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• 1 2015-10-20T15:20:18-07:00 Scene III: Past vs. Present 10 Has Anything Changed? plain 2015-12-15T18:07:56-08:00

   

  The setting of the scene is 1910, and Eva and Pablo are deciding what they are going to do with their lives.

   

  This scene begins with Eva and Pablo fighting. Eva wants to move their family to the Simons Brick Company, so as they can reunite with Eva’s extended family. Her relatives have contacted her from the Simon Brick Company, and they strongly recommend it. Pablo is sick and tired of being taken advantage of by big “capitalist companies” and wants to go to San Francisco and join a labor union so as to protect his rights an a worker. Pablo and Eva disagree on many political ideas; Eva believes that labor unions are predominantly communist and is fearful of being associated with such beliefs, while Pablo sees labor unions as a safe haven for lower-class workers.

   

  Eventually, Pablo decides to accept Eva’s plan for the future. This is because, after further research into the idea of joining a labor union, he realizes how discriminatory they are towards immigrants. Many of Pablo’s neighbors and coworkers were Chinese and Japanese, and thus he did not want to join an organization that discriminated against his friends. Additionally, Pablo had suffered from ethnic and racial discrimination, so he was able to relate to those who were discriminated against by the Anti-Chinese Riots, the Chinese Exclusion Acts, and the Immigration Act of 1924 (Ethington, Capitalist California Lecture). These pieces of legislation tried to force outlaw or "urge those persons employing Chinese to replace them with white labor" ("Anti Chinese Meeting", 1893)

   

  This scene shows Eva and Pablo moving their stuff to the Simons Brick Company. Here, they live and a compact workers house next to some of Eva’s relatives. The work is hard, but Pablo is used to this with his background in labor in the missions and ranchos. Though the couple already have two children, they heard of the Simons Company baby bonus. This baby bonus plan outlined that “every baby born to the brickyard family entered the world with a shiny new $5 gold piece courtesy of the company… have a baby, earn $5, make that baby a lifelong worker in a company town brickyard” (Deverell, pg 136). Eva and Pablo decide to have another child! They have found stable jobs and living situations, and with the shiny monetary reward for babies born to Simons workers, they believe it is the perfect time.
  ""But the stork is a more than ordinary welcome visitor at Simons, for the brothers Simons, who started the town and are interested in seeing it grow, give a price of a shining $5 gold piece for each visit of the bird… The baby prize fund is only one of the striking features of the development of this new town of Simons" ("Stork...Map", 1907).
   

   

  The scene of the movie will follow Pablo and Eva as they go about their day-to-day business; Eva spends her days cleaning and cooking, while Pablo completes strenuous manual labor under the hot sun.  Making bricks involves attention to detail and skill; they must be created and layered at specific temperatures. Pablo and Eva were working along side, and living with, many Mexican immigrants who had sought jobs and opportunity in America after the revolution. ""Los Angeles, which has been well called the American capital of Mexican revolt, is also in fair way to become the headquarters de luxe of refugees… In the wake of the revolution, thousands of Mexicans are coming across the line… bound for Los Angeles"("Low Angeles...Refugees", 1920). 

   

  Pablo and Eva seem happy, but at times, when Pablo is telling stories about his upbringing on the mission and his hard work on the rancho, he questions if his life as a “free worker” for the Simons Brick Company is any different than when he was essentially enslaved and working on the Spanish Mission?