Luis Miguel Valdez | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Valdez in 2008 | |
| Born | (1940-06-26)June 26, 1940 (age 85) Delano, California, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | San Jose State University |
| Notable awards | Peabody Award, Aguila Azteca Award, Golden Globe nominations |
Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father ofChicano film andplaywriting, Valdez is best known for his playZoot Suit, his movieLa Bamba, and his creation ofEl Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in theChicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.[1][2]
Valdez was born inDelano, California, tomigrant farm worker parents from Mexico, Armeda and Francisco Valdez.[3] The second of 10 children in his family, Valdez began to work the fields at the age of 6. One of his brothers is actorDaniel 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 inSan Jose, California.[4]
Valdez began school inStratford, California.[4] 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.[5] 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."[5] Valdez graduated fromJames Lick High School inSan Jose and went on to attendSan José State University (SJSU) on a scholarship formath andphysics.[6] During his second year of college, he switched his major to English.[5] While in college, Valdez won a playwriting contest with his one-act playThe Theft in 1961.[7] 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.[8]
After graduation, Valdez spent the next few months with TheSan Francisco Mime Troupe, where he was introduced toagitprop theatre,guerrilla theatre, and Italiancommedia dell'arte.[7] These three techniques greatly influenced Valdez's development of the basic structure of Chicano theatre: the one-act presentationalacto (act).
In 1965, Valdez returned to Delano, where he enlisted inCesar Chavez's mission to organize farm workers into a comprehensive union. Valdez brought together farm workers and students to formEl Teatro Campesino, a farm worker's theater troupe.[4] 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.[5] Social and politicalcommentary were intertwined within the humor to accomplish the goals of El Teatro Campesino.[5] 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;[4]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.[4]
In 1967, Valdez established a Chicano cultural center inDel Rey, California. In 1969 he moved both theater and cultural center toFresno, where they remained for two years. During this time, he made the short filmI Am Joaquin based on the legendary poem byRodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles (it was later inducted into theNational Film Registry in 2010 and preserved by theAcademy Film Archive in 2017[9]). While in Fresno, Valdez taught atFresno State University 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, toSan Juan Bautista, 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.[4]
In 1973, he published his poemPensamiento Serpentino, which drew onMayan andAztec 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 successfulMexican American Studies Department Programs at Tucson Unified School District.[10][11]
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.[12]
Luis Valdez is a founding faculty member and director (c. 1994) of theCalifornia 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, writing, sound,cinematography, and the like.[13]
His recent playValley of the Heart, debuted October 30, 2018, at theMark Taper Forum inLos Angeles.[14]
He resides in San Juan Bautista, CA. He was awarded theNational Medal of Arts in 2015.[15]
Valdez's first work that brought him attention to larger audiences was the playZoot Suit which ran in 1978 at theMark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and played for forty-six weeks to more than 40,000 people. WithZoot Suit, Valdez became the first Chicano director to have a play presented onBroadway in 1979. In 1981, it was made into afilm.[16]
InZoot Suit, Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events of theSleepy Lagoon murder trial—when a group of young Mexican-Americans were wrongfully charged with murder—and theZoot Suit riots.
In 2019, the filmZoot Suit was selected by theLibrary of Congress for preservation in theNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[17]
The film that brought Valdez his "breakthrough into mainstream America" wasLa Bamba which debuted in 1987.
The film, aboutRitchie Valens, a popular Chicano 1950srock and roller, "was an overwhelming box office success" according toBookRags.[18]
It was inducted into theNational Film Registry in 2017.[19]
On August 26, 2024 it was announced Valdez will serve as an executive producer and writerJosé Rivera is attached to write the script on an updatedLa Bamba. Although Valdez was opposed to the updated version initially, he noted new research into Valens' life, such as Corey Long's bookCome On Baby, Just Rock, Rock, Rock! The Inspired Life and Enduring Legacy of Ritchie Valens featuring a foreword by Connie Valens, her research, the 2009 interview onCoast to Coast AM by Donna Ludwig, and research byThe Big Bopper's grandchildren, has resulted in the commissioning of the updated film. C3 Entertainment, acting on behalf of the Valenses and the Big Bopper's daughter-in-law and grandchildren, officially licences both brands.[20]
...Valdez is the most important Chicano playwright.
Luis Valdez is a Chicano playwright, director, producer, and actor.
