Santos and Santos

rdf:langString Santos and Santos

rdf:langString Santos and Santos is a crime saga written by Latin playwright Octavio Solis about the Santos Family Law Practice in El Paso during the 1980s. It is loosely based on the killing of Judge John H. Wood Jr. by Jamiel Chagra and his brother that also occurred during the 1980s in El Paso. Drugs, gambling, and trafficking fuel the law office of Santos & Santos, and the elder brothers are quick to incorporate the younger brother after the recent death of their father. The younger brother, Tomas, questions his relationship to his heritage as he sees his brothers so eagerly trying to live the life of the American. When one of the brothers is tried for murder, Tomas leads an elaborate plot to assassinate the presiding judge in the trial. Consumed by his father's memory, Tomas makes an effort to unite with his brothers and instead pulls them apart; in trying to preserve his father's dreams, he destroys them and in the process brings down a first-generation Chicano family's rise in America. When Tomas says, "Forgive me my Chicanismo", it is a line that reaches out to anyone who has emigrated here, no matter from where or how many generations back. The play explores the Mexican-American struggle to achieve the American dream.