Filipino farm workers, Pajaro Valley,
near Watsonville, September 1939
Mary Oliver photograph, Pajaro Valley Historical Association
My friend and fellow writer Shannon Lee L. Pacaoan has introduced me to The Next Big Thing where I write about one of my books. Since I haven’t written a book yet, I have chosen to write about “Standing Above Pajaro,” the play.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Fermin Tobera was an immigrant farm worker who traveled from the Philippines to work in the fields of California in the 1920s. He was shot through the heart in January 1930 during the Watsonville Riots. I first learned of this information 20 years ago, have finally written a one-act play surrounding the incident and have finally felt ready, in craft and maturity, to turn this tragic tale into a full-length play.
What genre does your book fall under?
Playscript – Drama
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
There are three characters (so far): Celestino Tobera – Dion Basco; Melissa Crawley – Sandra Bullock; and Bobby Crawley Jr. – Darren Criss.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
A stand-off between a woman, her abusive son, and a Filipino migrant worker heats up an early morning during the Watsonville Riots of January 1930 when a scared Celestino Tobera breaks into Melissa Crawley’s general store.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Standing Above Pajaro started as a One-Act with five scenes and took me about 3 months to write to get it to the point I’m happy with. I’ve also been fortunate to workshop this piece with Asian American Theatre Company’s NewWorks Incubator in San Francisco for emerging playwrights. Now I’m in the space of adding more characters and more depth of a full-length piece which will become a part of my MFA Thesis at San Francisco State University.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I grew up 25 minutes away from Watsonville, the site of the riots against these Filipino farm workers. The irony is that I didn’t learn about it until I was in my early 20s. It was that proximity as well as my need to understand why these racial tensions occurred then and why this is still relavant is what’s inspiring to continue this project.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I want the audience to, not only remember this event in 1930, but that discrimination against immigrants is still happening, though not as overtly or violently, as in the case of SB1070 in Arizona in 2010.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m still waiting for the One-Act to be produced, but I’m more focused on completing the full-length, finding a theatre company to co-produce the play with, and finding the funding to make that happen!
Even though, I’m currently working on two other plays, getting shorter plays produced and have a 10-minute screenplay work-in-progress, Standing Above Pajaro is the Passion Project which I won’t be able to let go of until I see it performed on stage.