Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
The sympathetic vibrations grow– and encompass them all. They go into memory space: fragments of their journeys across the border. Like a dream. They are traveling again, in their minds. MARIPOSA I see myself with a little red t-shirt that I brought, some jeans, a grey sweatshirt that a friend had given me because she says to me, “it’s cold, you can’t go like that.” ROGELIO I asked family members who had already come, “How do I prepare to go there? What should I do? How?” MARIPOSA You couldn’t bring anything. Nothing, nothing. I remember that my mother only gave me a, a thread… one of those little threads with a virgin, and a tiny butterfly she drew– she didn’t want me to bring a chain so I wouldn’t call attention– And she says– “it’ll protect you.” ROGELIO The first time I crossed, to be honest– well when I called my family, I felt like crying, because, see, I had never left Honduras before, and I said, “What did I come for?” like, “What did I come for? It would have been better to stay there, even if I was poor.” And that was just in, in Guatemala, imagine, in Guatemala! (laughs) I felt like strange having left my country. MARIPOSA I felt so much fear that to come to this country, I cut off all my hair. So they would mistake me for a boy. I was so scared. When I left to come here it was a Tuesday. On Sunday I went to my school friend’s house and I told her, “your mom cuts hair? Can she cut mine because I’m going to New York, and I’m scared.” Because I had hair down to here. And she says, “yes, of course.” And they cut off all my hair and I put on a hat… In my subconscious, I was trying to pretend I was a boy. JOHAN The road is hard.
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
ELVIN it’s even harder if you don’t come with a guide, MARIPOSA I think I paid…2,000 dollars? JOHAN They ask for half, which is 3,000 dollars. PILI A coyote came and got us from my town– the coyote is the person that helps us cross the border– and then, JOHAN he takes us to the border. ELVIN I came on my own. MARIPOSA From Mexico– from my town– they take you to Mexico City. In Mexico City, you take a flight I don’t know where. From there, they take us in a car. From there they leave us in I don’t know where they left us. PILI a bus for 4 hours, a plane to Chihuahua, from there to Agua Prieta another 8 hours by bus… ROGELIO We cross all Guatemala in one day on a bus, like tourists. JOHAN They cross us over the river to Mexico, just like that– ELVIN the way they cross fruit over MARIPOSA I came with a friend, but they put you together with people you don’t know, because people come from other parts of Mexico, Guatemala, different places. JOHAN Tecún Umán, La Mesilla, Huehuetenango… ELVIN We get on the train they call La Bestia.
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
JOHAN There are hundreds of us, scrambling on top of the boxcars, hanging on between train cars PILI Puebla, Tampico, Agua Prieta… ELVIN You sit where you can. We're on it a week. JOHAN Tuxtla Gutierrez, Veracruz, Monterrey… MARIPOSA I think we're... like 10 people walking together. PILI You wait to cross, but it’s too hot, la migra is near– ALL You wait, you wait, you wait JOHAN They bring me over the Rio Bravo on a raft. ROGELIO Then you enter the desert, ALL And you begin to walk. MUSIC: rhythmic, pulsing underneath words, propelling their journey. MARIPOSA It's like, like three days walking. In the desert. So everything you see in the movies, on tv, it’s true. JOHAN You walk in the desert in the dark. ELVIN You don’t know if you’re on the hill, if you’re on the mountain…
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
MARIPOSA There’s not a single light– JOHAN you don’t know if you’ll get to your destination or not. PILI The moon is really bright, it isn't that dark– JOHAN What if I get left behind in the desert? ROGELIO I don’t know if I can walk like that. ELVIN Will I be able to? MARIPOSA Two days in, they rob us, take our money. The rateros who– they call them the cholos. They know that people pass through there so, well, JOHAN they wait for them there to take their money. PILI I'm looking at the moon, when suddenly we hear people coming. In my town we heard stories– I'm like, what’s going to happen? JOHAN What will they do to us? MARIPOSA I close my eyes and I can see how they seated us: there was a lot of sand, dirt, the men who robbed us holding weapons, kicking us in the back, but they didn’t do anything to me. PILI They get closer and say ‘No, no no no. We haven’t come to hurt you.’ They're– I think, soldiers or something? Just looking for drugs. They don’t go around arresting people who’re just crossing.
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
JOHAN In Mexico there’s a lot of military, lots of police. ELVIN More than anything, they want money, money. MARIPOSA One lady takes off her wedding ring, she puts it in her mouth. But the man sees her, makes her spit out the ring she didn’t want to lose. I’ll never forget that. He kicked her in the back so that he could get it out. JOHAN We keep walking. ROGELIO The guide arranges everything, talks to the police. They say ‘the chickens, the tomatoes,’ they don’t say names, you understand? “I’ve got this many tomatoes. I’m going to cross,” understand? (laughs) They pay for you. PILI The soldiers sit with us, and talk about if we make it across, what are we going to do there. They even start making jokes and we start to laugh, we're like happy for a moment? JOHAN The police get on the bus, they say, ROGELIO “Let’s see, show me your papers. Where are you going?” ELVIN “I’m going North.” And then the guide says: JOHAN “I already paid for them.” ELVIN And the police say ROGELIO (a long look, then:) “Have a good trip!” ELVIN You know, money. Money, money is what moves things.
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
MARI And I sleep in the desert, JOHAN I walk by night and in the day ELVIN I fall, PILI I get up. MARI I don’t have water… ROGELIO I don’t have food. JOHAN And there’s no rest. ELVIN I sleep an hour. MARI I can’t sleep long because la migra is there. PILI My sister and I hug each other tight but we barely sleep at all because it's so cold. It was, it was really cold. MARI/PILI You can’t stop, PRIMOS no, MARI you’re getting there today, ELVIN or not, JOHAN well, I’m going to sleep,
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
ALL no. ELVIN & JOHAN La migra catches you– PILI They catch us all. MARI All of us. ALL Every single one. JOHAN –they take you back to the place across the border. ELVIN Take a bath, ROGELIO change, MARI sleep for a moment, PILI because that night you leave again. They dream. SONG/CHANT/TRANCE: JOHAN the walking walking walking walking, waiting a big man so mean to everyone, never shares but then in the desert the bees swarm over him help! help! he cries i have to help him walk we fall into the riverbed trapped there waiting waiting waiting forever
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
so thirsty and that song that song I heard in Veracruz it's still there I hear it... (sound) it takes me out of here and I hang on to it my amulet MARIPOSA It took me like a week and a half to get here. Like a week and a half. But the second time I walked, it was even more fear. Because they tried to rob us again. Primo 2 becomes the gangster, Primo 1 becomes the guide, others are all the migrants. MARIPOSA I'm looking at the guide. I'm so scared. GUIDE (Rogelio) You’re going to take my hand and you’re going to say that you’re my wife. GANGSTER (Elvin) Females on this side and men on the other side. GUIDE But, I’m bringing my wife with me. Gangster looks her up and down. Finally: GANGSTER (Elvin) Ok, since you’re the guide, pass her through that way. Mariposa & Guide move through. She looks back at others. MARIPOSA They didn’t touch me. But I don’t know what they might have done to the others. JOHAN You have to pay the Migra, ELVIN you have to pay the police
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
ROGELIO You have to pay the Zetas JOHAN The military. ELVIN They’re all Marines, I think. ROGELIO Those men who are really fat, the federal police– they stop you too. PILI And again, we tried to cross. But this time was by the wall. And this time, the coyotes told me and my sister and brother that we would walk alone. MARIPOSA This I’ll never forget– I lay down on the ground, JOHAN so cold, MARIPOSA I closed my eyes and all I wanted was to get to this country to meet my nephew. Because there was a baby in the family. I think I’ve never talked about it, but he was my motivation. I mean I knew that I wanted a better future for myself, stability for my mother so that she wouldn’t suffer, but when I was there in that moment, the only thing that went through my mind was my nephew. When I get there, I’ll see my baby. But it was incredible because I had never met that baby. He had been born in August and I was walking in November. PILI They put a ladder on our side of the wall, and then we had to jump to the other side and it was like… 15 or 14 feet high. So my sister got on quickly and jumped, and my brother, well he let go too and I was last, I was hanging there…
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
MARIPOSA lying there on that ground and it was so cold and the sound of the crickets or I don’t know what. And I remember I said, but, well, I am going to get there. MARIPOSA & JOHAN I have a lot of faith. PILI – and finally I had to let go because my hands got tired! (laughs) And I fell to the bottom and then we started to crawl. Just us. We didn’t have a coyote, nothing. We didn’t see police, ALL: we jumped, we crawled– PILI: we saw a rabbit that crossed in front of us– so many rabbits! and we kept crawling, kept crawling– til we weren’t in the grass anymore and we stood up like normal people and some people were looking at us from inside their house. And we threw off our jackets and the dogs started to bark but we kept walking ALL: like normal people. PILI: And they had told us to get to 14th street, and there’d be a white car, and there was the car and we said the code and they stuck us inside. And from there they took us to Tucson, Arizona. JOHAN Victoria, Texas ELVIN & ROGELIO Houston MARIPOSA Los Angeles PILI Until there were enough people to bring us here. ROGELIO When your family sends the rest of the money,
Excerpt “The Journey” from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
they take you to whatever state you say you’re going to. PILI 15 or 10 people, in a small, uh, van– JOHAN riding under people’s feet, on the passenger side, in a tiny space– scrunched up ELVIN However you end up, that’s how you’ll stay, JOHAN if they step on you, you can’t move. ROGELIO The thing is that everyone has to fit. JOHAN 9 hours, 10, 12, 16... RAFAELA I didn't come that way. I came on a plane. One minute I was there, and another minute, here. And we couldn't go back. I'm not sure I ever landed. MARIPOSA When the caterpillar's in that in-between state, all dissolved in the cocoon, with no form at all anymore, is it just the hope of becoming that gets it through? The vision of taking form again one day, a thousand times more beautiful? How do you get through losing who you were and not knowing who you'll become? Or IF you'll become – at all? JOHAN I tell myself, I know that I’m going to get there MARIPOSA I'm going to get there. I’m going to see that baby, and I’m going to hug my nephew PILI and I'll get to go to school again ELVIN and I'll get my first paycheck
Excerpt “The Journey� from Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) by Andrea Thome
ROGELIO and I'll build my parents a house JOHAN and I'll finally be safe. MARIPOSA Yes, JOHAN, MARIPOSA & ALL very soon I will get there. Finally a lone young man appears in the corner of the space. JOHAN. Quiet. He just stands there. Elvin sees him. ELVIN Johan... Elvin goes to him, embraces him hard. Johan comes to life. He embraces back. Something passes between them. So much care. Rogelio joins them, embraces them both. Between the three, a mixture of extreme care and manly bravado and deep joy and careful vigilance. It's almost like a ritual: all taking care of him. They take him to a chair, sit him down. Bringing water. Mezcal. Food. They move and hover around him.