Rick Najera – Captured by Feministas AND You Know How to Whistle Don’t You?

In the plays, Captured by Feministas, and You Know How to Whistle Don’t You? By Rick Najera the audience is able to experience a more contemporary and innovative style of literary genres. Captured by Feministas is without a doubt a tragic comedy. It is a comedic because of the way it was written. Najera captures all the complaints that women have had about men over the years since the beginning of time, and it is funny that Alejandro the main character is begging for a second chance to live and promises that he will change and be a more sensitive man. It is a tragedy because after all, he is fighting for his life and pleading to the Feministas not to be killed. You Know How to Whistle Don’t You? Is a melodrama. The character here, CUBA LIBRE is definitely a victim of circumstance. She lives in the poverty of a communist regime and the fastest and easiest and maybe only way to make some money to provide for her family is to prostitute herself to the American tourists. Her attitude changes from line to line being angry and tough, to seductive, to hopeless and desperate.

The choice of diction in both of Najera’s plays, play a big role in the effect that they bring to the plays. In Captured by Feministas, the name of the play is written in Spanish, “Feministas” means feminists. The names of most of the characters are Spanish names as well and this adds some contribution to the feel of the play. However, I assume that reading this play is a complete different experience than that of actually seeing it acted out, I feel that plays can be confusing to understand and even misleading at times if the option of seeing it acted out is not available. In You Know How to Whistle Don’t You? the choice of diction also has a significant impact on the feel that it gives to the play. Once again Najera uses Spanish slang and terms to give it the ultimate Latin effect he was looking for. You can truly here the Latino influence in the play when you read Spanish words such as “marica” which is Spanish slang for gay, and “pito” which is slang for penis.

There is an obvious feminist theme in the first play. The entire play is about a macho man named Alejandro that is captured by a group of strong feminist women who are about to kill him for not respecting women. He is miniscule and makes himself submissive to the women and is under control by them. There is an overall theme of dreaming about freedom in his second play. Cuba Libre, the name of the female main character in the play literally means “free Cuba.” Cuba Libre dreams to be free of the communist oppression and the nightmare of having to sell her body to American tourists to be able to provide for her mother.

In the first play, Alejandro is the antagonist for disrespecting women and the feminists are the protagonists for trying to bring justice to women everywhere. Cuba Libre is the protagonist, she is the victim, the sufferer, the American tourists, poverty, and communism are the antagonists.

My opinion of these plays is that they are both great. They are contemporary and innovative and I feel that if I were to have seen them acted out, very touching, tragic, and comedic. Najera would’ve got the response he was looking for, of clearly portraying a couple of the day to day struggles that Latin women and men deal with in ordinary life.