Cascarones

Set in San Antonio, Texas, c. 1992, Cascarones centers on teenager Mary Margaret Caceres, who works for the transit authority giving people bus route directions, as she attempts to understand the mapping of her community and city. As she navigates the daily challenges her working class family faces, she encounters in dreamlike reveries Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Major John Wesley Powell, and other people from the Grand Canyon's historical past whose actions continue to influence her present. Equally poignant and funny, family drama and fantastical time-traveling epic, the play ponders the questions and intersections found in the search for identity, love, family, and historical memory.

 

CHARACTERS

 

THE FAMILY:

 

MAGDALENA CACERES             

Mexican American, mother, mid-40s. San Antonio born and bred. A fixer, a bird - always pecking, chattering, flicking. Not melodramatic. Determined.

                                

FERNANDO CACERES          

Mexican American, father, mid-40s. Comes from the Valley (down in the south) of Texas. Reared in a migrant farmworker family. 

 

MARY MARGARET CACERES     

Mexican American, only child of Magdalena and Fernando, 18. Born and raised in San Antonio. Not a complete nerd, but definitely not cool or hip.

 

DEBRA                     

Mexican American, Mary Margaret’s cousin, Magdalena’s niece, 20. Born and raised in San Antonio. With it, down, in the know.

 

BOBBY                     

Mexican American, Debra’s boyfriend of five years, 20. Born and raised in San Antonio. Not a cholo, in a gang, or the like.

 

 

FAMILY MEMBERS PORTRAY HISTORICAL FIGURES:

 

HISTORIA:

 

Francisco Vásquez de CORONADO - (played by BOBBY) Spanish explorer of the “New World,” 37.  

 

García López de CÁRDENAS - (played by FERNANDO) A Spanish soldier under Coronado’s command, the first European man to see the Grand Canyon, 30-35.

 

DONATO - Mexican American, groundskeeper at San Antonio, Texas’ San Fernando Cathedral, 65 or older.

 

RODRIGO - (played by MAGDALENA) A lower-ranking man under Coronado’s command, early 20s.

 

Pedro Alvarez TOVAR - (played by DEBRA) A lower-ranking man under Coronado’s command, early 20s.

 

MAJOR JOHN WESLEY POWELL - First white/U.S. American man to travel the length of the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. Powell’s right arm is cut off just below the elbow, lost in duty during the Civil War’s Battle of Shiloh, 35. 

 

MAJOR POWELL’S PARTY OF EXPLORERS - (played by all members of the CACERES family and DEBRA & BOBBY).

                          

CANYON RIDES RESERVATIONIST- Anglo, (played by MAGDALENA) A greeter for “CANYON RIDES” burro tours of the Grand Canyon, 30-32.