Luis Valdez, Chicano Movement and Theatre - Essay Example

Chicano Movement Introduction Chicano Movement was a movement in the history of America supported and led by Americans of Mexican descent. These Mexican Americans protested against the injustices done to the Mexicans in the form of racial discrimination which included acts such as rape. Theatre was an important aspect of the Chicano Movement. Since the Mexican Americans audience of the Chicano Movement was not literate, therefore, theatre represented a more apt way of communicating their issues with the public. The issues dealt by the Chicano plays included racial discrimination, education, poor living conditions, unemployment etc. Most of the supporters of the Chicano Theatre Movement were students whose parents were suppressed by the White Americans. One such student was Luis Valdez. Luis Valdez, considered to be the father of Chicano Theatre, was a great American playwright, writer and director. Luis Valdez belonged to a Mexican family who were farm workers. Valdez showed an interest towards theatre and writing at an early age when during his time in college he took part in a play and later went on to create his own theatre group of migrant farm workers by the name of El Teatro Campesino. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the theatre in Chicano Movement and would focus in detail on the work of Luis Valdez. The purpose of the paper is to shed light on how theatre and Luis Valdez impacted and supported the Chicano Movement and the change they brought in the community. Chicano Movement and Theatre As stated above, Chicano is a movement that stemmed from the Americans of Mexican descent. These Americans were rooted to the idea of improving the condition of Mexicans in America and these Americans were usually students from both colleges and universities. Since these Mexican Americans hailed from a more literate background, they were concerned about two pressing issues, including politics and educations. These students wanted to improve the position of the Mexican Americans in these areas since they saw politics and education as the means of developing a strong platform in America. Chicano Theatre is mostly attributed to the work of Luis Valdez who developed his El Teatro Campesino, meaning “Farm Workers’ Theatre”. This organization touched on different subjects including Mexican heritage, their resistance and the discrimination they are subjected towards. The plays of Chicano Theatre are a blend of both the Mexican and American languages with traces of music to add interest in the plays (Broyles-Gonzalez, 130). A particular style of this theatre included the interaction of the actors with the audience directly. In this manner, they have created a more informal type of theatre. This theatre later inspired other organizations to spring up including Teatro de la Gente by Adrian Vargas and Teatro Bilingue by Joe Rosenburg. Later, the organizations were consolidated into a national Chicano theatre organization under the name of El Teatro Nacional de Aztlan. Luis Valdez Luis Valdez was a Mexican American who hailed from a family of migrant farm workers. Valdez’s parents, Francisco and Armida Valdez, moved from farm to farm as hired hands where Valdez was also expected to help out in order the support the big family of 10 children that his parents had. Even though, Valdez was expected to both work and read and his schools kept changing, Valdez attained a strong position for himself as a student excelling in performing arts (Meier, 230). Luis Valdez is the father of Chicano Theatre. This is because he formed the El Teatro Campesino which served as the first platform for performing arts for the Chicano Movement. Valdez’s love for the performing arts began when his school teacher introduced him to puppet art. Later during his college and university days, Valdez pursued the love and created his own theatre group. The purpose of this theatre group was to bring the plight of the Mexican Americans to the fore front. Valdez began working in theatre during his college days at San Jose State College. In 1963, he introduced his first play. The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa was one play that Valdez directed and wrote during his time in San Jose State College. After leaving college, Valdez went on to join a Mime Troupe based in San Francisco. It was from here that Valdez learned the method of using theatre as a platform for expressing his own pent up anger. It was on the basis of this work that Valdez formed his theatre group in 1965. This theatre troupe was a group that toured different cities and enacted short one-act plays, also known as actos. It was the concept behind the play that formed the main part of the play as usually the plays were conducted without any formal script or stage (Wilmeth, 661). The purpose behind the plays was not just to educate the farm workers but also to educate the general public regarding the plight of the Mexican Americans. In terms of educating the farm workers, Valdez worked on bringing the workers together to form a union that would support the cause of the Mexican Americans. Even though Valdez was himself part of the union, he later left the union in order to expand on his theatre movement. The subject behind Valdez’s plays was most often either political or cultural. These plays often written and directed by Valdez himself focused on the conditions of the Mexicans Americans in a country filled with racial discrimination. Some of the plays of El Teatro Campesion included Zoot Suit, La Carpa de los Rasquachis and Tibercio Vasquez. With time, Valdez changed the El Teatro Campesino to El Centro Campesino Cultural that began operating from Del Ray, California. Furthermore, Valdez began to look for more professional actors to sport his play. This was a time when the theatre group gained popularity and was held for critical acclaim (Vento, 247). It was mainly due to the efforts of Valdez that Chicano Theatre gained such popularity under the name of El Teatro Campesino. Valdez began theatre as a voice for the farm workers, but later Chicano Theatre Movement gained immense popularity as Mexican students around the country began to develop their own theatre groups inside colleges and universities. Keeping up with the theme of the original Chicano Theatre, they focused on the importance of cultural preservation and Mexican identity. This movement began in the1970s and reached its peak in 1976. 1976 was, perhaps, the best time period for the Chicano Theatre Movement. Valdez was recognized for his works even during his lifetime. This was apparent through the numerous awards and honors that he received at various times during his career. Of such awards, some of them was winning the Emmy Award in 1973 and winning the Los Angeles Drama Critics award three times. The San Jose State University gave him an honorary doctorate degree for his efforts. Columbia College and the California Institute of Arts did the same. President Regan’s community also honored him for his services towards Arts and Humanities. Conclusion Chicano Theatre Movement was, perhaps, one of the most influencing characteristics of the Chicano Movement. This was because it stemmed from the core of the Chicano Movement and that were the farm workers and the students subjected to racial discrimination. It was also because of the efforts of Luis Valdez that the Theatre Movement gained such strong following. Luis Valdez combined his history with his love for art and created the El Teatro Campesino which became the foundation of the Theatre Movement. Valdez is rightly attributed as the father of the Chicano Theatre since it was Valdez who gave a unique identity to this theatre through the use of actos and the direct confrontation with the audience. Even though the movement has been long gone, Chicano Theatre is still practiced in the US. Works Cited Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda. El Teatro Campesino: theater in the Chicano movement. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1994. Print. Meier, Matt. Mexican American biographies: a historical dictionary, 1836-1987. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. Print. Vento, Arnoldo. Mestizo: The History, Culture, and Politics of the Mexican and the Chicano: The Emerging Mestizo-Americans. Maryland: University Press of America, 1998. Print. Wilmeth, Don. The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print. Read More