Ric Salinas to Star in PLACAS at Laney College Theater, 3/26-29

A Salvadoran immigrant tries to reclaim his family while letting go of his gangbanger past. Culture Clash's Ric Salinas heads the cast when the San Francisco International Arts Festival brings PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo by Paul S. Flores to Laney College Theater in Oakland for four performances only, March 26-29.

Developed with and directed by Cornerstone Theatre Company artistic director Michael John Garcés, PLACAS (barrio slang for body tattoos) is a bilingual tale of fathers and sons, transformation and redemption that illuminates one man's determination to reunite his family after surviving civil war in El Salvador, immigration, deportation, prison and street violence.

"Living in San Francisco in the eighties, the time when the war sent many refugees to places like San Francisco's Mission District, I saw first hand how this wave of immigrants impacted the neighborhoods and how the realities of trying to adapt to living in the U.S. impacted Salvadorans," said Salinas, who was born in El Salvador. "I was almost killed trying to prevent gang violence in front of my home in the Mission, so it is something I have first hand experience with. I agreed to play Fausto because I'm hoping that by telling his story, it will allow audiences, old and young, to experience and learn about the consequences when loved ones become caught up in gang activity."

In street culture, placas (tattoos) signify an individual member's unswerving loyalty to the gang and also serve as a mechanism to create a new identity. Using Fausto's tattoos as a metaphor, PLACAS explores the process of tattoo removal as one possible path for former gang members to move forward. Laser tattoo removal is a complicated and painful procedure that can take years to conclude, and it is especially risky for ex-gang members because their former comrades see itas betrayal and may target those who seek treatment. Partly because of this risk, gang prevention workers, police, probation ofiicers, judges and case workers see tattoo removal as a legitimate step gang members can take toward reintegrating into civil society.

"What a gang member has to go through to be human is huge," Flores explained in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "There's a mangled sense of identity, of life outside the gang clashing with the code of the gang. How do you recover from that? How does a man like Fausto recover his humanity after a lifetime of war and violence?

As part of the writing process, Flores interviewed over 100 gang members, parents and intervention workers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and El Salvador. Ric Salinas, a founding member of the critically acclaimed performance group Culture Clash, was approached to play Fausto Carbajal, a role loosely based on a real person named Alex Sanchez. Now in his 40s, Sanchez is an ex-gang member who founded the non-profit Homies Unidos and who worked closely with Flores to set up interviews with gang members during his research. Last year, a nationwide campaign launched in Los Angeles named We Are Alex, was successful in clearing Alex Sanchez of erroneous charges brought in a RICO grand jury indictment in 2009.

In addition to Salinas, the PLACAS ensemble includes Carolyn Zeller, Luis "Xago" Juárez, Xavi Moreno, Sarita Ocón and Fidel Gomez. Set design for PLACAS is by Tanya Orellano; lighting design: Tom Onteveros; sound design: Alejandro Acosta; costume design: Keiko Carreira; and fight choreography is by Edgar Landa.

PLACAS was first produced by the San Francisco International Arts Festival in 2012, and the Laney College engagement is part of a national tour including dates in Washington DC, Denver, Los Angeles and New York City. Co-commissioned by four nationally respected Latino arts organizations (MACLA, Su Teatro, Pregones Theatre Company and GALA Theatre) through the National Performance Network, PLACAS was developed as a pro-active community response to the issue of transnational gang violence, presenting positive elements of Central American culture in the context of a hostile, anti-immigrant political environment.

The Oakland performances of PLACAS are presented with the support of the California Arts Council, the Zellerbach Family Foundation (fiscally sponsored by La Peña Cultural Center) and the REACH Ashland Youth Center (funded in part by the Alameda County Arts Commission). The 2014 national tour of PLACAS is also supported by the The California Endowment Building Healthy Communities, the National Compadres Network and The Unity Council.

Funding for the creation of PLACAS was also received from National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Columbia Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, California Arts Council, Bernard Osher Foundation, Puffin Foundation and the Creative Work Fund: A program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, supported by ArtPlace, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.

To post a comment, you must register and login.