Local playwright Luis “Xago” Juarez wrote A Christmas Carol ¡y Que!, an East Salinas version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, way back in 1991. It’s a one-act, bilingual number that stars Sal – described as “a homie from the Eastside” falling deeper into gang life – as a stand-in for Scrooge.
One character, Sal’s friend Japo, says to him, “Always down for whatever? Always pissed off? Always having to watch your back? Always trippin’… ”
When Sal is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, he’s taken back to the moment his Esselen ancestors first encountered Europeans of the Spanish Armada in pre-colonial California.
Back in the day, Juarez and his fellow Baktun 12 theater troupe toured the play throughout the Alisal Union School District in the ’90s, refining it as they went to address and reflect on the root causes of rising street violence. It was last mounted in 2000.
Now it’s back, as relevant as ever, this time directed by Cristal Avila Gonzalez, who relates personally to the story.
“[The play], at its essence, is a story about my childhood,” she writes in an email. “The story of the kids I grew up around, the story of struggle, limited resources, dysfunctional families and temptation on every corner.”
She says it’s easy to label someone from “the view of our car.” But to really know people you have to live with them for a time. That’s what this play does.