In the fields of Delano. Califomia.
In 1965. Luis Valdez started the
Teatro Campesino (Farm worker's
Theater), and with it initiated
(5) the renaissance of Mexican American
theater. The Teatro Campesino had an
avowedly political purpose: to rally
campesinos (farmworkers) in support
of the farm workers' strike then
(10) being organized by Cesar Chavez
Valdez dramatic presentations,
called actos,spoke to a campesino
audience and addressed topics and
themes directly related to the strike.
(15) Valdez early actos were composed of
a series of scenes about the strike
experience acted by campesino volun-
teers. His later actos were presented
by a newly constituted professional
(20) company, still called the Teatro
Campesino, and addressed such themes
as the impact of the Vietnam War on
Mexican Americans and the dangers of
assimilation, themes relevant to urban
(25) Mexican Americans as well as to
campesinos. All Valdez' actos con-
tained elements of song and dance,
relied little on stage effects or
props, and featured the use of masks.
(30) These dramatic elements, along with
an intensely social or political
purpose and the use of a mixture
of Spanish, English, and Mexican
American dialects in the dialogues.
(35) which realistically capture the
flavor of Mexican American conver-
sation,are still characteristic
both of the acto and of most other
forms of Mexican American theater
(40) today.
Innovative as it is, the acto owes
much to the theater traditions or
other periods and regions. Like early
Spanish American religious dramas,
(45) secular folk dramas, and the Mexican
carpas of a somewhat later period,
actos are usually performed outdoors
by traveling groups of players or by
local theater groups. The improvised
(50) comic satire of the actos is often
attributed to Valdez' study of the
Italian commedia dell' arte of the
sixteenth century, although some
critics see it as a direct reflection
(55) of the comic and improvisational
qualities of the more contemporary
and local carpas of Mexican theater.
The Italian influence is likely,
whatever Valdez immediate source:
(60) the Mexican carpas themselves are
said to have originated from the
theater pieces of a sixteenth-century
Spanish writer inspired by encounters
with Italian commedia dell'arte troupes
(65) on tour in Spain. The English-language
theater has provided elements as well:
Valdez himself has acknowledged his
debt to the agitprop socialist theater
that appeared in the United States
(70) during the 1920's and 1930's. In
particular, his actos contain the
same assortment of semiallegorical
characters and the same blend of
music, chorus, and dialogue found
(75) in some of the agitprop pieces, as
well as the same fierce spirit of
social and political critique. Finally,
many of Valdez' later theater pieces
freely incorporate characters, plots
(80) and symbols drawn from the indigenous
myths and rituals of the pre-Hispanic
peoples of Latin America. In fact, no
other art form illustrates more clearly
the depth and complexity of the Mexican
(85) American heritage itself than does the
acto of Luis Valdez and the Teatro
Campesino.
According to the passage , the
original impetus behind the esta-
blishment of the Teatro Campesino
was which of the following?
To help urban Mexican Americans

