I saw the play “De Novo – mas allas de las fronteras (beyond borders)” last night. It was a beautiful, touching, realistic depiction of what some undocumented immigrant youth face when they are placed in deportation proceedings, produced by Houses on the Moon theater company.
There are so many different meanings of “de novo” that resonate throughout the play. From a lawyer’s perspective, it is a term of art meaning review by a court from the beginning, without relying on prior adjudications, and assessing all evidence afresh rather than through the lens of another adjudicator’s decision. In a more general sense, it means taking things from the beginning, or starting anew. The play invites us to both look at the life of one undocumented immigrant youth from the beginning, and to think about the roots of the circumstances of his life, and the immigration system that we have and how it is should be reformed. It made me think, “What controlled this person’s life? What could he have done given his circumstances? Could he have made different decisions? What are our responsibilities for the circumstances of his life? What is the U.S. government’s responsibility here?”
“De Novo” is about Edgar Chocoy-Guzman, a real person. The play uses language taken from real documents, including letters, psychological evaluations, and court transcripts. He was born in Guatamala in 1987. He never really knew his father. His mother left for America when he was an infant. He lived in his grandfather’s house but no one really parented him. He joins the gang Mara Salvatrucha and then leaves it, and leaves Guatemala because the gang has put a hit on him. He joins his mother in Los Angeles and ends up joining another gang. He is then placed in juvenile detention and then, after he has served his time, instead of being released he is transferred to immigration detention and placed in deportation proceedings, at age 15. Knowing that he would still be a target of assassination back in Guatemala, he applies for asylum.
The scenes of immigration court proceedings were spot-on. This is not your Law & Order polished court scene. The court scenes in “De Novo” were just like the real thing.
There was a panel discussion after the play, and the moderator took the stage visibly emotionally affected by the performance. I won’t tell you any more as it would spoil the play for you. All of the actors were excellent. The fact that the words used in the play were the actual words uttered or written as Edgar’s story unfolded in reality made the story even more affecting. That this is a real story makes it even more immediate, compelling and thought-provoking. This is about someone’s actual life and experience. If you get the chance to see this, I highly HIGHLY recommend that you go. If you know people who are hostile to immigrants, bring them along. Let them see what it’s really like to be an unauthorized immigrant in America, instead of thinking of unauthorized immigrants one-dimensionally as nothing more than law-breakers who need to be deported.