More than 200 students are sitting quietly, cross-legged and threaded like red sequins, on the linoleum floor of the LBJ Elementary School gym. Just a few feet in front of them, Jose Antonio Navarro sings of his love for Texas and his family against a folding backdrop that represents a jail and the mountainous, palm-studded shoreline of Veracruz, Mexico. The panels were painted by famed San Antonio artist Vincent Valdez, and the fake sun sets in deeply saturated stripes of violet, teal, and orange. The cast changes scenes by flipping the panels, and the players enter the stage by walking around the ends, or slipping through the gaps. The recorded soundtrack is clearly being manipulated by the wizard in the orange shirt seated to the left and back of the show, but the kids aren't paying any attention to him.
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