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Luis Valdez
Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and theater, Valdez is best known for his play '' Zoot Suit'', his movie '' La Bamba'', and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community. Biography Early life Valdez was born in Delano, California, to migrant farm worker parents from Mexico, Armeda and Francisco Valdez. The second of 10 children in his family, Valdez began to work the fields at the age of 6. One of his brothers is actor Daniel Valdez. Throughout his childhood, the family moved from harvest to harvest around the central valleys of California. Due to this peripatetic existence, he attended many different schools before the family finally settled in San Jose, California. Education Valdez began school in Stratford, California. His interest in theatre began in the fir ...
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Delano, California
Delano ( ) is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Delano is located north-northwest of Bakersfield at an elevation of . The population was 51,428 in 2020, down from 53,041 in 2010. It is Kern County's second-largest city after Bakersfield. Agriculture is Delano's major industry. The area is particularly well known as a center for the growing of table grapes. Delano is also home to two California state prisons, North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison. The Voice of America once operated one of its largest, most powerful shortwave broadcast facilities at a station outside Delano at . The Voice of America ceased broadcasts in October 2007, citing a changing political mission, reduced budgets, and changes in technology. Delano's two school districts currently operate eight elementary schools, three middle schools, three comprehensive high schools and two alternative high schools. The city has its own police department and contracts with the Kern County ...
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Commedia Dell'arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Characterized by masked "types", was responsible for the rise of actresses such as Isabella Andreini and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A , such as ''The Tooth Puller'', is both scripted and improvised. Characters' entrances and exits are scripted. A special characteristic of is the , a joke or "something foolish or witty", usually well known to the performers and to some extent a scripted routine. Another characteristic of is pantomime, which is mostly used by the character Arlecchino, now better known as Harlequin. The characters of the usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. The characters are exaggerated "r ...
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Maya Peoples
The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity. It is estimated that seven million Maya were living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain numerous remnants of their ancient cultural her ...
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Pensamiento Serpentino
''Pensamiento Serpentino'' (''Serpentine Thought'') is a poem by Chicano playwright Luis Valdez originally published by Cucaracha Publications, which was part of El Teatro Campesino, in 1973. The poem famously draws on philosophical concepts held by the Mayan people known as ''In Lak'ech'', meaning "you are the other me." The poem also draws, although less prominently, on Aztec traditions, such as through the appearance of Quetzalcoatl. The poem received national attention after it was illegally banned as part of the removal of Mexican American Studies Programs in Tucson Unified School District. The ban was later ruled unconstitutional. Themes Scholar Sheila Marie Contreras states that the poem "brings together Christian and Mesoamerican religious symbolism" and that it serves as a model for liberation and education which challenges dominant cultural conventions. Valdez drew on Mesoamerican themes through the work of Mayan scholar Domingo Martinez Paredez. As scholar Yolanda Br ...
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San Juan Bautista, California
San Juan Bautista (Spanish for " Saint John the Baptist") is a city in San Benito County, in the U.S. state of California. The population was 2,089 as of the 2020 census. San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797 by the Spanish under Fermín de Lasuén, with the establishment of Mission San Juan Bautista. Following the Mexican secularization of 1833, the town was briefly known as San Juan de Castro and eventually incorporated in 1896. Today, San Juan is a popular tourist destination, as the home of the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park and other important historic sites, as well as cultural institutions like El Teatro Campesino. History Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area around San Juan Bautista was populated by the Mutsun, a tribe of the Ohlone Nation of Indigenous Californians. The Mutsunes lived in villages in the area around San Juan Bautista, in settlements composed of thatched huts made of willow and native grasses. Spanish period In 1797, the Spanish Francis ...
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Fresno State College
California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelor's degrees in 60 areas of study, 45 master's degrees, 3 doctoral degrees, 12 certificates of advanced study, and 2 different teaching credentials. The university's facilities include an on-campus planetarium, on-campus raisin and wine grape vineyards, and a commercial winery where student-made wines have won over 300 awards since 1997. Members of Fresno State's nationally-ranked equestrian team have the option of housing their horses on campus, next to indoor and outdoor arenas. Fresno State has a Student Recreation Center and the third-largest library (by square footage) in the California State University system. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". Fresno is an Hispanic-serving in ...
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Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of motion picture history. Although the current incarnation of the Academy Film Archive began in 1991, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired its first film in 1929. Preservation Located in Hollywood, California at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Archive has a diverse range of moving image material. The Archive's collection comprises 107,000 titles and 230,000 separate items, including early American cinema, a vast collection of documentary films, filmed and taped interviews, amateur and private home movies of Hollywood legends, makeup and sound test reels, and a wide selection of experimental film, as well as Academy Award-winning films, Academy Award-nominated films, and a complete collection of every Acad ...
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National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception in 1988. History Through the 1980s, several prominent filmmakers and industry personalities in the United States, such as Frank Capra and Martin Scorsese, advocated for Congress to enact a film preservation bill in order to avoid commercial modifications (such as pan and scan and editing for TV) of classic films, which they saw as negative. In response to the controversy over the colorization of originally black and white films in the decade specifically, Representatives Robert J. Mrazek and Sidney R. Yates introduced the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, which established the National Film Registry, its purpose, and the criteria for selecting films for preservation. The Act was passed and the NFR's mission was subsequently r ...
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Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales (June 18, 1928 – April 12, 2005) was a Mexican Americans, Mexican-American Boxer (boxing), boxer, poet, political organizer, and activist. He was one of many leaders for the Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado. The Crusade for Justice was an urban rights and Chicano cultural urban movement during the 1960s focusing on social, political, and economic justice for Chicanos.“The Crusade for Justice”, Blog, the1960bloggcu.wordpress.com Gonzales convened the first-ever Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in 1968, which was poorly attended due to timing and weather conditions. He tried again in March 1969, and established what is commonly known as the First Chicano Youth Liberation Conference. This conference was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. It also birthed the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a pro-indigenist manifesto advocating revolutionary Chicano nationalism and self-determination for all Chicanos. Through the Crusade for Ju ...
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I Am Joaquin (film)
''I Am Joaquín'' is a 1969 short film by Luis Valdez, a project of his El Teatro Campesino. Summary It is based on the poem " I Am Joaquín" by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles, a key text of the Chicano movement. Reception and legacy In 2010, this film was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". ''I Am Joaquin'' was preserved by the Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ... in 2017. External links * *''I Am Joaquin'' essay by Daniel Eagan In America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide To The 50 Landmark Movies Added To The National Film Registry In 2009-10, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011, pages 124-12 References {{Luis Valdez 1969 film ...
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Fresno
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, making it the fifth-most populous city in California, the most populous inland city in California, and the 34th-most populous city in the nation. The Metro population of Fresno is 1,008,654 as of 2022. Named for the abundant ash trees lining the San Joaquin River, Fresno was founded in 1872 as a railway station of the Central Pacific Railroad before it was incorporated in 1885. It has since become an economic hub of Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley, with much of the surrounding areas in the Metropolitan Fresno region predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production. Fresno is near the geographic center of California, approximately north of Los Angeles, south of the state capital, Sacramento, and southeast of San Fran ...
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Del Rey, California
Del Rey (Spanish for "of the King") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fresno County, California, United States. The population was 1,639 at the 2010 census, up from 950 at the 2000 census. Del Rey is located south-southwest of Sanger, at an elevation of 344 (105 m). Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all of it land. History Originally called Clifton, the place was renamed by the railroad in 1898 to Del Rey, after the Rancho del Rey on which the station was located. Del Rey is a Spanish phrase meaning "of the king". A post office opened in 1885. The name Clifton honored Clift Wilkinson, town founder. Demographics 2010 The 2010 United States Census reported that Del Rey had a population of 1,639. The population density was . The racial makeup of Del Rey was 740 (45.1%) White, 7 (0.4%) African American, 11 (0.7%) Native American, 34 (2.1%) Asian, 0 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 814 (49.7%) from other races, and 33 (2.0%) from t ...
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