'El Coquí' explores Puerto Rican identity, pride

“Este es mi hogar.”

This is my home.

It’s the opening line of “El Coquí,” a play by Florida State theatre senior Cristian Mercado.

Mercado weaves a story of identity, home and tribulation through the eyes of the one-act’s two characters: Abuelo, a fervent, Puerto Rican political activist modeled after Mercado’s own great-grandfather, and Granddaughter, who is raised in the U.S. mainland, speaks little Spanish and is modeled after Mercado himself.

The play, which debuts Friday at the Augusta Conradi Theater, begins in an ambiguous, post-disaster scene in Puerto Rico, reminiscent of Hurricane Maria which ravaged the island a few months ago: A tipped over television. Scattered leaves and branches. A tattered Puerto Rican flag.

Seeing his destroyed home on the island, Granddaughter wishes to bring Abuelo back with her to the U.S. mainland, where she was raised. But her grandfather refuses.

“Este es mi hogar,” he says.

Home, pride and reconciliation are themes throughout Mercado’s play.

“This is the story of Puerto Rico through a lineage of one of its families,” said Samer Al-Saber, Mercado’s thesis director. “A truly remarkable story by a remarkable student to negotiate really difficult questions and nuanced ideas about identity.”

Mercado bases Abuelo’s character on the story of his own great-grandfather, Rafael Cancel Miranda, a nationalist who fought for Puerto Rican independence. He was imprisoned several times due to his activism — one bout in Tallahassee from 1949 to 1951. Abuelo recites lines hailing his island's beauty from Miranda’s book of poems, "Polvora y palomas," meaning, "Gunpowder and pigeons."

Abuelo explains to his granddaughter why he wants to remain in his homeland. He takes her through vivid memories of the Ponce Massacre, and his time in prison following protests. The sound of the play's namesake, the coquí, a frog native to Puerto Rico and a national symbol alongside its flag, echoes through the stage framing each flashback.

“She feels what everyone was feeling in their memories, but rejects them because she is terrified,” Mercado said, describing her character as “a child of empire.” “She doesn’t want to experience that kind of pain and trauma that the island was feeling.”

But eventually, the memories tip her over the edge. She surrenders, and “it inspires her to be more active in Puerto Rico’s future.”

She realizes the “necessity of having felt this pain, because it drives people to action.”

Mercado’s own conflict of identity is reflected throughout the play. He was raised in Jacksonville, Florida, among mostly white friends until high school and college, where he began to more deeply explore and appreciate his Hispanic roots.

“I have self-identified myself as a Puerto Rican gringo,” Mercado said with a laugh, recalling high school Friday nights where he would much rather stay indoors and play video games rather than a quintessential game of island Dominos. Speaking little Spanish, and with no trace of Puerto Rican flags hung around his home unlike what's typical of Puerto Ricans, it seems the only element tying him to his roots was what he ate — which is often, “arroz con blank.”

During his time at FSU, Mercado had frequent meetings with Al-Saber, who researches minority, specifically Middle Eastern, representation in theatre and entertainment. Mercado began to notice ethnic archetypes in film, television and theatre — the “exotic Arab,” the “sexy Hispanic,” the “violent black man” — that breed stereotypes, he said.

The realization sparked something in Mercado.

“I should have sought it out. I should have sought out my own culture, but I didn’t,” he said. “I realized I’d been neglecting this part of myself for so long. I’ve been trying to search for my own identity as a Puerto Rican.”

Writing and directing "El Coquí" was part of that search, synthesizing his own worldview and reconciling what has sometimes felt like a disconnect between identities.

Reading the poetry of his great-grandfather, who will be a guest at the Saturday show, and researching the island’s history helped Mercado embrace his identity — an epiphany he takes the audience through with Granddaughter in El Coquí.

“As I was looking through this history myself, that’s how I began to shape… my own identity,” he said. “It’s primarily up to the Puerto Rican people to keep that memory alive, and I feel like I’m doing my part in that with this play.”

If you go

What: El Coquí

When: Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at 8 p.m.

Where: Augusta Conradi Theater at Florida State University

Cost: Free

A panel discussion will be held after each 20-minute show. Rafael Cancel Miranda will be a panelist and guest during the Saturday show.

Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.