Monkey Business Theatre

Let’s Go to Paradise!

Let’s Go to Paradise! a tzotzil tragicomedy () the idea for Let’s Go to Paradise! (¡Vámonos al paraíso!) was born in 1992 as the theatre group was returning by bus from Honduras. As we passed by many coffee fincas in the Soconusco region of southwestern Chiapas, suddenly Maryan pointed to a sign at a finca entrance. “I worked there!” he exclaimed. As he began to recall his suffering while working as a coffee picker, I suggested that that should be the basis for our next play, especially because there were still many old Chamulan men who could provide us with material for dramatic scenes. This play focuses on how the lowland coffee growers abuse Indian peons who suffer indentured labor, machete blows for “laziness,” double hours, and filthy living conditions—and if they fall sick are even buried alive to serve as fertilizer for the young bushes. Erasto Urbina, a Ladino of San Cristóbal, supporting the reforms of President Cárdenas, worked intrepidly and bravely to reduce the abuses of fellow Ladinos. The scenes, it is suggested, have changed very little. They depict life in the 1930s, culminating in the establishment of a coffee laborers’ union which, alas, was bought out later. Following one performance, an actor addressed the audience: “Wouldn’t you like a cup of the best export-quality coffee? Mayan coffee? Really: there are no more cadavers!” Using a Spanish play on words, the German finca owner is said to be from Animalia, rather than Alemania. The tapaculo, “ass-stopper,” is an unidentified wormlike creature. An ensign-bearer is a high member of the religious hierarchy of Zinacantán. Recalling past memories, and parading the outrageous tricks played by Mikulax Bolom on the Ladino foreman, this play was a great success locally. [  ] monkey business theatre At one performance in Chiapas both actors and audience proceeded with the show in the pouring rain. The trick in this play was to teach someone to walk on stilts so that the German finca owner could stride about in his white suit looking down on his Indian workers. Fortunately, Palas 2 was backstage at a performance at Antioch College when he saw a group of university students playing ball on stilts. He could not resist. In a few moments he had mastered the technique and was playing with them. That evening, after Palas’s first time on stilts, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant where, without hesitation and for the first time, he successfully wielded chopsticks. This was also the first play where two males put on blonde wigs and gaudy dresses to buffoon the finquero’s wife and daughter. For versions in Tzotzil and Spanish, see Montemayor 1996b. let’s go to paradise! [  ] cast of characters nicolás (mikulax) bolom: wearing a battered, tall-crowned sombrero and a tattered, dirty white muslin shirt and shorts. He wears sandals and carries a straw mat, a net bag, and a water gourd. mestizo bandit: wearing a half mask with a thick black moustache. He sports a red shirt, gray pants, and black shoes. He carries a machete. campesino 1: wearing a tall-crowned sombrero with a large hole in the top, tattered and dirty white muslin shirt and longish pants, with one leg rolled up. He is barefoot. campesino 2: Sebastián (Xap), wearing the same as Nicolás, but carrying nothing campesino 3: wearing the same as Campesino 2 erasto urbina: wearing a white shirt open at the collar, gray vest, and pants. His eyeglasses are always pushed low on the end of his nose. When disguised as Pascual (Pax) Bolom, he wears the same as Campesino 2; when a waiter, he wears a white jacket, gray pants, and black shoes. inspector: wearing a light brown half mask with a neat moustache, white shirt and tie, a gray suit, and black shoes don tacho: recruiter, a portly man, wearing a half mask with a big red nose and moustache, a gray felt hat, white shirt open at the collar, gray pants, and black shoes cantina owner: wearing a full face mask of an old hag with white braids. She wears a white blouse, black skirt, white shoes, and has a black shawl pulled around her face. wife of campesino 2: wearing Chamulan clothes—a white blouse and black cotton skirt fastened by a wide red...