El Teatro Campesino
Theater in the Chicano Movement
Born in 1965 as an organizing tool within César Chávez's United Farm Workers union, El Teatro Campesino became the premier Chicana/o performance ensemble to emerge out of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This study demythologizes and reinterprets the company's history from its origins in California's farm labor struggles to its successes in Europe and on Broadway until the disbanding of the original collective ensemble in 1980 with the subsequent adoption of mainstream production techniques.
Yolanda Broyles-González corrects many misconceptions concerning the Teatro's creation and evolution. She draws from a rich storehouse of previously untapped material, such as interviews with numerous ensemble members, production notes, and unpublished diaries, to highlight the reality of the collective creation that characterized the Teatro's work.
Writing within contemporary cultural studies theory, Broyles-González sheds light on class, gender, race, and cultural issues. Her work situates the Teatro within working-class Mexican performance history, the Chicano movement, gender relations, and recent attempts to mainstream.
This welcome addition in critical theory about the Chicana/o theater movement is recommended for those researchers interested in theater practice and performance, women's studies, and cultural studies.
An excellent work in Chicano historiography and performativity. . . . Broyles-González does not merely intend to de-mythologize the [Luis] Valdez-centered cultural history of the Teatro; more importantly, she begins to explore a specific period and scope of a collective performance practice in the Teatro.
I cannot overstress the significant contribution this book will make to the field of Chicano literature and the humanities in general. To date, there is no book-length study of this seminal and controversial theater company.
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. El Teatro Campesino and the Mexican Popular Performance Tradition
- Oral Tradition: Human Memory, the Body, Community
- The Political Economy of Chicana/o Comedy
- Rasquachi Performance Aesthetic and Historical Memory
- El Teatro Campesino and Mexican Sacroprofane Performance Genres
- Conclusion
- 2. Theater of the Sphere: Toward the Formulation of a Native Performance Theory and Practice
- On Formulating an Indigenous Alternative Performance Aesthetic
- Theater of the Sphere: Affirming the Chicana/o Axis
- The Formation of the Spherical Actor: A New Chicana/o Humanism
- Theater of the Sphere: The Twenty Steps
- Theater of the Sphere: The World of Performance
- Theater of the Sphere: Liberation or Mystification?
- 3. Toward a Re-Vision of Chicana/o Theater History: The Roles of Women in El Teatro Campesino
- Introduction
- The Roles of Women in El Teatro Campesino
- Breaking the Mold: Creating New Pathways
- An Epilogue: Chicanas Onstage in the 1980s
- 4. El Teatro Campesino: From Alternative Theater to Mainstream
- Introduction
- El Teatro Campesino in the Mainstream
- Rose of the Rancho: Validating Chicana/o Oppression
- The New Professionalism: Zoot Suit in the Mainstream
- Chicanas/os on Broadway: To Be or Not to Be?
- Zoot Suit: The Film
- Mainstreaming and the Dissolution of the Teatro Campesino Ensemble
- Conclusion: Whither El Teatro Campesino?
- Chronology
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
