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Approximately three or four years ago, Brian Quijada got a call from his mother. With not much going on and an urge to ask his parents “everything before they go,” Quijada asked his mother about further details of her migration to the U.S. and their family lineage.

“She told me she got pregnant at 16 and had my brother Fernando, and she heard about the U.S. and realized that she had to go in order to give herself and Fernando a better life,” he said.

Those details eventually formed “Somewhere Over the Border,” a musical composed by Brian Quijada and directed by Rebecca Martinez. The play is based on the true story of Quijada’s mother, Reina Quijada, making the sacrifice as a teenager to leave her baby and family in El Salvador in search for a better life in the United States away from the war during the 1970s. The play, which includes influences from the classic film “The Wizard of Oz,” is being shown at Syracuse Stage from Feb. 23 to March 13 and will tour other cities like Rochester and Chicago. The play will also be available as a video from March 14-27.

Quijada is a theater polymath, as he is a writer, singer, actor, musician, composer and playwright. During an interview with associate artistic director Melissa Crespo, Quijada spoke about how he received his inspiration for writing “Somewhere Over the Border.”

The conversation was tough on his mother, as she had to relive her experience of the long journey where she left her baby son Fernando behind, met new people, crossed the desert for three days and hid under a board of flowers in order to go through immigration.

“She’s like, ‘You’ve packed it into an hour and a half.’ So,it is absolutely hard for her to relive those moments, even dramatized,” Quijada said.

After hearing the story, Quijada realized the similarities his mother’s story shared with the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.” Wanting to honor her sacrifice and the many untold and forgotten stories of first-generation immigrants, Quijada made it his artistic mission and statement through “Somewhere Over the Border” to bring empathy to the American immigrant experience.

Francisca Muñoz learned about the play while doing a show in Arkansas — she saw the audition notice and quickly knew she wanted to audition for the role. She sent in her tape recordings and soon after, came to New York to sing and perform in person. Within a week, she was offered the role of Julia, Reina’s mother.

Muñoz said that being the eldest of her siblings has given her a motherly quality, so playing Julia was natural. She can understand how Julia can potentially be misunderstood by viewers as being strict and serious, but she just wants the best for her children.

“And I think (of) myself now as an adult, really understanding the way that my mom had these sets of rules in the house as we were growing up as kids, and I didn’t understand them,” Muñoz said. “And I think those things are the things that have stuck with me. I definitely have brought some of those experiences into this role.”

The play draws a lot of similarities from “The Wizard of Oz,” including the personality of Don Napoleon — one of the show’s characters — sharing a similar personality to Glinda the Good Witch.
Courtesy of Mike Davis

Muñoz felt her role has played an influential part in her life. After being born and raised in Chile and migrating to Australia at the age of 4, she did not know a lot about the journey many immigrants go through in order to reach the U.S. until she did research herself and listened to the real-life Reina’s story. She hopes the audience, like herself, gains more awareness and encouragement to learn more through the play.

Tanya De León, who plays Reina, is Mexican American and was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. De León started theater her junior year of high school, playing Rapunzel in the school’s production of “Into the Woods.” Her background in music goes back to the age of 2, when she would sing songs with her grandmother.

De León was informed by her agent about “Somewhere Over the Border” and was beyond excited to audition. She also appreciated and admired the idea of an all-Latin cast, which promotes and opens doors for diversity and inclusivity in theater.

“My first thought was, ‘Finally a show about Latin people that shows hope and portrays a real story outside of stereotypes.’ I was so moved by that. Also Reina’s story resonated with me because it’s part of my history too — as I’m sure it does with many others,” De León said. “My grandmother and grandfather left their town in Mexico in pursuit of the American dream (and left) my mother and her siblings with their great-grandparents while they settled in.”

De León felt very connected to the work, but, similar to Muñoz, she felt her role in “Somewhere Over the Border” pushed her as an actress. The cast rehearsed and built the play without a band, so they did not realize how impactful hearing the full sound was, especially with it being a new musical.

“This is my first musical since the shutdown in 2020, so I’ve had to rebuild that stamina and work those muscles again,” De León said. “And let me tell you, playing Reina has definitely increased my stamina by more than I have ever imagined.”

Bobby Plasencia, who plays the two characters Don Napoleon and Silvano, has been in theater for 30 years now, since he was in college. He was sought out for “Somewhere Over the Border” through his performance in “American Mariachi” at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre last year.

Although he said playing Silvano, who is inspired by the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz,” was easy, Plasencia claimed playing Don Napoleon was a bit difficult. With the help of Quijada, they made the personality of Don Napoleon similar to Glinda the Good Witch from “The Wizard of Oz,” but with its own take. Don Napoleon owns a pupuseria stand and is the one that sponsors Reina and tells her about El Gran Coyote, who can help her cross the border.

“So he’s kind of like the Good Witch, so then we started thinking about the character, … (who) talks about how he’s still a single man,” Plasencia said. “So we thought that maybe he’s more like a man child, and (in) his way of being, he’s more like a kid. So then that’s when that character started merging in that direction.”

Being Puerto Rican, Plasencia expressed how he is privileged to take a plane to come to the U.S. He did not have to face the same challenges Reina did, but he empathized with the general notion of coming to another country with nothing and making something of yourself. Similarly to Quijada and other cast members, Plasencia wanted to reflect the dream of many immigrants coming to the U.S. and not their usual stereotypical portrayals.

“We even had a gentleman who was a Vietnamese refugee in this country (and) came when he left Vietnam in the ’70s, he came to see the show, and he was very moved by it because he felt like, ‘That’s like my journey too,’” Plasencia said. “What I saw out there is, you come to this country, for a better life, for you and your family.”

Published on March 9, 2022 at 1:15 am