The Black & Brown Guerrillas (A Manifesto) (excerpt) by Christin Eve Cato

The Black & Brown Guerrillas (A Manifesto) by Christin Eve Cato

SCENE ONE RUBY "LA MAESTRA" RIVERA appears on a dark stage underneath a spotlight.

She is drilling a group of soldiers that we don't see, but we hear them marching.

RUBY Left...left...left right left...Dig your heel, dig your heels...dig that heel, Preston! Left...left...YOUR OTHER LEFT PINKY! Anddddd, mark time...MARCH! Left, left...Pick up those knees, soldiers! I wanna see high knees...Halt!

The sounds of rifle stocks hitting the ground and boots stomping into a halt are heard.

At ease soldiers...

RUBY (CONT'D)

She adjusts herself.

RUBY (CONT'D) Alright ya’ll…this is it. You already know…guard your posts.

Have your guns loaded. Take your stance. Keep your ears open and listen up for anything that sounds alarming. Make sure you keep open eyes all around your head. Always travel in groups, the more of us who are together, the more intimidating we are. Have I made myself my clear?!

Yes ma'am!

SOLDIERS (O.S.)

RUBY These cops are becoming clever, so remember the things I taught you. We have codes. Cops who don’t know the code are not our allies. Do not repeat the code. Do not say the code out loud. Carry your gun licenses on you at all times. I repeat: CARRY YOUR LICENSE. Am I clear?!

Yes ma'am!

SOLDIERS

RUBY And we do not shoot. I repeat: WE DO NOT SHOOT. Unless one of us is in physical harm. We have other skills. Kick. Punch.

Tackle. Put fuckers to sleep. We don’t need more casualties on these streets. Anybody who fucks this up will get fucked up. Am I clear!?

Yes ma'am!

SOLDIERS

2.

RUBY Alright good. Get out there! Make us all proud. Stick to your partner. Charge your walkies. Keep your ear pieces on...TENHUT! The sound of soldiers standing at full attention.

Rifles locked and loaded.

Company, dismissed!

Aye-aye ma'am!

RUBYÂ (CONT'D) SOLDIERS

The soldiers disperse, RUBY watches them leave. She's confident and proud, but she knows there's also risk at bay. She addresses the audience.

RUBY They call me La Maestra because I am an educator. I've always fought for equal education in New York City and I taught some of the roughest kids you'd ever encounter- nothing but tough exteriors holding in traumatic mush. My specialty has always been math and logical reasoning. But education is not just a matter of teaching facts, theories, and imaginary numbers.

Because when you're in a city like this, which is every urban city in America, the only imaginary numbers that really exist are the numbers of Black and Brown bodies that go missing everyday. The more I taught these kids, the more I realized that my job was to prepare these young adults for a world that has been prepared to oppose them. So I started teaching history...because if we don't know where we come from, it's hard to move forward. The way I see it is, education is like teaching self-defense. How could I give my students all the tools they needed to go out into a world that was built to marginalize them? How do we defend ourselves? Instead of teaching democracy, I started teaching anarchy. There was no sense of defense for my people in the name of democracy. No matter how much we fought to make things equal, the foundation that our nation was created on was made up of falsified promises that only benefited a few. We are here to reclaim. We are here to demand justice. We are here to enforce equality. We are the Black & Brown Guerrillas. In this country full of offenses, we are the defense.

Black out.

3.

SCENE TWO A television studio. A TV anchor, MARIA CONSTANTINO is preparing her interview with EVARISTO SANCHEZ. They sit opposite of each other.

MARIA Do you have any questions before we go on air Mr. Sanchez?

Call me Evaristo please.

EVARISTO

MARIA Sure. Anything else to know before we start?

EVARISTO I was given the list of questions to prepare for. The questions are fine. However, I do not like it when interviewers veer off the point and make insufferable tangents that are hard to come back from...am I making myself clear?

MARIA Evaristo, I'm a professional. Of course you've been given a list of questions but that doesn't mean I can't pick at something you say and question you about it on the spot.

Don't belittle what I do, IEVARISTO Look, I don't live within the confines of societal reputation. Quite frankly, I don't give a shit. I will, respectfully, walk out of this studio should you ask me anything that is too prying or incriminating. Got it?

No funny business.

No funny business.

MARIA EVARISTO

They shake on it. MARIA is given the signal to start.

MARIA Okay, we're about to start. Remember your eyeline.

Yup.

EVARISTO The STUDIO DIRECTOR gives the countdown.

4.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...and...

STUDIO DIRECTOR(O.S.)

MARIA Thank you all for joining us tonight on 20-After-20, the only show on television that brings you the 20 year aftermath of the most exciting news in history. I am your host Maria Constantino and today's guest is Evaristo Sanchez the founder of the Black & Brown Coalition Political Party formerly known as the Black and Brown Guerrilla movement.

She shifts over to Evaristo.

MARIAÂ (CONT'D) Thank you for being here with us Evaristo.

EVARISTO Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.

MARIA It's been 20 years since you started the Black & Brown Guerrilla movement. Tell us how you feel!

EVARISTO It's humbling, honestly. I remember starting the BBG out of necessity. Out of survival. And here we are 20 years later, the BBG is now the BBC Political Party, majority in the House and Senate. I couldn't be more proud.

MARIA Did you ever imagine the BBG getting this far?

EVARISTO Yes and no. As I mentioned, starting this movement- this revolution, was an act of anarchy. It wasn't about becoming a political party for me. At least not in the beginning. I was focused on protecting the people and demanding justice from the government.

MARIA But you did always plan to overthrow the government?

EVARISTO gives her a sharp eye. That question was not part of the deal.

EVARISTO We organized and armed ourselves because the streets were too dangerous. In the middle of a global pandemic, the nation left most of us at the brink of death. Unemployed. Poor.

Desperate. The streets were full of crime and we found ourselves at the mercy of murderous cops. We had to follow the only course of action that was left on our plates- to take back our neighborhoods and properly govern ourselves.

5.

MARIA In the early days of the BBG, you were most famous for showing up to protests armed and militantCorrect.

EVARISTO

MARIA Patrolling neighborhoods, organizing free community breakfasts and dinnersEVARISTO The community feasts we used to call them.

MARIA And harassing landlords and real estate brokerage firms that raised rent prices or evicted families with children.

EVARISTO Yes, we set many real estate offices on fire. They were like vampires, sucking everyone dry leaving them for dead.

I see. And-

MARIA

EVARISTO And we were a massive grassroots organization. I feel like this point always gets missed, but it was the key to our success. It was through our grassroots efforts that we funded all of our community projects and future political endeavors.

We gained control over local city governments through the election process and created chapters all over the country.

MARIA Right. So, elaborate on these political endeavors. Former BBG member /Keisha Hampton.

EVARISTO Yes, Keisha Hampton. She was the force that this country reckoned with.

MARIA Care to talk about what happened withEVARISTO That topic was not presented for our discussion Maria.

MARIA Well sure but we have to talk about your co-founder, no?

EVARISTO I just wasn't feeling your angle, Ms. Constantino.

6.

KEISHA HAMPTON appears downstage in a pool of light.

She addresses a crowd.

KEISHA Look, I know ya’ll have this vision of us being revolutionaries and I know it’s important that we protect our streets. I know there’s a war out there and we have to be armed. But what we really need to focus on is changing legislation, my Black & Brown brothers and sisters. That’s where the real power is. The future of the BBG relies on becoming a political party. A progressive political party.

The crowd cheers.

KEISHA (CONT'D) We need to push for free higher education, free public healthcare, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration rights, the defunding of law enforcement, and the eradication of systemic racism. We need to grant freedom to all migrant children and families that are under Federal custody and we need to demand reparations for each Black person who’s lineage traces back to slavery in America. We need to abolish ICE Goddammit! And we need for all of America to join us…

Evaristo is right about us having to expand. But we need to set some rules in place. I didn’t become a civil rights lawyer so that I can carry a gun in a holster. I want to change policy. I want to write laws. We have to dream bigger!

We are MORE than just revolutionaries. Did ya’ll hear me?! It doesn’t matter what positions you hold…captain, soldier, organizer…we are MORE than just revolutionaries!

A crowd of soldiers cheer.

We ARE the revolution!

We are the revolution!

KEISHA (CONT'D) SOLDIERS

7.

SCENE THREE A community kitchen. Food is being passed around. RUBY and EVARISTO help. PRESTON grabs a plate of food and sits at a table next to KEISHA. PRESTON Some of the guys here keep calling me shorty and I don't like it.

It's endearment.

It don't feel like it.

KEISHA PRESTON

KEISHA You don't have to be here. You could go to college instead.

But auntie, I-

PRESTON

KEISHA You don't call me auntie here, Pres.

Ma'am.

Ms. Hampton.

Ms. Hampton!

PRESTON KEISHA PRESTON

KEISHA If you think these guys calling you shorty is the worst of your problems, you got a real big reality check hitting you soon.

PRESTON I ain't saying it's a big problem. I just don't want it to stick on people.

KEISHA Preston. Why are you here, baby?

Don't call me bab-

PRESTON

KEISHA I'm sorry. It's just that your mother is-

8.

What about my momma?

PRESTON

KEISHA I told your mother I can't protect you when you're out there on those streets. How do you think that makes her feel Preston? How do you think it makes me feel? That I gotta tell my own sister I am incapable of protecting her child?

PRESTON She knows that I have to do this.

KEISHA Does she really? Because that's not how it seems.

PRESTON I'm an adult now. She doesn't have a say in this, honestly.

An adult?

KEISHA PRESTON

Yes.

KEISHA You can't even grow in a mustache yet.

PRESTON Mustaches don't make you an adult, Ms. Hampton.

A moment.

KEISHA I remember when you were three years old and you used to follow me everywhere. I remember those fast little feet of yours.

Yeah. I was always fast.

PRESTON

KEISHA Why you always walked behind me like you were my tail, I will never know.

PRESTON I remember when I got older and used to follow you around to ask you questions, you know what I'm talking about?

KEISHA Oh my Lord, the "would you rathers"?!

YES!

PRESTON

9.

KEISHA You used to annoy me with those.

PRESTON Yeah well, you used to walk around in circles on purpose to see if I would notice.

KEISHA I found it very fascinating...and hilarious.

I wouldn't even notice.

PRESTON

KEISHA That's how much you loved those questions.

PRESTON Sometimes they were good though!

KEISHA Yeah. I remember you having really deep thoughts and emotions as a kid. I would sit there thinking to myself, is this boy really asking me these questions? Who is he?

PRESTON I had to grow up fast. Learned about life the hard way.

That wasn't your choice.

KEISHA

PRESTON But this is. Being here. This is my choice.

KEISHA I just don't know what I would do if something happens to you.

PRESTON That's how I feel about you.

What you mean, boy?

KEISHA

PRESTON I mean...you're my favorite aunt and I need to protect you too. ...

KEISHA

PRESTON You being this revolutionary. You think you safe?

10.

KEISHA No, but when was I ever safe?

PRESTON When you was up in your office. At the firm. Just working.

KEISHA I wasn't completely safe there either. People were threatened by my success.

PRESTON Yeah and they even more threatened by you now.

EVARISTO interrupts the community feast by banging a pot with a metal spoon.

EVARISTO Community! Family! Fellow comrades. Good morning and blessings!...I said, Good Morning familia!

Good morning!

EVERYONE

EVARISTO We got a huge agenda ahead of us today so I'm gonna keep this short. I wanted to make sure that we welcome our newest recruits this morning. Let's make space for them in this place. They're making one of the most important decisions of their lives.

The people applaud.

Who wants to go first?

EVARISTO (CONT'D)

He looks around. He spots PRESTON eating.

EVARISTO (CONT'D) Preston! My man. Why don't you go first?

PRESTON stands up from his seat. Swallows his food.

PRESTON So, yeah…um…I wanted to become a part of the BBG because my family has been victims of police brutality since before I was born and from since as early as I can imagine. I lost my brother to violence. My father. My uncle. My grandfather who I never even met… And yeah I guess you can say that some of them had it coming. Like my uncle was a big time coke dealer and he got involved with some crazy shit. But like, my brother for instance, he… he was just a kid. 18 years old.

Racially profiled. They got the wrong guy but didn’t realize it until they had shot 5 bullets into his chest and then finally checked his wallet...

11.

PRESTON (CONT'D) He didn’t deserve that, you know? He was supposed to go to college and play basketball. I looked up to him. My father was locked up all my life and my brother was all I had…but um…enough of that. I’m a…I’m a recent High School graduateThe people applaud.

PRESTON (CONT'D) Thank you. But please save the applause….Um…I was supposed to go to upstate and do the whole college thing…but fuck that.

You know? I’m angry. My momma is alone. And that’s why I’m here. I’m here to fight back and protect my family. To avenge my brother. To make some change. So uh…yeah…thanks for having me. It’s an honor.