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The Other Americans
John Leguizamo has has a long career in films, TV, theater (on and off Broadway) etc., prodigious work that speaks for itself. Now this exceptional artist has written The Other Americans, which has been extended again through October 24, 2025 at the Public Theater.
Superbly directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the production boasts set design by Arnulfo Maldonado and costuming by Kara Harmon that speak to the cultural nuances of the 1990s setting, a smart, stylish representation of the Castro household where music and dance abound. Justin Ellington’s sound Lorna Venture’s choreography contribute too.
Leguizamo gets the job done
Perhaps the play could be tweaked to tighten the dialogue. It would shine all the more, with blinding, unforgettable truths sounding the alarm for immigrants in this nation. If streamlined a bit, the complex, profound play would land perfectly as the unmistakable tragedy it inherently is. Yet in its current iteration it still succeeds, a powerful play with comedic elements that resonates with our core as a nation of immigrants, and especially with Latinos.
With its characterizations and themes it adds to the canon of classics that excoriate and expose the corrupted myth of the American Dream. That immigrants make the sacrifices they do to embrace it, is the ultimate tragedy.
Nelson Castro (played exquisitely by Leguizamo), born in Jackson Heights, Queens with Columbian ancestry, embraces the Dream. As for his wife Patti (an amazing Luna Laren Velez), with her Puerto Rican heritage: not so much. Patti’s values lead to loving her family and friends with devotion. Daughter Toni (Rebecca Jimenez), who will marry the solid but nerdy Eddie (Bradley James Tejeda), looks to fit in as a white woman. The younger Nick (Trey Santiago-Hudson) was fiercely competitive like his dad and took advantage of others, but an incident changed him forever.
The central question
The main question Leguizamo addresses is to what extent the warped values of the predominant culture have negatively impacted this Latino family. From his first speech on we note that these twisted values have lured Nelson. The ethos of “scam to get ahead” guides Nelson like a North Star. The excuse of “getting over” rots everything under his power.
Nelson acts the part of the upwardly-mobile success story who always has a deal on the table ready to go. The irony is not lost on us when he hypes a deal with a real estate bigwig. That mogul is living off his reputation for ripping off various ethnic groups. Sadly, Nelson admires his pluck and conning ability, ignoring how this can harm Latinos.
Mirroring the sick culture and society that values money and material prosperity over people, Leguizamo’s tragic hero makes bad decisions and overextends himself. Yet he encourages Nick and Toni to follow his lead. His overweening pride as a patriarch drives him to assume the mantle of a power player. Failing and lying about it, he compromises his integrity and his family’s probity and sanctity. That he willfully blinds himself to the consequences of his beliefs and suppresses his intelligence and good will to fit in is the final heartbreaker.
A tragic, prideful hero
Nelson’s pride leads him to believe the wheels have been set in motion against him by society’s bigotry. But, seduced, he can’t reject the entire rapacious structure, persisting in a prison of his own making, digging his family’s grave and on a collusion course of self-destruction.
Loathing his immigrant self, he tries to create a new identity. He moves to Forest Hills away from Jackson Heights, where he lived “like an immigrant” where cockroaches multiplied.
Finally, as we watch Nelson struggle to assert this new identity, the play asserts an important truth for immigrants. Internalizing the culture’s corrupt, sick, anti-human values is not worthy of their sacrifices. This theme is at the heart of the play. Losing what it means to be human isn’t worth it. If one does not weep for Nelson at the play’s conclusion, one wasn’t paying attention.
The Castro family
Having moved from the homey, culturally diverse Jackson Heights to the white, Jewish, upscale, racist enclave of Forest Hills, Nelson, a laundromat owner, awaits his son’s return from a psychiatric facility. Patti has cooked up her son’s favorite dishes. She’s nostalgic for the foods and people of their original neighborhood.
By degrees we learn why Nick was in a facility. The play brilliantly explores the conflicts at the heart of this family. On his return, Nick still has episodes. Patti sees the change: he doesn’t like his old favorite foods, reject meat, rejects Catholicism and turns to Buddhism. Influenced by a girl he met at the facility, he drifts away from his Latin roots.
The family conflicts explode when Nick attempts to be truthful with his parents. We learn the horrific details of a beating he received in high school, why it happened, and how it led to episodes in college. He wants to talk to his father about it, but Nelson refuses to acknowledge what happened.
Nick yearns to create a life for himself away from his parents’ control. Ironically, he follows in his father’s footsteps as he tries to create a new identify for himself. Yet he must learn to understand his father’s own tragedy if they are to move forward together.
The family’s medical and financial problems and the question of the future of this Latino family under duress are answered in a devastating, powerful conclusion.
A microcosm
Leguizamo elegantly and shockingly reveals this family as a microcosm of the ills of our society. At the same time, he sounds a warning for immigrants. If they don’t recognize and refuse the twisted folkways of the “American Dream,” they may lose their self-worth and humanity for a lie.
The Other Americans is at The Public Theater until November 23, 2025.
