Luis Valdez
Best known for the play “Zoot Suit” and the film “La Bamba,” playwright, director and filmmaker Luis Valdez was born in Delano, California to migrant farmworkers from Mexico. As a child, Valdez put on shows in the labor camps he worked in with his family after developing an interest in theater. During the Delano grape strike, Valdez started El Teatro Campesino, a theater company that helped mobilize farmworkers. Known as a pioneering leader of the Chicano Movement, Valdez’s work blends theater with political activism, using the arts as a tool for social change.
This timeline takes a closer look at Luis Valdez’s life and the major milestones in his career.
Luis Valdez is born in Delano, California to Armada and Francisco Valdez, the second of 10 children.
Luis works in the fields with his parents and attends local schools, where he develops an interest in theater, often putting on puppet shows in the labor camp.
Valdez attends San José State University (SJSU) with a scholarship to study math and physics. He intends to become an engineer but soon switches his major to English and theater.
Valdez writes and performs his first full-length play for the drama department at SJSU, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa.
Valdez graduates from SJSU and travels to Cuba, where he hears Fidel Castro speak. He then joins the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he begins to engage in political theater.
Valdez returns to Delano to join the United Farm Workers strikes. He is soon elected picket captain.
Valdez founds the El Teatro Campesino (“The Farm-Workers’ Theater”), as part of the United Farm Workers movement. Valdez develops his “actos” – short theatrical pieces – and one of their first plays, Death Is Not a Scab. El Teatro performs in the fields and at migrant camps, reaching Chicanos across the state.
Valdez participates in the March to Sacramento, which culminates in UFW negotiating the first union contract with the Schenley corporation. El Teatro performs in every city that the march goes to, drawing people to the movement.
El Teatro broke from UFW to continue touring the country. While they still maintained a strong allegiance to the union, their focus shifted entirely to theater, performing, and reaching new audiences. El Teatro eventually settled in Fresno. The company began performing on college campuses, where they often recruited new members.
Lupe Trujillo joins El Teatro on their first international tour through France after graduating from Fresno State College. Luis and Lupe marry shortly after.
Valdez creates and directs the short film/documentary I Am Joaquín (Yo soy Joaquín) based on the poem by Rodolfo Gonzáles; beginning to bridge theatre to film.
Valdez continues to lead El Teatro Campesino, expand its productions, tour, and gain recognition for Chicano theatre. He begins to develop pieces for television such as Los Vendidos.
El Teatro moves to San Juan Bautista where they are currently located.
El Teatro hosts Peter Brook and his International Center for Theater Research. They participate in an eight-week experimental workshop and perform The Conference of the Birds.
Valdez receives a Rockefeller Foundation Grant to create “Zoot Suit” at the Mark Taper Forum.
“Zoot Suit” premieres at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, bringing the Chicano experience to an unprecedented level.
“Zoot Suit” premieres on Broadway at the Winter Garden theater in New York City, making it the first play by a Latino to show on Broadway.
Valdez directs the film adaptation of “Zoot Suit” for Universal Pictures, which receives a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.
Valdez writes and directs the film La Bamba, bringing a Chicano story to an even wider audience. La Bamba goes on to make over 50 million dollars in the United States.
Valdez wins a Peabody Award for a PBS Television adaptation of his play “Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution.”
El Teatro Campesino produced its first feature length film La Pastorela: A Shepherd’s Tale, that airs on PBS and internationally.
Luis continues to write and direct plays, films, and television programs while also expanding El Teatro to new audiences with the creation of a multimedia digital center.
Valdez and El Teatro begin an extended association with the San Diego Repertory Theater, where they develop and create two new pieces for world premieres.
El Teatro produces a 25th Anniversary production of “Zoot Suit” that runs for a year and launches a U.S. Southwestern Tour in 2004.
Luis is awarded the U.S. National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for his lifetime contributions to theatre and film.
“Valley of the Heart” premieres in October at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Valdez continues to lead El Teatro, working closely with his two children to pave the way for a new generation of theater-goers and to build a bridge for contemporary issues. His newest play “Adios Mama Carlota” premieres in May of 2025.
