Jorge Alfonso Huerta (born November 20, 1942 in Southern California) is a

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

scholar, author, and theater director. He specializes in Chicano and United States

Latinx ''Latinx'' is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral suffix replaces the ending of ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' that are typical o ...

Theatre. He has written and edited several books specializing in Chicano theatre and is considered to be an authoritative expert in his field.

Early life and education

Jorge Huerta was born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. He attended Benjamin Franklin High School in Los Angeles and graduated in 1960,Jorge Huerta Papers, MSS 142. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. going on to earn his bachelor's degree from

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

in 1965. He received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Theater from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

in 1974 and is the first Chicano man to have done so in the United States.

Career

In 1975, Huerta became a professor in the Theater and Dance department at

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

where he taught for more than 30 years. While there, Huerta also served as Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer from 2004 to 2007. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Theater at

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

in Los Angeles, California, and Chancellor's Associates Professor of Theatre Emeritus at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. Along with his wife and six other undergraduate students at

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, Huerta founded El Teatro de la Esperanza in 1971. This traveling Latino theater company toured the United States, Mexico, Central America, and Western Europe. El Teatro de la Esperanza toured and put on performances until the 1990s. According to ex-artistic director Rodrigo Duarte Clark, it was intended to be "revolutionary" and was inspired by

El Teatro Campesino El Teatro Campesino (Spanish for "The Farmworker's Theater") is a Chicano theatre company in California. Performing in both English and Spanish, El Teatro Campesino was founded in 1965 as the cultural arm of the United Farm Workers and the Chicano M ...

touring company founded by

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 cre ...

. El Teatro de la Esperanza started in Santa Barbara but moved to San Francisco's Mission District shortly after its founding, where it operated for over 20 years. Jorge Huerta also co-founded Teatro Máscara Mágica, a San Diego-based theater, with William Virchis in 1989. The mission of Máscara Mágica is to promote multicultural theater going experiences, to provide professional experience and opportunity to underrepresented communities, and to make theater more affordable for low-income families.

Books and publications

Huerta has published two books. ''Chicano Theatre: Themes and Forms'', published in 1982, is known to be the first publication and major study about Chicano theater in the United States. The other, ''Chicano Drama: Performance, Society, and Myth'', published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

in 2000, continued and updated his research on Chicano theater. These two books have received wide acclaim and are frequently used as source books in the field of Chicano studies.''ATHE Awards Ceremony.'' Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2007. He has served as an editor for several major publications, including ''A Bibliography of Chicano and Mexican Dance, Drama, and Music (''1978)'', Nuevos Pasos: Chicano and Puerto Rican Drama'' (1989)'','' and ''Necessary Theatre: Six Plays about the Chicano Experience'' (1989)''. Necessary Theatre'' is an anthology of successfully staged Chicano plays that share common themes of survival and struggle. The works included are ''The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa'', by

; ''Latina'', by Jeremy Blahnik and Milcha Sanchez Scott; ''Soldierboy,'' by Judith Perez and Severo Perez; ''Money'', by Arthur Giron; ''Guadalupe'' by El Teatro de la Esperanza; and ''La Victima'' by El Teatro de la Esperanza. Huerta also created and hosted a video series called ''Necessary Theatre: Conversations with Leading Chicano and Chicana Theatre Artists'' in conjunction with UC San Diego-TV. In this series, which is inspired by the aforementioned and eponymous 1989 anthology, he speaks with

artists about their work, legacy, and impact on the theater community. Leading playwrights, directors, and actors such as

and Josefina Lopez have been featured on the show. Huerta has contributed to over 30 scholarly articles for various academic journals. He has also served on editorial boards for academic publications, including ''The Journal of American Drama and Theatre,'' ''GESTOS: Teoría y práctica del teatro hispánico,'' the

Southern Illinois University Press Southern Illinois University Press or SIU Press, founded in 1956, is a university press located in Carbondale, Illinois, owned and operated by Southern Illinois University. The press publishes approximately 50 titles annually, among its more tha ...

' ''Theatre in the Americas,'' and ''Theatre Forum.''

Stage works

In addition to co-founding two different theater companies, Jorge Huerta has also become well known for his work as a director for the stage. Plays that Huerta has directed include ''El Jardín, I am Celso'' by Rubén Sierra and Jorge Huerta'', Deporting the Divas'' by Guillermo Reyes'', Zoot Suit,'' and ''Man of the Flesh.'' He has directed in theatres across the United States, including the San Diego Repertory, Seattle's Group Theatre, The GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington D.C., The Old Globe, La Compañía de Teatro de Albuquerque, and New York's

Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is a theater company based at the 47th Street Theater in New York City. It was founded as El Nuevo Círculo Dramatico (The New Drama Circuit) by Míriam Colón and Roberto Rodríguez. It was one of the first Pu ...

Awards and recognition

* Huerta received the Golden Eagle award from Nosotros, an award recognizing significant contributions of Hispanic achievement in the entertainment industry. * Huerta won the 2007 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Career Achievement Award for Academic Theatre to honor his contributions to the academic field of Chicano Theatre Studies. * He was named a distinguished scholar by the American Society for Theatre Research in 2008. * He received a Latino Spirit Award from the Latino Legislative Caucus in 2009. * In 2008, he was honored by the California State Assembly for "Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Arts". * Huerta was induced in o the College Fellows of the American Theatre in 1994. * He was named National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huerta, Jorge Living people 1942 births California State University, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Santa Barbara alumni University of California, San Diego faculty Occidental College faculty 20th-century American non-fiction writers Writers about theatre American theatre directors American theatre managers and producers Writers from Los Angeles