Rudy Salas, Sr. Character Analysis

Rudy Salas, Sr. is a Mexican American sculptor and painter. The Prologue opens with Salas’s interview, “My Enemy,” in which he describes how the racism he experienced in elementary school, and his later encounters with police brutality, taught him to view white people as his “enemy.” Salas also laments how his sons experience similar encounters with racism, suggesting that racial tensions in Los Angeles haven’t changed much since Salas was a child. Salas’s account introduces readers and viewers to the “us versus them” dynamic that underlies many of the characters’ experiences throughout the following acts of the play.