‘Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo’ Play Debuts In San Diego

This is KPBS Midday Edition. I Maureen Cavanaugh. Social workers, community activist, priests, pastors and politicians all urge gang members to get up, leave the gang and live a productive law-abiding life but just how is someone supposed to do that when , for years, their identity other loyalties have been linked to a gang? When their bodies are covered with placas. Gang tattoos. A new play opening in San Diego takes on the issue of gays loyalty and the legacy of violence for joining me is Paul Flores, a Chula Vista native and recipient of the Doris Duke Theatre artist aware of his play is called Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo . Welcome to the show. ________________________________________ Thank you so much. Very honored to be here. ________________________________________ Ric Salinas is a lead actor and founding member of the Chicano performance troupe, Culture Clash. Welcome. ________________________________________ Thank you. Good to be here. ________________________________________ All, you have said that when a gang member -- what a gang member has to go through to be human is huge. What do you mean by that? ________________________________________ I mean that circumstances that pushes -- that places a person to choose gangs is -- I will be Frank. It is nothing nice. What Alex Sanchez says is that a lot of gang members are essentially choosing suicide by joining gangs. To be in the mindset of a choosing suicide as a form of life, that is total contradiction and to regain your humanity, to change from being a person who lives by the gang code, which is the streets, number one, the gang number one, to reenter back into normal symbols of -- society is a gigantic transformation that needs to happen so reclaiming your life outside of the gang is a very big, big endeavor. ________________________________________ I want to talk about, Alex Sanchez, former gang member in a minute but Ric, the character that you play, Fausto has a fundamental dilemma in this plan he wants to leave gang life and reunite with his family. What drew you to the script? ________________________________________ Well, Fausto is really based off of Alex Sanchez that we mentioned and you can elaborate on him but when Paul first came to me with this play that he burrows, this year marks my 30th anniversary with Culture Clash where we have done satires, social commentary, comedy, and this piece was about a Salvador in story and I was born in El Salvador so when he approached me, I said not another play about gangs? Latino gangs? Come on. That is the stereotype that we often associate Latinos with and especially from Salvador, but I read it and it just blew me away because as I always mentioned to Paul, he wrote a Greek tragedy, it is so specific about the Salvador in culture that it becomes universal. And it is the universal story of a father trying to save his family and trying to save his son, second chances, redemption and the whole fact of the tattoo removal which is a big part of humanizing these young men, it is the removal of your placas, the tattoos, it is a metaphor of removing his past. ________________________________________ Alex Sanchez who Fausto is based on, in a gang for a month time, got out, founded homeless Unitas -- you need to start and he consulted with you in the writing of this? ________________________________________ Absolutely. Without his guidance and support, I would not have been able to interview over 100 different folks impacted by gangs, some active gang members and so may -- inactive people in prison, juvenile -- people in juvenile hall approbation and Alex gave me his word or gave everybody else is word that interviewing with me was safe, and in the end, actually benefit folks who had participated in the interview process and this play is based on all of those interviews and visit documentary theater piece so the majority of things that are said, in fact, some verbatim words that Ric will do our out of his mouth. ________________________________________ And in fact a Ric will read us a little bit from the opening of the play. ________________________________________ Yes. Is going to present the opening monologue from the play which discusses how numbers work inside the gang structure and some folks might know this and some others might not but California gains are divided between North and South and each one of those regions has a number. When we are beginning to write the play and present it to be advisors, we actually had to bring in gang experts and other folks who could advise us on -- would we be safe doing this play? Because we are using real fans, real names of gangs, real members so Ric will breakdown what those numbers mean and how they represent the specific identity and character that he plays, Fausto Carbajal and or a.k.a. placas. ________________________________________ He is at a tattoo removal clinic when the play opens. What is in a number? Any number? It was the Mayans who invented the zero. Similars should guard Indians staring at the stars above the Yucatán decided thousands of years ago that it all came from nothing. The universe birth the first to the Maia, zero was God. And how about the number 1? Americans believe that everything starts with a number 1. First is the most important, first of the month, firstborn, first tier, first kiss, first skill, one nation under God, it is a cheerleader song in every game, we're number 1, we're number one, number 1 is God, trip on that and how about the number 3? That is an important number. The father, the son, the Holy Ghost and, comes around in three, right? Spaniards, three dots on my hand -- three words to live by. Me, but although cup. 1, 3, 13 which is Southern California, all of those from the south have to show unity with the number 13. Born in El Salvador, raised in San Francisco which is Northern California. But the Salvador in click at -- we have to show unity with those from the south. But I have got 13 tattooed all over my body. So sometimes I wonder which came first, bad luck or the number 13. It is what you call a conundrum. Prison library. What can I say? Conundrum. I like that conference were, kind of like my tattoos, I am supposed to bring them off part of my probation but these placas are my lead and my loyalty to the home was, my history, and I do not like drop us -- tattoo removal is disrespecting the hood and you can get killed for that but I think different topic my son Edgar goes to high school in rival neighborhood and twice a week I have to walk to visit him and now I left them years ago, but my old rivals, they don't care. They see me walking down the street with a 13 on my hand, my neck and bank. There is no such thing as a former gang member whoever has said that has never been in again but maybe there is such a thing as a second chance and that is why I'm here. I am getting my tattoos removed from my boy and I want to second chance to be a father. That is all I thought about those nine years locked up. I'd like to put some new numbers together. ________________________________________ That is Ric Salinas and he is performing the opening monologue of placas, -- Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo. Paul, who is the playwright of placas, this is to work -- toured nationally and opening in San Diego at Lincoln High School on Thursday. That is not the usual venue for a place so why that choice? ________________________________________ Because we are partnering with the building health and communities San Diego city Heights -- I'm sorry -- building healthy communities city Heights, and we have been touring as part of the Californian endowments building and help the initiative throughout the state and one of the parties as well as the national Compadres that were, and they support the healing work that the play is associated with and the city Heights -- it is a very interesting community, what we are calling it the Ellis Island of at the West Coast with all of the different populations and all of the services, service organizations that are there so city Heights is part of the building health of communities work offended by the California dominance and I was performing at a function and some of the young folks from city Heights liked what I was doing and said, could you bring that placas to San Diego? They brought it in a part of -- one of the sites that midcity can which is an organized -- organizing group here in San Diego -- they work at Lincoln High School, organizing youth campaigns, putting up skate parks, positive activities for young people, civic engagement work, and so we thought that Lincoln high would be great to be and that we brought the -- from the theater -- theater and he works at the school district so it was a natural fit and that is a beautiful theater, I mean it is beautiful. ________________________________________ I have got to give credit to Paul and talking about -- where we are calling it documentary drama. These are all professional actors that are doing this play. We went and we got actors that are very professional, they have done their work, and we have invested in these characters because they are real. ________________________________________ I want to tell everyone that the play placas -- Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo will be performed on Thursday, April 23, Friday, April 24, Saturday, April 25 at Lincoln High School. I have been speaking with playwright Paul Flores, lead actor Ric Salinas, thank you both very much. ________________________________________ Thank you, morning.