AMERICAN JORNALERO:

THE IMMIGRANT NARRATIVE

OF AMERICA

Julia Malinow

Theater 25AC

Professor Angela Marino

8 May 2018
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From the beginnings of the United States to how the country stands today, immigrants

have always been the principal contributors to the nation’s development. Leaving their family

and loved ones behind, they’ve traveled overseas, through deserts, and across infinite distances

to cross a border to never return. From all over the world, immigrants have come to America to

build a bright future, to achieve the promised dream of never-ending prosperity, and to work at

whatever cost necessary in the hope of finding success. While the United States is no more than a

geographical location, America is much more than just land. Ed Cardona Jr shows us this

through the interactions between the undocumented workers and the Minutemen that in his play

American Jornalero. America is painted as the collection of voices and voyages from

generations of immigrants who have endlessly worked to succeed for themselves; to succeed for

this distant land they learn to call home.

The first step to arriving in America is leaving behind a culture and identity, and

embracing the title of ‘immigrant’. The language, mannerisms of people, traffic signals, and

cultural customs are all different to the newly arrived immigrant. With nothing familiar on sight,

and no way of communicating efficiently, immigrants have no option but to accept that they are

now dependent on any American who is already acquainted with the place. In American

Jornalero, Marcelo’s wife, Rosita, experiences the first moments upon arriving to the United

States, as the awful sensation of being lost. Although she never appears on stage, nor has any

actual lines in the play, she serves as part of a secondary plot illustrating the immense struggles

of moving countries in awful conditions and without documentation. Even though her entire

voyage is about constantly moving places, Marcelo never actually leaves the street corner where

he waits for work to pick up Rosita. The main reason to stay in the corner is the public
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pay-phone which connects Marcelo to his wife. Once she arrives in New York, her only

instructions for Marcelo to pick her up are based on what she sees on the street. Rosita is unable

to read, understand, or speak any English; her only way of communicating her location is by

describing her surroundings. Diana Taylor expresses in her article “Remapping genre Through

Performance,” how “the experience of space, in this way of understanding the world, cannot be

removed from lived experience and behavior” (Taylor 1420). Rosita talks about the water of the

Hudson River, the structure of the Washington Bridge, and even describes the faces of the people

that walk past or talk to her. Embracing the title of immigrant might mean leaving an entire

world of cultural wealth behind, but it brings forth an attitude of perseverance and optimism. The

new features which surround Rosita, become her first impressions and lived experiences of

America, and a map to how she will come to understand herself in this city. These first moments

of confusion are essential to the narration of how immigrants come to explain and understand

America. Similarly to how Rosita paints a map for Marcelo to pick her up, by describing what

she sees and how she feels her surroundings, the stage of American Jornalero becomes a map of

its own as well.

Unlike any past productions of American Jornalero, Ubuntu Theater’s recent production

was staged at an abandoned warehouse in Oakland. Considering that the entire play takes place

on a street corner in Queens, making the staging site specific gave the space a sense of reality. It

expanded beyond the four walls of a theater, and made the text come alive. The actors seemed

more focused on their surroundings, their lines, and their performance, and less worried about

the limitations a stage usually imposes. Each actor was able to mold the space in accordance to

the emotional progression of their characters. In regards to the mapping of territory, Diana Taylor
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argues how spaces “[are] meaningful only in relation to the ceremonies that take place as the

people travel” (Taylor 1419-1420). The street corner where Luis, Marcelo, Montezuma, and

Michigan meet every single day for work means more to them beyond the opportunity for

working. Waiting there from morning to night for the chance to take any job they can get is a

way of holding onto hope. Leaving would just mean surrendering, and believing hard-work pays

nothing in return. They transform the street corner into a sanctuary where they are able to

connect as people, through and beyond their struggles. Just like Rosita, they map their space

through what they see in relation to how they feel. Taylor refers to this way of mapping as an

“animative” performance which communicates without being literal (Taylor 1420). The map that

the jornaleros create out of their street corner to navigate through the progression of the play, is a

way of emoting without dismissing the space as a mere location. Making the stage a literal street

corner, with real weather conditions, and in an intimate audience setting, brings the text to life.

Part of what makes the street corner extend beyond just land, is the fence in the background, and

the hole going through it.

Even though the park fence remains at the back of the stage throughout the entire

production of American Jornalero, its mere presence is essential to the mapping of the play. A

fence is meant to mark a division, and abstract communication from one side to the other.

Nevertheless, the jornaleros find a way to communicate with one another through the fence’s

hole. While the fence’s purpose might be to separate, when broken, it opens up for dialogue to

unfold. Because of the hole, Michigan, Montezuma, and Marcelo, are able to arrive at the corner

on time for work. It is principally what establishes all the relations in the play, and how much

each character talks to the others; in other words, the fence becomes a political statement. When
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Michigan gets stuck when passing through the hole, Luis decides to cut it wider to ease getting

out, to which Mark, a Minutemen trying to bust the jornaleros, responds: “That’s public property

you’re destroying… my taxes paid for this” (Cardona 63). While Mark might see the fence as a

protection from undocumented workers, for any marginalized person of the public, it is a clear

sign of exclusion. Mark’s response, sparked by resentment and ignorance, is one of the examples

Cardona writes to show the polarization between immigrants and white middle-class workers in

reference to the country’s current social situation. The fence, with or without a hole, functions as

the mediator between the two groups. Fences are meant to divide, which is why keeping the hole

in the middle extends beyond creating a shortcut. In a way, the fence becomes its own character,

with the purpose of not only situating the jornaleros’ journey on stage, but also fostering a place

for different opinions to be addressed.

In the staging of Ubuntu Theater’s American Jornalero, the broken fence at the back of

the stage functions as a facilitator between the two groups of workers when they share their life

stories. Midway through the play, when Mark and Luis are left alone, they begin opening up

about their reason for standing in the corner, whether it is to wait for work, or to bust those

waiting. As the tension in the conversation escalates, Luis finally says to Mark: “… no law or

fence will ever stop a man from an opportunity to work towards a better life for his family”

(Cardona 82). The hole in the fence will not get Mark out of unemployment, and fixing it will

not stop Luis from showing up to work. The fence itself is not truly what either of them fear, if

not the dialogue it creates between the two. Mark is convinced his unemployment is partially

caused by undocumented workers like Luis. However, through talking to him, Mark realizes that

he is not alone in his frustration towards unemployment, and can relate more to an
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undocumented worker’s struggle than he originally thought. As both men start to listen to each

other, they begin to sympathize at the very least, or value and acknowledge one another. The

fence and its hole, allow for this conversation to take place and develop into a moment of

self-reflection. In a way, covering up the whole in the fence is exactly the same as refusing to

listen. Mark’s resentment is a way of overlooking Luis’s truth, and of ignoring the fear that

comes with realizing the insensibility of prejudice.

The stories of immigrants are not always spoken of or known about, and in the case of

American Jornalero, Cardona Jr also argues that the white working class story is often ignored in

American society as well. Both Mark and Luis are unemployed, and belong to groups in society

which are often marginalized. On a stereotypical basis, one truly filled with ignorance and fear,

Luis is profiled as a criminal, and Mark as a resented racist, which they both claim they are not.

As Luis and Mark’s conversation develops, it becomes clear that no matter how much effort they

put into actively listening, feelings of resentment still manage to surface:

“Luis: I love my family -- does that make me a criminal?

Mark: What are you talking about? I never called you that.
Luis: I’m sure your Minutemen say we are. But those same people you call
criminals, risk their lives every day for a chance of a better life for their families.
When's the last time you’ve done the same.
Mark: That’s why I love this country because I don’t have to risk my life.
Luis: So good it is to be lucky.” (Cardona 83)

Between these lines, two stories about the economic struggle of being unemployed are

expressed, two stories often ignored. Nonetheless, no one is systematically trying to

disenfranchise Mark, like the government and Minutemen are doing with Luis. While Mark and

Luis share the same struggles of scarcity in their work, Mark’s stubbornness and inability to

listen make it impossible to empathize with Luis. Even the staging reflects this dynamic between
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them, as Luis is often placed in the back, resting against the fence, and Mark more upfront.

Mark’s ignorance and lack of listening, all encapsulated in thinking of Luis as a criminal, end up

devaluing Luis’ ambitious effort to succeed. Luis’ story is lost, and he is dehumanized. After

hours of getting to know about each other, Mark stubbornly decides to leave on the condition of

Luis fixing the fence. Luis’ life story essentially means nothing to Mark, as his only take-away of

their conversation is Luis’ promise to tie up the fence hole. Luis is not a criminal, nor a selfish

person, if not a humble worker tirelessly struggling to provide for his children back home. The

play ends with Luis breaking the fence again, so workers like him can pass through the hole to

get to work, and stories of immigrants never stop being told.

With the recent polarization in the political climate, immigrants and people like the

Minutemen are often described as enemies, creating an irreparable divide between them, and

excluding the possibility for a conversation to occur organically. Why listen to immigrants if they

are lazy and can’t speak English? Why listen to white people if all they do is hate and take money

from us? Plays like American Jornalero essentially create the opportunity for these questions to

be addressed and proven wrong, offering an unique way to depict an imagined world that in truth

reflects the reality of both these communities. They create a space for American stories to be

told, and for the American identity to be questioned beyond its tie to nationality. American

Jornalero provides this space, tells these stories, and asks these questions, ultimately defining

America as the neverending story of hard-work, struggle, and success lived by immigrants every

single day.
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Work Cited

American Jornalero. By Ed Cardona Jr., directed by Tioni Collins, 14 Apr. 2018, Ubuntu

Theater Project, Oakland, CA. Performance.

Cardona Jr, Ed. American Jornalero, No Passport Press, 2009.

Dyer, Richard. Essays on Race & Culture: White. Routledge, 1997.

Moraga, Cherríe. Of Heroes and Saints, West End Press, 1994.

Taylor, Diana. Remapping Genre Through Performance. Modern Language Association of

America, 2007.