X-Nico

Teatro Campesino

Teatro Campesino's early performances drew on varied traditions, such as commedia dell'arte, Spanish religious dramas adapted for teaching Mission Indians, Mexican folk humor, a century-old tradition of Mexican performances in California, and Aztec and Maya sacred ritual dramas.

•

Luis Valdez, a Chicano from a migrant farmworker family, founded the troupe after attending San Jose State University and working briefly with the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

•

In 1973 they worked with British theater director Peter Brook; in 1976 they toured the play La Carpa through Europe, sponsored by the State Department.

Yareli Arizmendi

Forever committed to social change, she worked with Luis Valdez and Teatro Campesino and toured with Teatro de la Esperanza to Nicaragua.

see also

C. Bernard Jackson

This included Luis Valdez's El Teatro Campesino, the East-West Players and the Bilingual Foundation for the Arts, founded by Carmen Zapata.