Milagro Beanfield War – The Play

Nichols’ classic novel performed by novice teen actors

The last performance of “Milagro Beanfield War – The Play” based on the best-selling novel by late John Nichols, was presented at Pueblo Community College’s Hoag Theater on Oct. 3 of this year.

The stage production was written and acted in by youths ranging in age from 13 to 18 — with the author’s permission.

Nichols died Nov. 27, 2023, but not before giving the rights to write and produce the “Milagro” to Casa Milagro Youth Solutions, a Denver nonprofit, according to Millie Duran, director of the play and executive director of CMYS. Duran said they had been talking to Nichols about the project for three years before his death.

“CMYS was focused on Theater of the Oppressed and John (Nichols) clearly understood the correlation between his fictional novel and the oppressive prominence of land grants and water rights that the San Luis Valley had been fighting for over for 300 years and that continues today,” Duran said.

Shirley Romero, director of Move Mountains Youth of San Luis, said most of the cast are from San Luis and heirs to the Sangre de Cristo Mexican Land Grant.

“We jumped at the chance of doing this play because it helps these young leaders, and heirs to the land grant, to really understand the struggle to regain our historic use rights,” Romero said.

The cast consists of Diego Franco, Laila Garcia, Sophia Patrick, Roarik Patrick, Lorenzo Ortiz,  Anna Medina, Jacob Portillo, Vanessa Lobato, Temo de la Torre, Amaya Garcia and Will Kirk. Each cast member played multiple roles.

Even before the ink was dry on Nichols’ novel, comparisons were being made between the beanfield war in the fictional town of Milagro, NM, and San Luis, CO, where heirs have been fighting to regain access to the Mountain Tract purchased by lumber baron Jack Taylor in 1960. 

For more than a century, the original settlers of the Sangre de Cristo lLand Grant had unimpeded access to the 77,000-acre tract for the basic necessities of timber, firewood, livestock grazing, wild game and recreation. The delicately balanced communal use of the tract was disrupted when Taylor fenced the property off and bulldozed county roads into the property.

In Nichols’ novel, the Chicano community of a northern New Mexican village are fighting powerful business interests over land and water rights. A New Yorker transplanted to Taos, NM, Nichols, cleverly paints his “Milagro” from the perspective of a Gringo immersed in Chicano culture.

After the final performance in Pueblo, Romero told the audience Move Mountains had completed three major projects in past year.

“This play was one and the most intense,” she said. “Another group of 10 kids participated in growing food. We grew over 200 pounds of peas and a lot of other things. And most recently, we had another group of eight students who made a professional video that was released today at noon. It’s on Youtube, it’s called ‘Unstoppable, by Move Mountains and 2MX2.'”