4. HOT TAMALES TONIGHT (Rita, Cha-Cha, Gert)
The Great Depression has brought with it hard times, and Prohibition is in full swing— alcohol is illegal. To bring in extra money Rita has opened a speakeasy, a secret bar behind her family's tamale stand. Hot Tamales Tonight is a diegetic song, cabaret-style, and designed to entertain the speakeasy's patrons while encouraging them to enjoy themselves and to drink her booze.

4 - Hot Tamales Tonight - 1

8. NOT-AMERICAN-ENOUGH-FOR-YOU BLUES, (Rita, Cha Cha, Gert) 
Angered and saddened by the LAPD raid on her neighborhood and deportation of her father, Rita takes to the small stage inside the speakeasy to voice her discontent through song. She is joined by the Hot Tamale Dancers, Cha Cha and Gert.

8 - Not American Enough Blues

9. A LITTLE FRIENDLY ADVICE (McAfee)
After deporting Rita’s father to Mexico and having her brother beat up, McAfee returns to the speakeasy to give Rita an ultimatum— give him control of her speakeasy business or he’ll shut it down.

9 - A Little Friendly Advice - 1

10. FOREVER AND A DAY, (Isabel, Rita, Jerónimo, Ensemble)
Rita's mother Isabel has decided to go to Mexico in search of her ailing husband Diego, who's been deported under President Hoover’s mass deportation of American citizens known as Repatriation (a misguided program to give Depression Era jobs to ‘real Americans’). Before she boards her train at LA’s Union Station she says goodbye to her grown children, Rita and Jerònimo, knowing she may not be able to return or ever see them again.

10 - Forever And A Day

11. OUT WITH THE OLD REPRISE (Jerónimo, Art Students)
Jerónimo, Rita’s brother, meets clandestinely with a couple of fellow art students afterhours in the darkened speakeasy. They’ve been swayed by Siqueiro's radical ideology, and are planning to hand out flyers on behalf of the American Communist Party at a protest rally for people unable to find work. Their meeting is cut short when Rita unexpectedly enters and discovers what they’re up to.

11 - Out With The Old Reprise

12. DEVIL WIND, (Rita, Ensemble)
The LAPD raid the speakeasy arresting Rita and Jerònimo as subversives for the Communist Party. Rita is innocent of any involvement in the matter, but because she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Siqueiros bails out both. Outside the jail Jerònimo tells Rita he's on his way to Mexico to find their parents and declares he will not be coming back to the US. Rita begs him to stay. If he leaves, he will be a fugitive. Jerònimo, unconvinced, leaves for Mexico. Rita, deserted by her only remaining family member, hits bottom.

12 - Devil Wind

13. IT’S JUST BUSINESS (McAfee, Goons, Rita)
Rita leads McAfee and his Goons to a tunnel where Tony has stashed a shipment of illegal booze. McAfee believes she’s leading him there to steal Tony’s booze, but she has schemed with Tony to double-cross McAfee, blackmail him, and shut down his plans to take over her speakeasy.

13 - It's Just Business

14. IT’S JUST BUSINESS REPRISE (Rita, Tony the Hat)
After capturing an incriminating photo of McAfee guzzling booze, Rita and Tony celebrate their scheme, mocking McAfee who’s been forced to desert his plans of taking over Rita’s speakeasy and squeezing Tony out of being her booze supplier.

14 - It's Just Business Reprise

15. FOREVER AND A DAY REPRISE (Rita)
After the controversial mural América Tropical is unveiled, it’s declared indecent by the City of LA and is ordered to be destroyed— whitewashed over. As workers begin to cover it up, Rita asks them to give her a moment to take it in— the mural is what she holds dearest in her heart that Jerónimo was a part of. She watches as América Tropical disappears under the whitewash.

15 - Forever And A Day Reprise

16. AMÉRICA TROPICAL, (Rita, entire cast) 
América Tropical is the show's finale. It is 2012 (timewise this is a bookend with the very beginning of the show). Rita is now an old woman who has been instrumental in fighting to get David Siqueiros' mural, América Tropical, restored and protected. Her brother Jerònimo, decades after of being out of the country, finally returns to surprise her at the restored mural's unveiling ceremony. They are happily reunited, and América Tropical with its passionate message for social justice has returned for good.

16 - America Tropical

Show synopsis— América Tropical, a mural deemed too offensive for the public, re-emerges decades after it was whitewashed. Its reappearance haunts Rita Rey with bittersweet memories of Prohibition era Los Angeles— a time when she had to fight a crooked system to save her family. Rita’s resistance gets her father, an American citizen, deported under the ruthless Mexican Repatriation policy. When Mexican muralist and revolutionary David Siqueiros becomes infatuated with Rita, his answer to her problems is retaliation. Rita is mistakenly arrested as a communist subversive, and she vows to find another way to stop a crooked cop who’s torn her world apart. The stakes are raised when it’s clear failure will mean she’ll lose everything. In the end Rita understands the ugly truth Siqueiros revealed in América Tropical cannot be whitewashed or covered up. And though progress has been made, the mural still speaks powerfully to the long way we have yet to go towards acceptance and equality.

4 - Hot Tamales Tonight - 1

América Tropical

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