The Lonchera

Evolution of a character as told through three separate scenes in the same location and without dialogue.

“Roommates” Assignment – CTWR 505

Matthew Halla – February 15, 2012

THE LONCHERA

Scene One

We see a Latino man pushing a small ice cream cart with Mexican snacks dangling from its sides and hanging cow bells ringing. He walks down the edge of a street lined with thin palm trees and the skyscrapers of downtown LA in the distance. This is Alvarado and he is sixty five years old. He wears a worn white cowboy hat.

Alvarado approaches a large shiny lonchera, or Mexican food truck, parked on the street. It is an older model but is well maintained. He stops for a moment and stares at it. He approaches and stoops near the rear wheels of the truck, opposite the trucks serving window side. Air hisses from of one of the tires. Alvarado continues to let air out of the tire for several seconds, even as a foot comes into frame near him. His vision rises to the face of a woman standing over him. She is staring disapprovingly with her arms crossed. Alvarado slowly stops what he is doing in a defiantly delayed manner. He stands and sees a man standing behind the woman. They stare at each other for a moment. He spits on the ground near the truck.

With Alvarado’s insulting action the other man rushes toward him but the woman gets between them before they can do even superficial harm to each other. They both angrily stare and posture like roosters but look a little bit ridiculous and unintimidating because of their age. They seem to be holding back any real threat of physical violence. The scuffle is broken up completely when three small children noisily and happily run out from the truck and wrap themselves in hugs around Alvarado’s legs. Both men become self-conscious of their actions in front of the children and stop being combative. The man is Ulises. He is sixty-two years old and owns the lunch truck, Taco’s Gabilondo. The woman is named Flora and is the wife of Ulises. Flora and Ulises step back for a moment and watch as Alvarado kneels down and kisses each of the three children on the forehead, one time each. He hands them a piece of candy from his shirt pocket and they laugh and run excitedly away from Alvarado and to the legs of their father, Ulises.

Ulises stares with his arms crossed and then turns to walk back inside the truck to continue cooking. We see the profile of Ulises from the inside of the truck. He takes a quick slug from a bottle of tequila and watches Flora walk with Alvarado across the grass of the park that the truck is parked in front of. She has her arm around him. Ulises paces back and forth in front of our view. Alvarado and Flora are in the distance and we cannot hear them but they talk for a bit.

We see Flora take a few bills out of her pocket and hand them to Alvarado. Ulises notices this and storms out of the truck. In the distance we see him arguing with Flora and gesturing wildly around her. Alvarado places his hand on Ulises shoulder, trying to get him leave Flora alone, but Ulises turns and punches Alvarado in the face instead. Alvarado falls to the grass.

Scene Two

We see Alvarado standing in the dark of night illuminated from the back by a dim street light. His eye has a bandage above it. He is smoking a cigarette and looking at something. We see that it is Ulises’ lunch truck. Alvarado finishes his smoke and stoops to pick something up off the ground. It is a gas can. He walks toward the truck and looks into the driver side window. He wraps a piece of cloth around his elbow and breaks the wing window. It makes a small crashing sound but nothing too noisy.

Alvarado is inside the food truck now and is looking around. He turns on a small light under a prep shelf and the stainless steel interior of the kitchen is illuminated in an ugly florescent green glow. The light shines on a bottle of tequila and Alvarado reaches for it but then sees a cash box hidden behind it. He opens it and sees a small stack of bills and looks through them but puts them back after inspecting them for a moment. Alvarado then picks up his gas can and starts to unscrew the lid while still looking around the truck in an infatuated manner.

He sees a picture of something tacked to the wall and it makes him stop in his tracks. He takes the photo off the wall and holds it for a moment. He tears it down the middle and drops it on the floor. As it lands we see that it is a photo of a much younger him standing close to Ulises, both smiling and with their arms around an older woman dressed in black. Alvarado’s vision shifts from the photo on the floor to the sight of an old woman sitting in the front seat of the truck looking at him. It is the woman from the picture. She is supernaturally illuminated. They stare at each other for a moment. Alvarado again looks down at the ruined photo on the floor and then back up at the old woman but she is quickly gone. He stares forward for a moment more and then picks up the photos and walks out of the side door of the truck.

As he exits to the exterior we see that Ulises is standing twenty or so feet from the truck and is staring at it in the early morning light. Alvarado is slightly shocked to see him. Alvarado slowly turns to leave but still keeps his eyes on Ulises. His movement stops and he squints.

Ulises is swaying slightly. His head is tilted and his eyes are half closed.

Alvarado slowly walks to him and Ulises looks up. He seems drunk. Ulises and Alvarado stare at each other for a moment then Ulises raises a bottle of tequila he is holding and offers it to Alvarado who hesitates for a moment but then shakes his head no.

Ulises then raises a set of keys in front of the Alvarado’s face. They hang there for a moment before Alvarado again shakes his head no.

Ulises drops to his knees and starts to cry. He wraps his arms around Alvarado’s legs. Alvarado becomes uncomfortable. Ulises notices the can of gasoline in Alvarado’s hands that is now next to Ulises face. He stares at it for a moment before slowly taking it from Alvarado’s hands. Ulises gets to his feet, holding the can now and looking at his truck. He stands motionless for a moment. He throws the keys at his truck with a loud yell. He quickly walks toward the truck, unscrews the gasoline lid and starts splashing gasoline all over it. Alvarado is surprised but does not do anything. Ulises is yelling with each splash of the can. After the can is empty he stands and looks for a moment. Alvarado is standing still in the background. Ulises has a strange intense stare on his face. He reaches into his pockets and pulls out a book of matches and begins to strike them but he is too drunk to light one. He reaches for another and it lights but it goes out quickly. He tries again and this time is successful. It flares and burns in his hand.

Alvarado’s hand comes into the frame and snatches the match from Ulises. Ulises tries to light another but Alvarado stops him again. They start struggling over the book of matches and are soon wrestling. They skirmish back and forth and fall to the ground. The intensity of the struggle lessens and they both come to be lying face to face on the asphalt and out of breath. Alvarado and Ulises stare at each other on the ground and then Alvarado reaches and puts his forehead against Ulises’s. They stare at each other eye to eye on the ground. The porch light comes on and Flora looks out into the dark and over the two men lying motionless on the ground.

SCENE THREE

We travel back 35 years and see a much younger Ulises working at the griddle in a restaurant kitchen. There is a woman that resembles the woman from the torn photo in the taco truck. She stands behind a register. Ulises attention is briefly grabbed as Alvarado walks into the restaurant and kisses his mother. Alvarado sees his brother in the back and walks to him. His brother looks up and smiles but is paying attention to his cooking. Alvarado leans against the wall and smiles broadly while watching his brother. His brother notices and smiles back with a quizzical look on his face like Alvarado is crazy. Alvarado takes a piece of meat from the grill and makes a face exaggerating that Ulises cooking doesn’t taste good. Alvarado grabs some seasoning and sprinkles it over the grill. Ulises playfully gestures Alvarado away and Alvarado does some play fighting with him but moves quickly back to the wall and again leans and smiles. His brother stops cooking now, confused with the strange stare and smile. Ulises takes a quick drink from a tequila bottle that he has hidden next to the stove, offers his brother some and stares back with a questioning look. Alvarado gestures no and then pulls a set of keys out of his pocket and holds them out in front of his brother. Ulises moves to grab them but Alvarado pulls them quickly away. Ulises is smiling ecstatically now and he starts playfully chasing his brother around the kitchen. He stops and then looks out toward the parking lot and we see that a big lunch truck is parked on the far side of the lot. Alvarado throws the keys up in the air to his brother who catches them. They both laugh and walk quickly toward the parking lot. A woman gets up from a booth in the store and Alvarado puts his arm around her. She looks like a younger version of Flora. Alvarado and Flora stand on the sidewalk and smile as Ulises goes and takes a closer look at the truck, opening its door with the key. The side of the truck is painted with red and green lettering that says “Hermanos Gabilondo.”