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 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 C ...
. A pioneer in the
Chicano Movement
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a civil rights movements, social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and ...
, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.
Biography
Early life
Valdez was born in
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 Bak ...
, to
migrant farm worker
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers who work outsi ...
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
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
.
Education
Valdez began school in
Stratford, California
Stratford (formerly, Stratton) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kings County, California, United States. Stratford is located southwest of Hanford, at an elevation of . It is part of the Hanford–Lemoore Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
.
His interest in theatre began in the first grade. Throughout grammar school, Valdez organized plays at school and put on puppet shows in his garage, which, he recalls, were usually about fairy tales.
[Beth Bagby; Luis Valde]
"El Teatro Campesino Interviews with Luis Valdez" In high school, Valdez was part of the Speech and Drama department and acted in several plays. He described himself as "a very serious student."
Valdez graduated from
James Lick High School in
San Jose and went on to attend
San José State University (SJSU) on a scholarship for
math
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
. During his second year of college, he switched his major to English.
While in college, Valdez won a playwriting contest with his one-act play ''The Theft'' in 1961.
Two years later, in 1963, Valdez's first full-length play, ''The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa,'' was produced by the drama department and debuted at SJSU.
Early career: El Teatro Campesino
After graduation, Valdez spent the next few months with The
San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he was introduced to
agitprop theatre,
guerrilla theatre Guerrilla theatre, generally rendered "guerrilla theater" in the US, is a form of guerrilla communication originated in 1965 by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who, in spirit of the Che Guevara writings from which the term '' guerrilla'' is taken, ...
, and Italian
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 . Charac ...
.
These two techniques greatly influenced Valdez's development of the basic structure of Chicano theatre: the one-act presentational ''acto'' (act).
In 1965, Valdez returned to Delano, where he enlisted in
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later mer ...
's mission to organize farm workers into a comprehensive union. Valdez brought together farm workers and students to form ''
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 C ...
'', a farm worker's theater troupe.
El Teatro was known for touring migrant camps with their actos, one-act plays, which were usually around fifteen minutes long. The plays were used to educate and inform not only the farm workers, but also the public. Valdez believed that humor was a major asset to his plays in El Teatro Campesino as it was a tool to lift the morale of strikers.
Social and political
commentary were intertwined within the humor to accomplish the goals of El Teatro Campesino.
Original plays of El Teatro were based on the experiences of farm workers, but by 1967 their subject matter expanded to other aspects of Chicano culture;
''
Los Vendidos'', for example, discusses various Chicano stereotypes. Although Valdez left El Teatro in 1967, his legacy lived on. Thanks in large part to Valdez and El Teatro Campesino, the 1970s saw an explosion of Chicano theater. Theater groups sprang up with surprising speed on college campuses and in communities throughout the United States. What began as a farm workers' theater in the migrant camps of Delano flooded into a national Chicano theater movement.
Later career
In 1967, Valdez established a Chicano cultural center in
Del Rey, California. In 1969 he moved both theater and cultural center to
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, maki ...
, where they remained for two years. During this time, he made the short film ''
I Am Joaquin'' based on the legendary poem by
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles (it was later inducted into the
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 2010 and 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). While in Fresno, Valdez taught at
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 bac ...
and created TENAZ, the national Chicano theater organization, which was composed of many with theatre groups throughout the Southwest. Valdez moved the theater a final time in 1971, to
San Juan Bautista San Juan Bautista is the Spanish-language name of Saint John the Baptist. It may refer to:
Places
Bolivia
*San Juan Bautista, Bolivia, Jesuit mission ruins near the village of San Juan de Taperas
Chile
*San Juan Bautista, Chile, Juan Fernández ...
, south of San Francisco. Combined now with the cultural center, it was called El Centro Campesino Cultural, and it became a fully professional production company.
In 1973, he published his poem ''
Pensamiento Serpentino'', which drew on
Mayan and
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
philosophical concepts and argued that Indigenous ways of knowing were essential to the spiritual and material liberation of Chicana/os. The poem was later used in the highly successful
Mexican American Studies Department Programs at Tucson Unified School District.
In 1989, Valdez and officials from the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences and Nosotros formed the Latino Writers Group to improve opportunities and pay for Latino writers in Hollywood.
Luis Valdez is a founding faculty member and director (c. 1994) of the
California State University, Monterey Bay Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department. He is credited with assisting in the development of a university program that prepares students in the entertainment industry:
filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
, writing, sound,
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens (o ...
, and the like.
His recent play ''Valley of the Heart'', debuted October 30, 2018, at the
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighbor ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
.
He resides in San Juan Bautista, CA. He was awarded the
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...
in 2015.
''Zoot Suit'' (play and film)
Valdez's first work that brought him attention to larger audiences was the play ''
Zoot Suit'' which ran in 1978 at the
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighbor ...
in Los Angeles and played for forty-six weeks to more than 40,000 people. With ''Zoot Suit,'' Valdez became the first Chicano director to have a play presented on
Broadway in 1979. In 1981, it was made into a
film.
In ''Zoot Suit'', Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events of the
Sleepy Lagoon murder
The "Sleepy Lagoon murder" was the name that Los Angeles newspapers used to describe the 1942 death of José Gallardo Díaz, who was discovered unconscious and dying near a swimming hole (known as the Sleepy Lagoon) with two stab wounds and a bro ...
trial—when a group of young Mexican-Americans were wrongfully charged with murder—and the
Zoot Suit riots.
In 2019, the film ''Zoot Suit'' was selected by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
for preservation in the
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 ...
for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
''La Bamba''
The film that brought Valdez his "breakthrough into mainstream America" was ''
La Bamba'' which debuted in 1987.
The film, about
Ritchie Valens, a popular Chicano 1950s
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
er, "was an overwhelming box office success" according to ''BookRags.''
It was inducted into the
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 2017.
Filmography
* ''
Coco'' (2017), voice actor
* ''
Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice'' (2000), narrator
* ''Ballad of a Soldier'' (2000), actor.
* ''
The Cisco Kid'' (1994), writer and director. Valdez also had a small role as ''
Presidente''
Benito Juárez
Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec, he was the first indigenous pre ...
.
* ''La Pastorela'' (1991 ''
Great Performances
''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is p ...
''), writer and director.
* ''Los mineros'' (1991), narrator.
* ''Fort Figueroa'' (1988 ''
CBS Summer Playhouse''), director.
* ''Corridos: Tales of Passion & Revolution'' (1987), writer and director.
* ''
La Bamba'' (1987), writer and director.
* ''
Zoot Suit'' (1981), writer and director.
* ''
Which Way Is Up?'' (1977), actor.
* ''El corrido: Ballad of a Farmworker'' (1976 ''Visions'' television series), writer, director, and actor.
* ''Fighting for Our Lives'' (1975 documentary), writer.
* ''
Los Vendidos'' (1972), writer and staging
* ''
I Am Joaquin'' (1969), documentary short film
"Bandido!" (film) Story of Tiburcio Vasquez who resisted incursion of Yankees into California 1840s to 1875, writer, director and narrator. Shown on PBS.
Honors and awards (not exhaustive)
*
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
nominations ''Zoot Suit'' (
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy) and ''La Bamba'' (
Best Motion Picture – Drama
*
Cartagena Film Festival
The Cartagena Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias), or FICCI, is a film festival held in Cartagena, Colombia, which focuses mainly on the promotion of Colombian television series, Latin American films and sho ...
, Best Picture Award, ''Zoot Suit,'' 1982,
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a lin ...
*
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for excellence in television in 1987, ''Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution'' for
PBS
* California Governor's Award, March 1990
*
Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, 1992.
*
Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
's ''Aguila Azteca'' Award, 1994
* 2007 USA (
United States Artists) Rockefeller Fellow
* Los Vendidos
* No Saco Nada de la Escuela (1969)
* No Saco Nada de la Escuela Loco (1970)
* Honorary Degree from the
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of bo ...
* The National (U.S. Presidential) Medal of Arts (2015)
Presidential Medal of Arts Official Website
/ref>
See also
* List of Mexican American writers
The following is a list of Mexican-American writers.
A-C
*Oscar Zeta Acosta
* José Acosta Torres, author of collection ''Cachito Mía'' (1973)Marc Zimmerman, ''U.S. Latino Literature: An Essay and Annotated Bibliography'', MARCH/Abrazo, 1992.
...
References
Further information
*
External links
*
*
Luís Valdez Papers
are held at the alifornia Ethnic and Multicultural Archivesin the UC Santa Barbara Library
Teatro Campesino Archives
are held at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives in the UC Santa Barbara Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valdez, Luis
1940 births
Living people
People from Delano, California
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American film directors of Mexican descent
American writers of Mexican descent
Male actors from San Jose, California
San Jose State University alumni
Hispanic and Latino American dramatists and playwrights
California State University, Monterey Bay faculty
Film directors from California
Writers from San Jose, California
People from San Juan Bautista, California
American Book Award winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
American male actors of Mexican descent