Death of a Salesman’s Son

Arthur Estrada PhD

Description

This play takes place in the mid-twentieth century, a period during which the man of the house in a Cuban family living in Ybor City (the Latin quarter of Tampa, Florida) rules resolutely and, at times, stubbornly and the wife and children obey without question. They obey until the patriarch’s authority is lost upon his death. The play dramatizes the falling apart of a family when the patriarch’s sons, who do not share their deceased father’s commitment or ambitions, conspire to abandon their father’s dream, and seek their own divergent goals. This play begins with the death of a driven and domineering Cuban salesman and businessman who through his own intentional death provides his sons with a foundation from which to prosper. Poor decisions, blind ambition, and personal conflict result in disappointment and heartache.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 04 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669841319
• Langue: English

Extrait

DEATH OF A SALESMAN’S SON
A DRAMATIC PLAY
Arthur Estrada, Ph D

Copyright © 2022 by Arthur Estrada, Ph D.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022914188
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-4133-3

Softcover
978-1-6698-4132-6

eBook
978-1-6698-4131-9
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 08/03/2022
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
844247
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Act One
Act Two
Act Three
Act Four

This play is dedicated to my lovely wife and dearest friend, Lynda, and my wonderful daughter, Amanda.
Foreword
This play is not a sequel to Arthur Miller’s acclaimed play, Death of a Salesman. Instead, it is a play greatly inspired by Arthur Miller’s masterful story. The drama portrayed in Mr. Miller’s great work was very personal and extraordinarily familiar to this playwright in that his own family’s history contains comparable flawed personalities and dysfunction. During this playwright’s own Cuban/Italian upbringing, he witnessed the undoing of his paternal familial structure and the family business. The play takes place in the mid-twentieth century, a period during which the man of the house in a Cuban family living in Ybor City (the Latin Quarter of Tampa, Florida) rules resolutely and at times, stubbornly, and the wife and children obey without question. They obey until the patriarch’s authority is lost upon his death. The play dramatizes the falling apart of the family when the patriarch’s sons, who do not share their deceased father’s commitment or ambitions, conspire to abandon their father’s dream, and seek their own divergent goals. This play begins with the death of a driven and domineering Cuban salesman and businessman who through his own intentional death provides his sons with a foundation from which to prosper. This story is based on actual events which occurred in and around the playwright’s own family’s clothing manufacturing and sales businesses, including real threats from organized crime organizations. The characters are a blend of real people within the author’s own family. As in Mr. Miller’s Death of a Salesman , poor decisions, unabashed ambition, and personal conflict result in disappointment and heartache.
Prologue
This story takes place in Tampa, Florida, in 1948, and begins on the day of Diego Alba’s funeral. Vera and Diego Alba, married in 1914, had been married for almost thirty-five years when Diego took his own life to benefit his sons. In 1923, Diego had started a clothing factory that he managed for thirty-four years. His life’s goal was to groom his two sons to take over the family business. Vera, a woman of her time, was a dedicated wife to Diego and the manager of her household. B. B., their eldest son, whose given name is an embarrassment to him, is thirty-four years old and is struggling to find his self-worth and thus his place in life. The younger son, Nicolas, who goes by the nickname Nico, is thirty-two years old, fun loving, and recklessly ambitious.
ACT ONE
Scene 1
The scene opens with Vera, B. B., and Nico entering through the back door into the kitchen of the Alba House. The mood is somber as they have just returned from Diego’s funeral. Vera puts a coffeepot on the stove.
VERA very sorrowful : Would you like some Cuban coffee, boys? It’s made, just need to heat it. B. B. and Nico nod no. I still can’t understand why nobody came. The Grubsteins were the only ones other than us there. Your father owned that factory for almost thirty-five years, cut all the patterns, did all the marketing, met with hundreds of people, and employed dozens of women. Where were they all?
B. B.: Well, Pop wasn’t sweet and cuddly, you know.
NICO: It was a nice funeral, Mama, even if there was only us.
VERA: And Tuto. Where was Tuto? Your father got Tuto started in the fabric business back in the twenties. He let him distribute his fabric and work out of the back of your dad’s factory in Ybor City until Tuto could afford his own place. Your father fed that family for months when they first got here from Cuba. He sacrificed by only buying fabric from him even though he could have gotten it a lot cheaper in other places. You don’t miss the funeral of the man who fed your family and gave them a start in life!
NICO pulling a fifth of scotch from his jacket pocket and showing it to B. B. : Will you join me, B. B.? Let’s have a toast to the old man. To the best dad two guys ever had. Remember how strong he was when we were kids, and if he got hurt, he’d say all he had to do was sprinkle a little water on the spot to make it well again? He was one tough guy, that’s for sure. We really had a lot of nice days. He always had a good dream to make Ybor City the business center of Tampa and to be Ybor’s best salesman.
B. B. shaking his head from side to side, receiving a cup from Nico : Nah. I’ll go to my grave believing he had the wrong dream. Let’s stop lying to ourselves. He never owned the factory; the creditors owned it, and they’re getting what’s left of it now. Mama’s getting nothing. The way he used to beg for loans just to keep the payroll and the inventory going . . . It was a disgrace to the Alba name. Women’s wear is not a good business because it’s always at the mercy of changing styles. Let’s be honest, Alba Styles didn’t keep up with the times. He was a man who was at his best selling, not running the business. Nico pours B. B. some scotch, and they tap glasses together. Both sit at the table.
NICO: I wish you wouldn’t say that about Pop. I think he was a good businessman. He lived the way he wanted to live and did what he wanted to do. To me, that’s a success. He was a dreamer, a salesman. Salesmen are always looking for that next big sale. Remember when he got that J.C. Penney contract? Now that was something to be proud of. And what about Maas Brothers?
B. B. ignoring Nico’s comments : I’ll be headed out tomorrow morning, Mama. I think I’m headed back to Miami. That’s where I feel the best. I’ve caused enough trouble around here, and you’ll be fine now. The factory is going through foreclosure, and there’s nothing left for me to help with here.
VERA joining the boys at the table with a cup of coffee : B. B., dear. You need to wait a couple more days. I talked to the insurance company, and the insurance money is coming within a day or two. They’re sending it Western Union.
B. B.: What does that have to do with me?
VERA: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I know why your dad did what he did. You know he’d been thinking about it for a long time. Do you really think it was an accident that he almost drove off the Columbus Drive Bridge? That wall was the only reason the car didn’t go over the side. All the talk about how we would be better off without him. You know what a good driver he was. No, he didn’t have an accident. He wanted it to look like an accident. He was tired, boys. He wasn’t a great man like Philip Grubstein next door with a successful business. He struggled his whole life trying to get us out of debt. He didn’t go to no fancy schools or inherit wealth from his family. He had nothing when he came over from Cuba. All he had was ambition and his love of the next big sale. He was a little fish in a big ocean, looking for a place to feel safe and protect his family. His mind was tired of trying to think of a way to help you boys make good. And in the end, his tired mind figured out a way to do it. Your dad wanted this money to go to you boys, not to me. It’ll give you a jumping-off point, a way to make you a life that he would have been proud of.
NICO: Mama, we don’t need no money from you. I told you, I’m on my way up in the business . . . and I’m looking to get married. I told you that too.
B. B. to Vera : Listen, Mama, Dad’s insurance money belongs to you. Don’t worry about Nico and me. We’ll be fine. You take that money and travel. Have some fun for a change.
VERA: How am I going to have fun traveling? By myself? I just want to enjoy the rest of my life in this house, sewing. I used to have a sewing machine years ago that we had to pawn to buy some fabric. You gotta have fabric to make clothes, you know. Anyway, I made the last payment on the house the other day, so the house is paid. Can you believe it after all these years? All I want is to have a new sewing machine. That shouldn’t cost much. I want to start making custom brassieres again.
NICO: What? Brassieres? Women’s bras?
VERA: Yes, bras. Your dad and I had a nice little business making custom brassieres back then. You may not know this, but brassieres were your dad’s first product line. Two days after our wedding, your dad picked up an old Singer for a couple of bucks and took the rest of our wedding money, and bought us some fabric and thread. I barely knew anything about sewing but what my mother had showed me. He took one of my brassieres apart and showed me all the parts and how to sew them back together. At fi