On a rainy Thursday evening, amid a week of Eastside student walkouts, hundreds gathered inside Roosevelt High School (RHS)’s new performing arts center for “Seeds of Resistance,” a play inspired by social justice icons with ties to Boyle Heights.
Through four captivating short plays, the stories of Homeboy Industries founder Father Gregory Boyle, artivist Nobuko Miyamoto, culture sculptor Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara and Young Chicanos for Community Action (later known as the Brown Berets) president Victoria Castro came to life on stage at a high school renowned for its role in the 1968 walkouts.
“We wouldn’t be in this space today if it weren’t for those who stood up back then,” said Patricia Hanson, principal of Roosevelt’s Math, Science, and Technology Magnet Academy (MSTMA), who presented the production.
Written by students enrolled in About Productions’ Young Theaterworks’ Social Justice Residency program, the play was directed by teaching artist Marlene Beltran Cuauhtin and RHS theater teacher Jo Anna Mixpe Ley.
Students perform in “Seeds of Resistance” play at Roosevelt High School on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Photo by Theresa Chavez.
In October, Boyle, Miyamoto, Guevara and Castro separately visited RHS and circled up inside classrooms to be interviewed by 29 theater students. Writing mentors from About Productions worked with students to create four powerful vignettes that cut to the heart of what drives these leaders. Wearing costumes loaned from local theater CASA 0101 and privy to the new auditorium’s professional dressing rooms and monitors backstage, students performed on a minimal black box-style set alongside professional actors Isaac Cruz and Brandon Rachel.
“Everyone was so engaged and prepared. They asked such great questions,” said Nobuko, who in 1972 was invited by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to sing a song about the Asian American experience alongside music collaborator Chris Iijima on then-famous “The Mike Douglas Show.” “It’s important for them to learn our stories and express them on stage, especially now.”
Opening with a cryptic news broadcast from the 1941 Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor, the play begins with the story of Miyamoto, a third-generation Japanese American whose family was uprooted from Boyle Heights and sent to an internment camp at the height of World War II.
Played by 11th grader Julie Vera, who fully embodied her role, the story of Miyamoto having to change her Japanese name to JoAnne to fit into a white world was told.
A performer on Broadway and in “West Side Story,” Miyamoto’s “A Grain of Sand” album with folk band Yellow Pearl is recognized as one of the first albums of Asian American music. Tired of being typecast and forced to sing racist lyrics, she left the industry and founded the multicultural arts organization Great Leap in 1978, creating community through culturally sensitive programming.
“For a lot of these kids, they discovered something about themselves they didn’t think existed,” said Ley, who performed in a Great Leap production in 2002 and was inspired by Miyamoto to be a theater teacher. “It’s really powerful to be able to transmit these stories. As an educator, a mother and an artivist, it was a breath of fresh air after the heaviness of January, which felt like a whole year.”
Set to a nostalgic oldies soundtrack that included War’s “Don’t Let No One Get You Down” as Boyle’s story unfolded on stage, 11th-grade student Rick Quino played a pensive priest from L.A. who’s dedicated his life to giving the formerly incarcerated a second chance.
Founded in 1988, Homeboy Industries began as an employment program at Boyle Heights’ Dolores Mission Church and is now the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. A scene of Boyle being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor in the U.S.) in 2024 from President Joe Biden (played by 12th-grade student Alejandro Santana) captured the magnitude of his work.
Perhaps the biggest unsung hero was doo-wop singer Guevara, who grew up in Santa Monica and for decades has called Boyle Heights home. The self-proclaimed culture sculptor who performed with Bo Diddley, was signed by Frank Zappa and wrote songs for Cheech & Chong, had his own identity issues. Industry reps made him change his name to Jay P Mobey and on a trip to Guadalajara, a Mexican man called him a “pocho” and said Chicanos were “mongrels” that lacked culture. Guevara dedicated his life to proving him wrong.
“The seeds of resistance have been planted with students marching downtown,” Guevara told the audience after the show. “Now water them. Get strategic. Follow your heart. Make a change for real, not just for a couple of days of walking out of school. Make a change for your children.”
Guevara’s musical and cultural journey is depicted in his son Rubén Guevara III’s Emmy-nominated film “Con Safos” featuring Cheech Marin, Chaz Bojórquez and Alice Bag.
“To the kids here tonight, make a plan to register to vote. That’s as important as marching in the streets,” said Guevara III. “Learn from your elders, how they harnessed activism and art to fight white supremacy. Don’t spend all your time on Tiktok. Get out there and organize.”
Jocsan Tovar, a 10th grader at RHS, played Ruben III and after signing up for theater in the fall, fell in love with the craft.
“It really surprised me how impactful one person can be,” said Tovar. “If you put your mind to something and truly work for it, anything is possible.”
The story of Roosevelt alumni and former LAUSD Board of Education member Castro closed the show. The irony of fighting to get ethnic foods on school menus as a Brown Beret only to be told by one student they’re sick of them (“Do you know how hard I fought for those burritos?!” Castro asked the crowd) juxtaposed with an emotional 1968 walkout reenactment.
“A lot of gains made from the original walkouts are now in jeopardy,” said Castro sitting in an audience of Mexican flag-clad students who participated in the week’s walkouts and Chicano rights veterans like film producer Moctesuma Esparza (“Selena”) and “Walkout” muse Paula Crisostomo. “It’s an ugly time. I think it’s more serious now.”
Made possible by LAUSD’s Cultural Arts Passport (CAP), the play allowed students space to process.
“With the fires, the new presidency, ICE threats and students walking out, it was challenging to have everybody here all at once to rehearse, but they pulled it off amazingly,” said Ley. “I’m so proud of them. Folks were like, ‘My heart, my soul really needed this. It gave me hope and invigorated me.’”
Next up for the theater elective is an adaptation of Luis Valdez’s one-act satirical play “Los Vendidos” in the spring.
“I was nervous. We all were,” said Tovar. “But as my teacher Ms. Ley says, ‘Being nervous is good because it means you care.’”
Editor’s note Feb. 13, 2025: This post was updated to clarify Victoria Castro was the president of the Young Chicanos for Community Action, a prelude to the Brown Berets.