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</p><div id="attachment_51896" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-51896 size-large" src="; alt="Two performers, pictured on the back of a truck with an audience of children looking up at them. Images provided by John Kouns and the Library's Tom and Ethel Bradley Center. " width="1024" height="682" srcset=" 300w, 768w, 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Two performers pictured on the back of a truck with an audience of children looking up at them. Image provided by John Kouns and the library’s Tom and Ethel Bradley Center.</p></div>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Influential Chicano playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez will discuss his theater company, El Teatro Campesino and its influence on the evolution of Chicano theater, during a special presentation on Wednesday, March 15, at California State University, Northridge.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">His presentation, including a discussion of his book 鈥淭heatre of the Sphere: The Vibrant Being,鈥� will take place at 7:30 p.m. in 快活林性息鈥檚 Campus Theatre, on the southwest corner of the campus located at 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Joining Valdez will be Jorge Huerta, professor emeritus of theater at the University of California, San Diego. The pair will discuss insights Valdez鈥檚 work provides into the unique aesthetic process of his internationally renowned theater company.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">El Teatro Campesino was founded by Valdez in 1965, during the height of the United Farm Workers (UFW) struggle and the Great Delano Grape Strike in the California Central Valley. The theater company is located about 60 miles south of San Jose in the small city of San Juan Bautista. Teatro Campesino is recognized as the longest running Chicano Theater in the United States.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">聽鈥淰aldez鈥� biography is interesting, and applies to so many of our students at 快活林性息,鈥� said Doug Kaback, a lecturer in 快活林性息’s聽聽<a href=" of Theatre</a>. 鈥�</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">His identity as a child of migrant laborers in central California is reflected in his</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> early work 鈥� as it utilized art to teach the importance of labor strikes 鈥� they were short but didactic. He then begins to explore longer works and elements of traditional theatre, but he is still working with the same themes and he鈥檚 still working from a cultural aesthetic.鈥�</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淚 hope Valdez inspires all of us, particularly our students, to recognize the power of the arts. I hope he inspires those who listen to engage with and give back to the community,鈥� said Kaback, who teaches in the <a href=" Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Valdez said his mission, along with that of the theater group, is to give a voice to unheard struggles and educate others through art. Many of his plays include the influences of his origins as a worker involved in the Chicano movement and the UFW. The scope of Valdez鈥檚 work is vast.聽</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He began with 鈥渁ctos鈥� 鈥� a term coined by Valdez to describe a skit with more complexity due to its social justice related connotations 鈥� titled 鈥淟as Dos Caras Patroncito鈥� and 鈥淨uinta Temporada,鈥� written to encourage campesinos to leave the fields and join the UFW.聽</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">His works also include 鈥淏ernabe鈥� and 鈥淟a Carpa de los Rasquachis,鈥� plays that give the Chicanos their now contemporary mythology; 鈥淚 Don鈥檛 Have To Show You No Stinkin鈥� Badges,鈥� an exploration of urban Chicano life; and 鈥淐orridos,” reenvisioned classic Mexican folktales. Among his most notable works is 鈥淶oot Suit,鈥� the first Chicano play on Broadway which later inspired the first Chicano major feature film, a re-examination of the 鈥楽leepy Lagoon Trial of 1942鈥� and the 鈥榋oot Suit Riots of 1943.鈥�</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The discussion will feature dozens of images taken by photojournalists John Kouns and Emmon Clarke that are part of the <a href="聽Library</a>鈥檚 <a href=" & Ethel Bradley Center</a>鈥檚 Farmworker Movement Collection. The images capture early performances by the theater group in union meetings, in the fields, at marches and on college campuses.聽</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">鈥淭he Farm Workers鈥� movement was truly a multiracial movement and these photos reflect the environment, you can see the performances of el Teatro Campesino and the various kinds of audiences engaged in what they鈥檙e doing,鈥� said <a href="; professor Jose Luis Benavides, director of the <a href=" & Ethel Bradley Center</a>.聽</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To RSVP for the event, visit</span> <a href=" style="font-weight: 400;"> style="font-weight: 400;">. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Requests for accommodation services must be made at least five business days in advance of the event.</span></p>
Influential Chicano playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez will discuss his theater company, El Teatro Campesino and its influence on the...