When New York playwright Brian Quijada wrote “Somewhere Over the Border,” his hip-hop cumbia musical riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” he had no idea how his play — a story of immigration, sacrifice, and the pursuit of dreams — would impact his own family.
He probably should have.
After all, “Somewhere Over the Border,” playing at People’s Light July 17 through Aug. 11, chronicles his mother Reina’s perilous journey from El Salvador to the United States when she was 16. She left behind Quijada’s older brother, Fernando, setting in motion a complex range of feelings of abandonment, fear, and hope.
“I wasn’t prepared for the amount of family therapy this show would be doing,” Quijada said.
It started with Quijada himself.
A son’s reckoning
When Quijada, who was born in the United States, turned 30, he had a reckoning, as many do at milestone birthdays. “Realizing my own mortality, I should ask my parents questions that I will regret not asking later,” he said. So, one day, calling between matinee and evening acting performances, Quijada dialed his mother in Chicago.
“Who was Fernando’s dad?” he asked her. “You have to tell me the story about who he is and why you left [Fernando].” And just like that, she did.
“She went on an epic journey,” Quijada said. “It was a hero’s journey — `The Wizard of Oz,’ `The Lord of the Rings,’ the `Odyssey.’ She actually did get deported two times, but that’s not in the play because I wanted it to take two hours, not four. She had to start over a bunch of times. She was telling me about the people she went with and the sacrifices they made.”
For the play, “it became the great joy in finding the connections between her story and `The Wizard of Oz,’ ” with Reina standing in for Dorothy. Audiences can expect scary visits from Oz-like flying monkeys, otherwise known as the U.S. Border Patrol, and Fernando is re-imagined as Dorothy’s little dog, Toto.
Quijada portrays his grandmother, Reina’s mother Julia, as a cross between Auntie Em and the wicked witch. After Reina left, Julia raised Fernando in El Salvador. She wanted her daughter home, believing that accepting one’s lot in life and fulfilling one’s responsibilities should be prioritized over pursuing one’s dreams.
“They are both right to be upset at each other,” he said. “They are both wrong to be upset at each other.”
Play brings closure
His mother has seen the play, which has already been performed in the Windy City, Syracuse, Rochester, and Pittsburgh. “I think it validates her,” Quijada said. “She would come three times a week if she could.”
Quijada’s brother, Fernando, also loves it. When Reina, by then a U.S. citizen, came back to El Salvador a decade later to get her son, Fernando, then 12, refused to leave. It took him several years to agree to come to the U.S., where he is now a citizen.
“You can imagine how much it affected him,” Quijada said. “Those aren’t emotions that are easy for him to share — stuff he had bottled up for a really long time. On a more personal level, it really helped my family — my mother and my brother — to deal with bottled emotions. They could talk about the play when really, they are talking about their lives.”
“Somewhere Over the Border” is both Reina’s family story and the story of the broader immigrant journey — one that Quijada hopes will arouse more empathy from audiences as they link it to Dorothy’s travels in “The Wizard of Oz,” the movie version of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s classic book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
Border politics “are a very hot topic,” Quijada said. “It’s unfortunately politicized. I find ‘Somewhere Over the Border’ to be one of my most inclusive pieces because you can’t not root for Dorothy. It’s effective in bringing empathy to the Latino immigrant.”
At People’s, a live on-stage band plays cumbia, Mexican mariachi, boleros, American rock, and hip-hop, all composed by Quijada. “Music is an incredibly powerful thing in its universality,” Quijada said, describing “Somewhere Over the Border” as a classic musical, in contrast to a play with a few musical numbers.
Connecting with Latino community
For People’s Light, “Somewhere Over the Border,” represents a way to continue its connection with the region’s Latino community, highlighted in its 2022 production of “Mushroom,” a bilingual play based on the lives of Latinos working in mushroom agriculture in Kennett Square.
Following the July 28 matinee, which includes open captioning in Spanish, Immigrants Rights Action executive director Heidi Roux will moderate a panel of immigration rights experts that includes advocates from the Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educación. The Aug.10 matinee also will feature Spanish captioning.
People’s Light and cast members will be available for post-show talkbacks on July 18 and 25 and Aug. 1 and 8.
Coming up
“Somewhere Over the Border,”People’s Light, July 17-Aug. 11, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, 610-644-3500
