El Teatro Campesino

El Teatro Campesino started as the cultural wing of the United Farm Workers union in California's central valley, to help raise both Mexican workers and American people awareness of the Delano grape strike controversies during the two years of the strike (1965 – 1967).^[3] Although the troupe began by entertaining the farmworkers, within a year of their founding they began to tour to raise funds for the striking farm workers. While being relocated to Del Rey, California and then Fresno, California from 1967 to 1971, their subject matter had expanded to include aspects of Chicano culture that went beyond the fields: education, the Vietnam War, indigenous roots, and racism.^[3] The work of the theater has been considered by critics of Chicano art, such as Holly Barnet-Sanchez, as a "major catalyst for an explosion of Chicano/a arts."^[1]

Modern era

In 1971, they moved their headquarters to San Juan Bautista and adapted traditional religious plays La Virgen del Tepeyac and La Pastorela for Christmas celebrations. As Chicano culture received unprecedented attention in the United States, Valdez received national attention, and taught drama at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Santa Cruz.

In 1973 they worked with British theater director Peter Brook; in 1976 they toured the play La Carpa through Europe, sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

See also

• Mission San Juan Bautista
• Diane Rodriguez

Notes

1. ^ Organizational history, UCSB site.
2. ^ Organizational history, UCSB site.
3. ^ Organizational history, UCSB site.

References

• "El Teatro Campesino: An Interview with Luis Valdez" by Carl Heyward
• Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda. Teatro Campesino: Theater in the Chicano Movement. Austin : University of Texas Press, 1994.
  ISBN 0-292-70801-7
• "Organizational history" from the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives

External links

• Official site
• Guide to the El Teatro Campesino Archives 1964-1988 at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the UC Santa Barbara Library
• El Teatro Campesino Video Collection on ImaginArte