tragó” by Norma Elia Cantú, the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University. De León first saw it at Laredo Junior College in the late ’70s when he managed a theater on campus. The actors performed a dramatic reading.
“I had never seen anything like that. I was so drawn by it.”
This weekend’s shows will be performed similarly, readers’ theater style or “concert reading.”
De León said it best suits the piece and is also a practical, less expensive alternative to a fully staged show. One musician will perform interludes between scenes. The 90minute show will be presented without intermission.
“Tragó” will be performed bilingually. The migrant characters will code switch or alternate between English and Spanish. Those with no Spanish proficiency will be able to follow along, he assured.
It’s free because that’s what De León sought. He also wanted to perform it on the West Side, historically home to so many Mexican Americans whose family histories were part of Rivera’s landscape.
De León put aside the book for a time, first reading it in Spanish, overwhelmed by its dark imagery — the squalor in which migrants lived, the hunger they experienced as they harvested the nation’s bounty.
They experienced violence with few legal protections and illness with little access to health care.
During the pandemic, De León began to plan. He read more about Rivera’s life and watched a few documentaries in which Rivera appeared. “If he wants me to do this, he’ll tap me on the head.”
He’s using his sixth draft of “Tragó.”
Several vignettes are likely to stay with the audience. For De León, it’s Rivera’s recurring theme of arrival, and the migrant dream of what they’ll do once they arrive.
The performance contains more than a dozen vignettes. The protagonist Tomás recites the book’s title just once, in a moment of defiance that will resonate with the audience.
Two of the actors were migrant workers themselves. “They know how the earth can devour them,” De León said.
He heard from San Antonio-born filmmaker Severo Pérez, who made the film and requested a copy of De León’s adaptation. “He has been thinking of creating a musical based on the book.”
In another bit of magic, Rivera’s widow Concha Rivera will be in San Antonio to see the show and gave De León what he most wanted.
Her blessing.