Pink Underwear
One of Lou Becker’s faithful radio listeners and callers, an elderly white woman named Thelma, mentions that the very real and very infamous Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio “makes his prisoners wear pink underwear” as a way to insult them, but that is hardly anything to be ashamed of. Becker essentially agrees, thus aligning himself with one of the most iconic enemies of those supporting immigration rights. This support vocalized on the radio unwittingly sets himself up for the same type of degradation later on when he is kidnapped and set loose alone in the desert after being forced to wear pink underwear which has now moved into the realm of symbolism for immigration rights.
Pigmentation and Citizenship
Points are made through the imagery of how skin color and expectation of citizenship in America are inextricably linked. Sandi is a dark-skinned second-generation Latina who doesn’t even speak Spanish, but is immediately profiled as an illegal immigrant by a cop simply because she is in a car mere miles from the border. Meanwhile, her white male companion actually is in the country illegally from Canada. Lou Becker assumes that the female of the Hispanic trio that abducted him is an immigrant from Mexico and she, in turn, is shocked to realize that the host of a radio show titled “Take Back America” is a naturalized citizen who came to America from Scotland.
The Snake
The most memorable single use of imagery in the play probably occurs when Ernesto is discussing coming across the body of a woman who apparently died trying to illegally cross the border. Upon further inspection, however, her body begins to move and he thinks she must not be dead after all. The description of what is actually occurring is enough to turn anyone into Indiana Jones even if they are not there already. As for whether the imagery is also successful in changing someone’s mind about the fundamental humanity and tragedy of desperate immigrants is less certain:
“When I got close to her body, I quickly jumped back, startled. A black snake slithered out of her mouth, and I saw her body wiggle as a five-foot snake came out of her.”
The Voicemail
The most intense imagery is quite literally comprised of images which exist only inside the head of each individual member of the audience. When conservative radio bloviator Lou Becker is kidnapped, his abductors play a voicemail which recorded the audio of a brutal beating of Mexican man by two white racists inflamed by Becker’s radio rhetoric. The sounds include spitting, stomping feet, baseball bats connecting with human flesh and the repetition of specific insulting terms that Becker earlier made on his radio show.
