•
3. Toward a Re-VlSion of Chicana/o Theater History:
• • 'and Sororro~lda (Skdrton) in 1978
DiQll( Rodngua (standmg) I' (I: rop'llD toUr) Courtesy of
La Clrpa ,de l~_,~uap~I""lOuph by Fudi~ Schusttr.
Dione RDdrigua UIU<\'lCII. '''''''11
The Roles oMmen in EI Teatto Campesino
Introduction
In the summer of 1980 I wilnessed. a performance ofEiTeatro Campesino's
Fin del mundo in Europe. That production marked the end of the ensemble
known as El Teatro Campesino. a group that represented a way of perform-
ing and a way of living. bom intimately linked. dose.ly associated with the
United Farm Workers Union. the theater troupe eme.rged in 1965 as put of
the Chicana/o laoor and civil rights struggles of that en. After disassociating
itself from direct union involvement, El Teatro Campesina remained a spiri-
1U.tI, cultural, and ideologica.l standard-bearer ofthe Chicano movemenl.The
spirit of group commitment was still evident in the 1980 production of Fin
dd mundo and contributed (0 the rare power of that performance. power that
W~ visibly transmitted to German and French audiences despite language
md cultural. barriers. St.1nding OViltions ensued in a frenzy of enthusiasm
such as I had never wimessed from a Gennan theater audience.
Among the male characters, the most expressive was a Pachuco yom.h,
nicknamed "Huesos" (Bones). Huesos controlled the audience and the
motion on stage. How astonished I was to discover backstage after the per-
form.rnce that the extraordinary Huesos was pl.ayed by a woman, Socorro
\'olldez. Her performance was unforgettable.Yet her presence in theTeauo has
neo."er been noted by scholars or historians of Chicanalo drama. Her talent.
U \\"eU as that of the other women (and men) I saw perfoml, has always been
subsumed under the general heading ofElTeauoCampesino, with individual
crt'dil going (0 iLS now-wcll-knovvll director, Luis Valdez.
The history of women's participation in the long tradition ofMexican the-
~Icr in the Southwest constitutes a negleo:cd cultural legacy whose contours
ha\"e yellO be mapped. The comributions and struggles of the women in Fl
Tutro Campesino are a part of that rich legacy that, once exposed, will ..lter
me csublished version ofTeatro history:To illustrate, I will comment in gen-
croll terms on the body ofwriting about FlTeatro Campesino since its found-
ing in 1965. I will not reiterate specific findings but rather will indicate
J30 EI Tealm Cwnpo;il1O
some chardeteristic orientations and omissions in Chicana/a theater criticism
and history, which in many cases predetermined researchers' fmdings.
Spealdng generally. the history of E1 Tealro Campesino since its founding
in 1965 has been canonized as the hisloryofthe ijfcand times ofLuisValdcz.
like history in general, Tea.tro history has largely been reduced to a chronol·
ogy of the dOings ofonc individual. its director. The nature and significance
of Valdez's contributions have never been examined in relationship to the
contributions of the anonymous others. The reality of collective creation
in the Tcatro has been noted by some researchers. but that has not altered
their overriding historical framework, ~ on the greaHnan concept, simi·
lar to the hierarchical division oflabor with a supposedly omnipotent boss
at the lOP.
It is a way of looking at the world. It is a way of writing history. The ten·
dency to place individuals at the center of history ronstitutes a radical over·
simplification by which the dynamics ofHfe process are filtered out, rod only
names, dates, and places are left behind. By creating monuments to individu-
als, we eclipse the memory of group achievement and feel dwarfed by all
those "great men" instead oflcarning ofthe strength we have through com·
munity and collaboration. Although Luis Valdez. indeed. functioned as direc-
tor [0 the group, virtually all Teatro Campcsino creations were collectively
created. In literature on El Teatro Campesino, thal collaborative activity
is either overlooked entirely or considered to be of secondary importance.
Yet refcrcnces to "Luis Valdcz's Actos" or to "Valdcz's characters" or (0 "his
teatro"l are descriptive inaccuracies reflecting the age-old method of COIl-
veniently subsUming the work of a group of people under the name of
one man.
Jorge Huerta, in numerous articles and a book (Huerta 1982), has exten-
sively chronicled the history ofChicanala theater groups, including EITeatro
Campesino. Huerta's Significant book examines the themes of Chicanala
theater as a reflection of greater sociohistorica1 forces that generated dozens
of tc:nIos. Furthermore, he offers a vivid and comprehensive description of
Chicana/o theatrical productions for the period 1965-1980. Huerta's per-
spective on the history ofElTeatro Campesino ha.~ become something of an
official version, shared by countless other researchers.
Underlying his pioneering trea.unent of Chicano theater history is th~
great-nun conceptUal. framework; despite recurrent mention ofa "collectivt
process," "collectivity," and "collective authorship," Huerta does not deliver
a usable description of the actual steps involved in the process of collective
authorship, nor a broader sociocultural framing of that collt..'Ctive process so
common among Chicana/o lheater groups. lbe group dynill11ics of theatri·
T\l'tYllrn a Rt:-V'lSion of Cbicono/a Theater History
131
~cn:atio~ &Ie sUbs,~ed~d::r the ,~ndividua.l rubric ofLuis Valdez, thereby
rv~~~tlCu~der
ucmgt cterms. collectIve and improvisation"tosomethin thatha _
ns
the aegis of a genius. Huerta (1982: 17) writes' "But}ew fJ:
efforts ~a~are now aVailable in print approxinla~e the qual~ty o~
\vith .an actas. ~ ps the s~ccess of this creative genius' collaborations
. hIS ever-evOlvlIlg troupe IS due (0 the fact that Valdez is a t I
wnght, actor and director who can see aU of the I poe pay- ro'
fective lheatcr d h e eJnents necessary or cr-
of" . a~ ~ Dean transpose those visions to thestage."The qualities
creative gernus as well as the capacity to "see alIlh eJ
for effective theater" and "trans . . e em:~ts necessary
sol~.lyto Valdez. as if the anon:us ~~;:.~~~~~
stag; arc ~bed
genius o~ vision or hwnan agency. upe possess no
In reality lhe creative proces.~ drew from the vision ofallTeatroCam .
members. Teatm veteran Olivia Chwnaccm describes the writing of ~~~
~ ~ to d.cvdop our scriplS u we went illong, from me improvis.ltions. ...
Some~mes,.like when we were doing La ClIrpa. whic.h was in roIDda form we
~<1d m~hts m .which people mct who wantcd to work Oil writing the ~ for
lie comda. Smiley and I would go aJong w,'th di~ I
. 'iler~t ot ler people who
were ~ntercstcd in writing. ~'d sit down with Luis md work at illh<1t wOlY
: :F~~ 'M.: wou1~ t~ ideas. OIbout where 'M.: vnIlted to go in the piec~. And
o h would write different verses or whatever. <1nd then select from th<11
. r t cn w? would tollk olbom what we wanted 10 say. then we would do oln .
ImprOVisatIon and he [luisVaJdcz] would walch. (InterView, 1/19/1983)
OliVia Chumacero descr'l>es til·· I
.hic h I IS Intcose y collaborative way of working
"ru e~~m~ not only the writing ofindividua.l pLa.ys, but all face~
o leatnl..4l actlvHy:
It lVolS a collective woly of working. We made om own COStumes we built
our own props and SClS ... ""ie did iIll the work collcctivdy whi"h th
.u <1 c . . . ... meant OIt
.en,~J11 lime .....' e aJ1took lim~ to mue the props, or to mue the set. At a
~;LllII lime we ill1100k time to clean up. All the work was done in lhat Wily
course the person or persons who were more knowledgeable in a certai~
u,eol \':e re res~n~ible for that area., but everybody Iud to help. Yes? [See?]
\\ h<11 IS ~m<1Z111g IS IhOit we were in conLiCt with each other OI!mOSI 24 I
~ d<1r-illlthe time. (Illlerview, 1/19/1983) lOurs
,In spi~e ofthis collective reality, theater historians' anlhologists' d '
~ fixa.tlon on " a n Cnt·
\.!m I f; a great ~an snowballed into an account that distorted the
on.! ~L~i~ ~~~. AnthologIes of Chicana/o theater, for example, usually name
) ez as the author ofworks that were in fact collectively authored
 f
J32 EITmtro CAmprsioo TlMurcl a Rt-V"lSioo of Chic4na/oThcultt HisuKy
l33

(see for example cardenas de Dwyer 1975. CastaIieda Shular et aI. 1972, brother Danny'" the ex.traordin Soco
Harth and Baldwin 1974). Luis Valdez has also conuibuted to this myth by ing as "his multi~alented s' t .. a:J rro Valdez only mentioned in pass-
republishing the collectively authored aclos as his "early works" (Valdez. forValdez appears IimitIess1San~ (ll uer~ 9~2:22,209).Huenasadmiration
1990). The most widely anthologized octo, Soldodo rom, runs withom excep· "V&l.dez' \'\'Odd enCOrnn:>w..., ec thPS'" hi at ~~ all other ensemble members:
tion underValdcz's name. Yet Olivia Chwnacero reCAlls that this octo, like all r-....--,more an s cnUCSC.lJ1 comprehend" "TIl
pressure might have stopped a Jesser "( ; or, e
others, was written by various members of the ensemble through lhe pro- gran ClltpcJ dt 10 &uruJia Rasquochi- II ~an pp. 183.178). With regard to La
cess of collective improvisation: "but La gron CllrJlo1 J. 1__ h,a co ech~lvely authored work-Huerta tells us:
'r lit JUS rosquac IS was IS (emph'
w
. 1
Once ~ ~re working on SoIdodo fU). working on we ide.. In folet I there was nothing that could Stop him from dan~ ~e tour de force and
is portrayed as a figure so reat th t g (p.206).lndced,Valdez
remember ~ were going to do this IIcto specifically for me moratorium
of his genius: "Valdez w~" gd . ' hi,:e can barely hope to grasp the nature
agAinst the wu in Yielflmt.... Enlonces [Then] there was a girl in the T~lro ..., anang s way to truth ;,., . ell
who told us wb;l,t hold happened in her f~y.... And so the IICtO is twed on
could understand" (p 205) Oth ... a way no lOt Cetual
qUoted, nor are their' 0 W· :r members.ofEiTea tro Campesino are never
a real SIOry. well, Luis introduced the ca/motru [skeleton] character into olle of
profLIe or even contrasrto ~n; ~~~~ay mcluded. for the sake of adding
me improvi!w..tions; and Phil [Esparza] did !.he caJavero in the improvisoitions.
He stutcd doing various numbers. And we inunediately thought thaI this is a
these names stand for the variet de h y qUOted v~ews o~ Luis Valdez. Yet
lions. clashes and resolutio th Y u~an forces, mteracuons, contradic_
great 1001 to use in this oclo. And it worked. I remember that was when Luis ns at constnute Tea.tro histo
actwlly wrote the diol.logue that the mother and the son have ill the letter ... Only by learning to ask new question.<i will ry..
for the rest of the \1CIO we were working 01T improvisalions that ~ were that incorporates voices and iss I a newTeatro history emerge
Bertolt Brecht (1976'252) . kues ong o~erlooked or buried. Playwright
doing. Luis was leaching at the University and he didn't have as much time 10 questions in a poem:· pIC s at new vems of historical truths wilh his
help put it together. So I remember tW.I he wrote thOit p.m. But 01.1.1 the other
parts were dOlle collectively. Everybody's ideas, everybody's input, the Who bUilt Thebes of the seven gOites?
improvisations. Luis functioned u sifter.... We ""'-ere like an experiment, you iJ~ the books you will find the names of kings.
know. We were the experiment and we would just keep going and he would Old thc kings haul up thc Jumps of rock? . '
just keep taking from that. nul is how we worked, and it W;l$ great. You
know, il wu really greOlt, because people had 10 be on their toes, people had Every ~ge a victory.
{O think, people had 10 have this 'information within them, too. You w.d to Who cooked the feasl for tbe victors?
draw from yourself, from where you were coming from. Things came ou{ Every tell years a g~at man,
from you. from what you thought. from what you had experienced in life.... Who ~d the him
h wu your life. (Interview. 1/19/1983) So many reports.
The vital facets ofhistory that become blurred or erased by the great-man So many questions.
~pective are the very fon::es that shape lhe "great individuals" and sustain Without an understanding of the collision and .
lhem in a position of prominence. The special contributions of women are an aCCOUnt of the daily life p d mergmg of forces, without
among lhose facets that are absent in lhe writing oftheater history. Nonethe- stances ofperforma.nce, Teatro r~;:es~ struggles, of tIle liVing circum-
less, the actual dynamics of the creative process in El Teatro Campesino are musewn. y mes a promenade lhrough a wax
blurred by Jorge Huerta's linear vision (chronological and tcxt-centered) of In the years since the European t f'
a "great man" directing the anonymous masses of actors. Teatro members drnamics of El Teatro Cam in our 0 Fin dd mundo I have explored the
who devoted ten or more years to tlut intense collective underuking--Ollvia extensive interviews with ~c o~nd o~e:c ft.llfras, combining fieldwork,
Chumacero, Roberta De.lgado, Lupe Valdez. Rogelio Rojas, Philip Espana, Canlpesino, day-to-day Iivin : ~: o~mer members of El Teatro
Diane Rodriguez, Jose Delgado, to list only a few-are not even named in El Tcmo Campesino in Calif~ . pe d ces with ~e women and men of
Huerta's history. Danie!Va.ldez is introduced simply as LuisValdez's "younger uchives. During my two rmt
an reseat;=h 10 t~e Teatro Campesino
years 0 research residence 10 San Juan Bautista,
13+ Ef To:Jlro Campcsino
the base of operations for El Teatro Campesino. I developed All understand-
ing of the day-by-day behind-the-scenes C'J'tllive process thAt predated. that
final production of Fin dd mundo and especially the roles of the women in
that process.
'M::>men have constituted a distinct force within theTeatro Campesino and.
by extension, within the history ofChicana/o theater.Yet inTeatro history. as
in history writing in general, the JWtidpation ofwomen is often overlooked.
The course charted by lhese women is rich in contradictions and human
potential. By presenting these conflicts and contradictions and their resolu-
tions in aU their human breadth, I hope to rectify the history of El Tealro
Campesmo so that process-the full range of human action, including
women's contributions-becomes visible. nlU.~ in seeking to reconstitute a
portion of the unwritten history of Chicana/o theater I focus here primarily
all the women, and the roles they played-both 011- and offstage.
In researching and reconstructing Chicana performance history, my rich-
est-and most exclusive---source of information has been female perform-
ers themselves. It is through interviews--collected over a ten-year
pcriod-that I have begun to develop an llllderstanding ofthe life, work, and
struggles of Chicana performers. None of these women-including the
women of the Teatro Campesino-had ever been interviewed before.
I view this chapter as collectively written. It could never have been writ-
ten without the intense panidpation and reflection ofthe women whose life
and work are examined here. In order to express the reiility of collective
authorship, I have chosen a collective presentational forron rich in quou.-
tions from the oral histories I have ~ollected. In inlcgrating is much of
women's testimony as possible, I funhermore reflect a feminist commiunem
to honor women's words, to validate the notion that a woman's experience
is best described in her own words. in spite of what researchers may think to
the contrary. The focus on women's experience should also serve as a
corrective to the hundreds of existing works of exclusively male focus. Con-
sultation with male members ofElTeatro Campesino on thc participation of
women elicited scant results; their tendency was to pass over the topic in olS
few words as possible before changing the subjcct altogether. It was
the women who most eloquently addressed what has been their own
historical experience.
In this chapter, theoretical perspectives are elaborated implicitly rather
than explicitly. I do not privilege theory and the theoretical as the most im-
portant or most significaDl way of knowing or communicating; what I do
privilege is women's own 'words concerning their own life experience. Ctre-
ful atlention to women's experiences must provide the grounding for any
Ji7,o;ard Q Re-YlSion of Chkona/oThalltr History
theory we construa and for any categories of analysis we apply. Putting
women at the center of analysis does not Simply mean that we now include
subjects who were formerly excluded. Rather. the inclusion of women's
experience will fundamentally alter the way in which performance history
or other history is written.
The experience of these women not only illustrates the struggle by
women in El Teatro Campesino and other kUtros but in many ways parallels
efforlS by women outsilk the theater.Their stories interest us precisely because
they are not the stories of "creative geniuses" but the stories of all women.
The Roles of Women in El Teatro Campesino
Within the vast body ofcritical writings on ElTeatro Campcsino, critics have
overlooked the history ofwomen's participation.The amply documented and
discussed repertoire ofElTeatroCampcsino has been viewed principally from
the perspective of gerne: documenting the company's development ofvari-
ous theatrical genres, from the aetos to mitos to oorridos. A different historical
configuration appears, however, when we focus on the roles of women in
EI Teatro Campesino.
Throughout the course of El Teauo Campe:sino's dramatic evolutionary
process. the female roles have remained fairly constant in all the genres: varia+
Uons of the same three or fow types or categories. These characters are de-
fined in a familial or age category: mother, grandmother, Sister, or wifel
girlfriend. Note, for example, the cast. ofcharaaers in the 1970 octo Hudguistm.
Whereas the male characters are named according to place of origin or by
workplace function (e.g., CampcsinoTejmo, Campesino Coyote), the w0-
men are described in terms of age and marital status (Campesina Us.il.da,
CunpcsinaViejita [Married Campesina. Old Campesina]).These designations
ere irrelevant to the nature of their statements in the octo, hO'NeVer. In addi-
tion to the familial or age category, all womco are also assigned one of two
sc.x~al categories: whores or virgins. a categorizing evident since the early
period of the aetos. Wives. sisters, girlfriends, and mothers are made to faIl
<hien)' into either the whore or the virgin CJ.tegory. Although some degree
of mixing and matching can occur-such as with the "whore-mother" char-
,Wer of Chata in Fin del mundo (1980)-women fall into only one of two cat-
~orics: good woman or bad woman.
nus reductive characterization continues after the period oftlle early uelos.
In the remarkable dream parody, La ginn carpa cantinflesco (1972), for example,
the female characters recede entirely during most scenes. The cultural and
political disputes between the generations are carried out by the falher and
mQ sons. In the play's final part, consisting of a farcical reenaament of the
136 EI Taltro CdmpGino

Chicano movement, the daughter Cantinflucha enters and makes the comi-
cal but characteristic remark: "What about Chicmas. valO? Or do \".Ie get only
bit parts in tillS revolutionary carpal I havc a script loo!"This line strongly
signals an awareness within EJ TealrO Campcsino of the gender oppression
within the Chicano movement: Women were expected to panicipatc in po-
litical activity. but not as leaders. nlC double standard relegated women to
bit parts. TheTeatro Cunpesino's apparent awareness aCme problem did not,
however, make an impact on the group's portrayal of women. In U1SIUn (0tpd
clIntinnescll the Chicana's "script" is nonexistent and her role is concluded
shortly after her bit part.
Depending on the drcumstances of any given Tcatro Campt..'Sino play-
all of which have male prou.gonislS--the handful of available female traits
are mixed or malcht.."tt to create lhe desired c!Too.TIle 000 of lm \i:ndidos prcw
sents a somewhat differcm-but equally troubling---projection ofdlicana
women. It features one Chicana woman secretary (and five males) in speak-
ing roles. The Chicana is sent from Republican governor Ronald Reagan's
office to recruit a token Mexican for the administration. She angliciZes her ~ from 1980 Fin del mWldo Europmn lour. LdIIO right Rogdio &;as.
Oi,me(from Jimenez to JIMenez) and upholds the conservative Republican Pi ~g.Jdo.YoI.m:IlI flgrm (as NewsrJl5I.a), Olivia Chwnoctro (silUIlB), Diane
politics. Although the GCto Los\tndidos creates a space for Chicmas as speaking Rodngua, Sorono \bJda. Courtesy of Olivia ChlU"llllCtrO Archil'e.
political. subjects, her politics is that ofa l'CIldido (scll·out).l1tis acto replicates
the male colonial ideology that created the tcnn "malinchismo"; that term Louie: I WiUlt 10 make some feria!
and that ideology assign historical responsibility for "selling out" (or col· Mucario: I wanllO go to college!
laboration with the enemy) to female subjects. Like the bulk of the Teatro RositG: What about my boyfriend!
Campesino female characters, Miss JIMenez of Los\t'ndidos also engages only (EiTeatro Umpes.ino 1973:22)
in activities which are accessory to those of males.
Women's roles do not enjoy the dramatic space necessary for the unfold- In the exciting 1980 European production ofFindd m.._J - fi _. h
lers· th h (i.1 li WKIU, em-ue c. arac-
ing of a full character. In their confinement, \'YOmen do not evolve beyond a In e s 0,:," ot ke carbon copies of those from earlier Teatro 1.1 S'
single dimension. With the exception ofLaVirym deTepeyuc, allTeatro Campesina ~lere was the samtJik.e, wilting wife; the sleazy whore; and the grandm~tle;
gure
plays have males as their focus.1be female figures are those affected by men; S.i . Co~p~~ With the male characters, the women were one~d.imen.
they are peripheral, the ones to whom things happen. Never is the world fI on~ an~ Utslgru~caIll. l~ Valdez's winter 1981 play about the 1860s Cali.
seen through the eyes of a woman. This is refleaed in the very titles of the onua ChIQllO soaal banditTibumoVasquez (BaOOido!) the Wstori-I fi .
legendarv qUCSI r; '.' . . • '-<U 19ure s
works, which usually carry the nanle of the male protagonist. Even in ","'Ora \" -,r or SOCl-u JUStice becomes insignificam as Valdez hi hli hts
of an almost epic scope, such as La carra de Ia familia Rasquachi (1973), later re- asquez s quest for women. All three women in the play are his satell~tes ~d
named La curpll de}tsw Pelado Rasquachi, women are male-centered and limited to arc defined solely in terms of men.The high-browed Rosario is wife to Le·
being victims or satellites of men. Whereas the three Rasquaclli brotller:s are ~Ild .!~~er to Tiburcio V~,uez; California Kate is a madam; and Rita Ma~~~
endowed with various personal ambitions, Rosita Rasquachi's single intent IS a clsty camp foUower competing with Rosario for the love ofV'
is to not lose her boyfriend: ~Iuch of Rita's dialogue centers around woo",· gV' . "v asq~ez.
her; asquez. IOU were mme
(Children gather uound Pelado and complain about going to Mexico)
.~ars o~ you even met that weak, little bitch! I knew back in New ldeia
Joe: Oh no, Papa. I want to join the Marine Corps! s..le ~ould~ t hack being your woman.... I'm the woman you need Tiburcio
1 11 r~~c ;,n(~;JdoU until the day we die, even if they hang so I~ng as it'~
us,
08 eUler Y<lJ ez 1981:90).
'

Socorro\1lJda ill chamctuiSlic expression as Hucsos ["&n5"J in Fin del
mundo. 1980 Euwprotl lour. Courtesy of Olivia Cbumoctro Archh"t.
In a perceptive article exploring the roles ofw~mcn i~ lheTeatro de 1,1,
Esperanza, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano points to the Ideological problems of
having individual prOlagonists-male or female:
The question wncerning main characters goes beyond the fact of ~ing .~ale
or female. It is actually part of a larger question of spL'Cial interest In JXlhtlCai
theater, namely, what is implied by having a main character at all. There has
been much discussion of lhe dassical Lukacsian idea of lhe protagonist who
incarnates the dash of anlagonistic social forces. Instead, people have begun
to wonder whether the inclination in theater to create heroes does not imply
a tendency to envision social problems as the problems of iI.ll cxtraordinary
individual, usually male. (1981 :8, 10)
Individual heroes as protagonists also create dramatic proble~s. The
overpowering centrality of one character creates limitalions of dIalogue,
space, and action in the development of other characters. In Teatro
Campesino plays there is invariably a main male character, although balanced
by other male characters (such as in Fin del mundo, 19~0, or La gran .carpa
cantinlle:sca) or by allegorical figures like La Muerte or ~l Diablo (such as Ill!JJ
Cllrpa de los Rasquachis). Female characters ftll the spaces In bet':eetl.
In my interviews with Teatro women I ~xplored the genesIs of~hese ro.les,
the women's views of them, and women s development across time. Wah·
To\\urd a Re~VlSiOll of CbiOlllll/O ThMteT History 139
out exception the women placed these roles within the context of their own
personal development. The stereotyped roles found in the work of El Teatro
Campesino to some extent reflect the stereotyped views of Chicanas in soci-
ely at large. The women who joined the company in the 1970s inherited
these stereotypical female roles. Roles were to some extent preestablished
and were never submitted to scrutiny by male members of the Teatro. Nor
did the women question these roles at the time, principally because of their
roulh. Most women entered theTeatro in their teens, when their conscious-
ness of themselves as women and of their roles as women in the theater was
not highly developed. Teatro member Diane Rodriguez described the
women's early passivity:
Al the beginning we were playing various types, like the supportive Wife,
rOll know, or the Virginal type, like an icon, literally she was just a statue--
and that was a character: thaI was aile of the main roles. We were playing
these roles, we let that happen. And we had some input. But where were
we. as women, al that JXlint? Somehow at that paint we didn't haye the con-
sciousness and we played these cardboard roles. Or maybe we did haY\, some
consciousness but we didn't know how to gel it on the stage. There was
something thaI was not as slrong as it is now, of course. There is more of a
consciousness of women-in oneself---t.hat there wasn't then. (Interview,
617/1980)
Socorro Valdez, who performed her firstTearro Campesino role at age fifteen,
also said that her youth prevented her from questioning the female role": "I
was growing up, you knOw. So for me to confront Luis [Valdez] at that time
and say: Look. Your writing about women is no good ... well, that is not
where I was coming from; he was much older than me and had more life
experience. But he didn't have female experience" (interview, 3/ I / 1983).
Furthermore, efforts to address the polities of Chicanas/os as a whole
during the 1960s somehow precluded any special consideration ofwomen's
rob or problems. A discussion of gender issues was given very low priority.
Diane Rodriguez recalled how the importance of the show did not allow the
women's roles even secondary consideration: "It seems that because we have
l1wa)'s worked for a certain goal, we have overlooked some things. I admit
that. I admit it very much ... we perform his [LuisValdez.'s] view ofwomen,
imically. Now there is some input. But in order that the show go on ... well.
\\t,: have said: Okay we'll go with this and we have performed these roles...
. \\c have talked aboul this and I think all of us are very conscious. But I don't
think lhat we have found the answer yet either" (interview, 617/1980).
PUlting women's issues second, or discounting them altogether, was com-
,"" EI TallO Compesino bwrd er Rt-ytSim of Chicancr/1l1balta Hwllf)'
'<1

mon among leftist groups oflhe 19605.md the 19705 in the United States
and around the world. The liberation of people in general was considered
the chiefpriority. It is ironic !.hat those cngdged in struggles for human equal-
ity \\--ere slow to recognize that class struggles Uld ethnic muggles would
not necessarily better lhe lot of women. The women of the Chicano move-
ment orthe 19605 and 19705 who raised women's issues were accused of
being divisive. The situation was equally touchy for women in EI Teatro
Campesino, despite the ensemble's history of perpetual transformation.
Gradually, with the development of OJ. consciousness as women, the con-
finement of these roles bcame increasingly apparem and increasingly frus·
trating to the women. Socorro Valdez. the youngest of the group, lamented:
It was like walking the same P4th over and over. There was the mother. the
sister, or the grandmother or the girlfriend. Only four. You were either lhe
OO\:ill, la lJ\OllllI, lallbuda, or la hmnanll. [The girlfriend, the mother, the
grutdmothe.r, or lhe sisler]. And masl of the time these cluncters were &m.: from 1980 Fin dcl mundo Ellropmn tour. Left 10 riah!: Dil1l1t
~ive. The WOly those femOllcs Olrt bid out Olrt for the mQ5t put very pusive
Rodnsua. YoIooclcr fl:IrRl, Olivier CblllnOWO; Sacoml Wdda in bociground.
Courtesy of Olivier ChUlJVX'CrO Arthht.
utd bjd bOlck, y agU4J1tllbon todlI [Olnd they put up with everything]. 1 think thOit
is whOit reilly chewed me up ,It the time. (lnlerview, 3/1/1983)
The women's dissatisfaction with these roles led to one of the longest and up! ~n't give me Ihal!They would separate you without needing to. And so
deepest struggles in the development of the Teatro Campesino. I would even Ohvla fought f~r her own, as I did. You know we were boul very young. We
venture to say that the question of women's roles became the most endur- both ended up ill the role of fighters because that's what Wils needed to get
ing contradiaion within the company. a contradiction paralleled in various th~ mcn's heeds to a place where they would be able to discuss something
ways within the Chicano movement. It was a comradiction bet\Yeen what wuh you. Wt: would have open meetings where the shit would fly across the
was, on the one hand, a constant process of renewal in lhe form of new room.... But I know how imporu.nt those three .....-omen were at that period,
performance visions and experimentation, and what was, on the other hand. because there was no other femalc voicc in the compOlny." (Interview, 3/1/83)
a static clinging 10 well-worn stereotypes of gender roles. The reatro Administrative and decision-making power was, to a large extent, in the
Campesino repertoire. with its strong progressive strides in the treaUTIent of hands of the men. In time, women learned (0 queslion the division or labor
labor issues. of Chicano culture, of historical issues, consistently demon- .uong gender lines:
strated stagnation in its lreatment of women.
Resistance to change was in some ways anchored in the makeup of \Ve even got down to questioning who Wils going to be telling who what to
the company, which had been predominantly male since its founding. do: because I personally gO£ very tired of being under the thwnb of a rnut.
Socorro Valdez describes how the women struggled to be viewed and treated We had a male touring manager. We had 01 male booking agent. We had a
as equals: male director. We had a male stage manager. We had a male everything. And
there are women there who arc just as StrOllg. .•. r could pick up a house if I
Alone lime there w~ only IIlrCe women in Ihe whole darn tIring: Olivia hid 10, )'Ou know. ... But thl-'Y just never thought I could. And it w~ up to
Chunucero, myself, and a third I don't rememoo. Thai Wils a rea.l interesting me to show Ihem that J could. There WiIS no fault to beu, just resjxmsibility.
time. We were either going to remain members of the compmy, or just be (Socorro VOlIdcz interview, 3/1/1983)
~the women of the compOlny."That made a real difference. you know, beca~
I hated 10 be put into a mold like "These are the ladies of the Teatro." Aw shut The patri~cha1 organiution ofEiTeatro Campcsino reinforced the aspect
of male dommance in administrative matters. Luis Valdez typically worked
 "
)42
Socmro\l:llda performing in 011 acto CJ('IItal ~r tilt 1976 United Furnl \Mldlm:
Scrond Cooslitutioo:tl CorMnti(ll. Courttsy of Unital flinn V\ilrkm of Nntric8.
with persons much younger than himself.And the relationship between. the
members of the ensemble, a group that worked and Jived together, was defimtely
a familial one. The group was officially defined as a familia; Luis Valdez was
the symbolic father, or person in charge.TIle rest of the company was much
younger. Olivia Chumaccro describes the relationship as follows:
When I joined the company I vns nineteen, you know. He [Luis) was much
older, tbineen yeal'S, WhUevef. For me it wasn't a problem. Within my reality
it was alw",ys the oldest person th"'t was in darge. That is just part of the
cultu~ if the older person is only twO yean older than me; lbat was
the person you respected "'nd that witS the person who was in charge. But thai
didn't mew ili"'t you didn'l have a mind, or iliat you didn't think, that you
didn'tcxpress what your opinions were 011 everything. (Interview, 1/19/83)
LuisValdez's paternalistiC role presented a problem forYolanda Parra.. who
joined the company in 1977. Parra initially acceptcd but eventually fC]ooed
the obedient daugbter role, both on and off the stage:
Luis did not treat one as an adult. ... The most da.ngerous thing wiili me and
Luis is when he gelS dlilt parentldaughter thing wiili me.... It's "ery easy to
fall into iliat; whatcver the man uys, and yielding, yielding, yielding, not
questioning. I have been trained really good that way. But sc:>mewhere alon~
the Une I start thinking, "Wait a minute."There comes a pomt-and I don t
blutd Q Rt-VISion of Chiama/o Thalia History 143
know what SlUtS it ex.actly ... bill you start to think. Abolll you and about
your position, your own honor, your own dignity ... wd then you ask
yourself: Well, why am I doing this? And dIe wswer is; Well, because be sUd.
Well, docs tit know what I'm fl.-eling? Can he tell me how to livd (Interview,
12121/1982)
The process of changing the pon.rayal of women, of developing fuller
roles and images of women, was percciv1.."<i by the women as a challenge both
in theatrical terms and in terms of human dignity,Yet the men did not share
that sense of urgency in the women's challenge. Perhaps it was al.uming to
the patriarchal structure ofElTea.lrO Campesino. Socorro Valdez describes the
challenge created by women:
Luis las seen a lot of Sluff through the work that the women have done in
this group. nlCY'VC always given him a little ... to chclUmgc him. And there
were timcs in the group th.'Illhe .....o men were JUSt outraged. We'd Sily, "What
are you doing? I'm sick of playing mothers! I'm sick of playing sisters!"
(Interview, 3/1/1983)
As the women developed, so did their desire to create more integrated
female characters, female characters possessing many [fails and nOt just the
n,u mother, sister, whore figures typical ofthcTeatro Campcsino repertoire.
Yolanda Parra recalls the limited roles forced on female actors:
There is this comunt stereotypical portrayal of women. His women cbarac·
tel'S.ire virgins, whores, or mothers. Is there anything else? No. But you see.
women don't come like that. Women are Gll three, not one or the other. And
they are more things; tbey are men, too, and they are children. It's not just
three separate things. like: "I'm iill virgin!" ... Who's going to buy that?
See. that's a real problem. (Interview, 12121/1982)
The question ofredefining female roles, however, met with pdSSive resis-
Unce. For one thing, it never rca1ly found acceptance as a problem. Far from
being taken up as a challenge, it was treated as an unnecessary provocation.
Women's efforts to dramatize a new vision ofwomen ~e frequcntly coun-
tered by a subLie form ofostracism-the suggestion that tllCy write their own
pi.lys.The collective spirit dearly suffered a collapse when gender roles were
questioned. Suddenly an individual solution was suggcsted for what was a
collective problem. That response was indicative of the lack of ensemble
wmmitment to the creation of adequate roles for women. Women of the
Tutro view that resistance--on one level-as a function of the men's not
1>..lI;ng "female experience:' But a more complex dimension of that resis-
 ElTallro Cam~ino Tomnd a Re-V/Sion of CbiCllJld/o Theater History 145

tance is also articulated: the narrowness in '

linked to the narrowness in the m ' . If men s 'perc~ption of women is
perience women any Other wa en s se -perception: He [Luis] can't ex- role, but it didn't get developed. Luis cast her in that role. (Interview,
:ither, unless they are wiJIin/t~Xs~~c~ aSha. man.~nd no one else,~an do that
12121/1982)
IlHerview, 3/1/1982), t elf own lm0gt of IhfmSt'lves (S. Valdez The same practice of casting weak female actors in pivotal roles was re-
Male resistance to female self-detennil' '. peated in subsequent roles, to the detriment of the plays as a whole. The
mem, however, should not be personaliz~anon W1~un the Chicano move- production of Rose of the Rancho, which inaugurated theTearro Campesino Play~
lem of this or that man or rou I ' or.c~nsldered lhe special proh- house (1981), featured a wilting Juanita character in the play's center. That
Campcsino. Male supremacis;ideJ~ n ~~uth, It ~s n~t unique to EI Teatro role was the result of a casting decision and of playwriting. A powerful and
.d praetIc~, III a~J se~tors of society,
gy
have been the focus of extensive d. expreSSive female actor in the role of Rose might well have created a charac-
women's movement A rime . lSCUS.S lOn and I~vestlganon within the ter highly incompatible with the general thrust ofthis lightweight melodra-
to accept women beYO~d thei~~i~st~t~on~f that. Ideology is the inability matic comedy. The drama seeks to entertain and to attract: a broad audience
form of blindness that p-ve , g;c ro es: wlfe/mother/lover. It is a by offending no one. As such, it follows a stereotyped entertainment for-
•'- n s many iTOm perce" h
experiences that in reality m,k, I IVlng t e vast spectrum of mula: the weak Mexican Juanita character and her roncho are saved by an Anglo
. . up woman lOad The v· . / 1 d·
J1117.atlon of women is the distoned ro.,.· lrglll W lore IChoto- whom she then marries. All live happily ever after.
ogy. Maimenance of male powe nee! ~ectlon of male supremacist ideol- The same novice who played the Rose character then played the principle
image of women. Although ~ a ragm.emed (i.e., nonthreatening) female role in Luis Valdez's Ikmdido! (198/), a play about the 1860s Cali-
. bl vanous women III the Teat C .
sem e were a liVing antithesis f th I ro ampesmo en- fornia's Chicano heroic outlaw, Tiburdo VasqueZ-with predictable results.
virtually no evidence ofa new unOde "md~ e ste,;;otypes of women, there is The historical figure's legendary quest for justice becomes insignificant as
. rs an mg or suet h "Th •
Image remained at odds with th . f' c. e womell Sself- Valdez highlights Vasquez's quest for women.
their wholeness; the issue of wo e Im~gesl 0 those un~ble to see women in Casting decisions were at times even based on the female actor's skin color,
The growing desire of some T:~~s~~mes w:'"s consistently deflected. as evidenced in the play about the Indian deity Guadalupe, Las (U<I{tO <Iporicionts
Out roles with greater de th t PCSIll? ",:omen to create and try de la Virgen deTepey<Jc. This play occupies a very special place in the history of EI
gradual striving to assUInePgrea:::opome ext:n,t. COInCided with Luis Valdez's Teatro Campesino. The women of the company regarded playing the revered
' . wer WI( un the organizati Tha .
mg was not WIthout implications fc h on. t stnv- Mexican deity Guadalupe-Tonantzin as much more than a "role." It was an
roles ofwomen Castin dec" or t I.' WOmen engaged in redefining lhe honor and a deeply spirirual undertaking. As was shown in chapter I, it is
And casting de~isions beg,'mISlons bec~e the exclusive right ofLuisValdez. not the Roman Catholic institutionalized version of Guadalupe that gives the
.. e a conscIous or u n c ' ,.
peruation of the classic stereo f onSC10US too In the per- pageant its power, but rather, the adoration of Guadalupe-Tonamzin as the
ensemble production (Fin del ~~ a I~~;)en.~n ~le last Teatro Campesino Native American deity that she is: the symbol of a cosmic force. The role of
Vera--companion to the dru d .0, , t e email' lead character of Guadalupe is perhaps the one female role that was loved by all the women
hig~ly incongruous but chara~l~ri~~~~ ~~~~l~~l~~YI~~~~was p,layed in the of the company. Unlike other roles, it represented a tribute to female poten-
castmg decision: a novice actress was ch . IS was t le res~lt of a tiality. Yet the role also fell prey to stereotyping. An unspoken casting taboo
Teatro women As in so many rod . osen over the more expenenced altered the appearance of the goddess. Yolanda Parra tells of the alteration.
delivered very ·little. Yolanda ~ UctlOns, ~ role that ~romised a great deal
ra, an expenenced tromsto, recalled: In the Vi'llin deTepeyac tlley should have a rcallndian-looking woman because
The one role Ihat all of us women Iried out fa that's tlle whole poin!. She appears to Juan Diego in the image of an india, and I
naJlt Wife-girlfriend. Unfortunal 1 1 1 r was the role ofVera, the preg- mean hard-core stone-ground Mexican-Indian.... But the women they pick
e Yo I tat ro c was handled b
actress.... She was physirolly maybe suited for I . Ya very weak for the role look like little Spanish madonnas. I've always thought Olivia
terms Of,IHs f think tl", 01·· n' he role. a pretty face. But in Chumacero would make a great Virgen de Tepeyac, because there is a certain
.. IVla or lane were rn I be .
a real hurt for ll~ because we Id uc 1 Her slUted.... It was amount of ovaries that go into that part. You're talking the guts of the
, wou Iry 10 coach he . "00' I"
clinging vine! Leave us a little bit of pride!" II had thT. ki~ t aetflke such a Universe tllere.You're talking somebody who can realty feel the IXJWer.
e rna ngs 0 a wonderful (Interview, 12121/1982)
,4<> EI ramo Camptsioo
Control over casting decisions provided a kind of insurance policy for lhe
director. It assured thal the roles would be played in accordance with his view
of women. Within the three or four role types available to women, only cer~
tain predetermined women could play certain predetermined roles. Just as
female roles in plays had become cemented, women also became stereotyped
along rigid lines offstage. A vicious circle of typecasting was created. In the
words of Socorro Valdez:
As it were, the actresses that were "soft" offstage and just muy buO'"IOS, muy muy
bUaJus [tame, real, real tame] got the "soft" roles. And the ladies that were
medias cobronas [the ones who wouldn't take shit from anyone) and had a beer
and cigarette hanging out of their mouth, well you know what role they got.
... I always ended up with that other stuft (Interview, 3/ II 1983)
Women were divided basically into "soft" types and "hard" types-into
good and bad. Yet this division did not go unquestioned. What is more, it
deepened the women's understanding of themselves and of their roles. In
dIe words of Socorro Va.ldez:
Now I know these choices. And I know there were moments in the group
when there was to be a "girlfriend."Well, can Socorro be the girlfriend? No,
Socorro can't be the girlfriend. Socorro is either the old lady or she is the
jokester. BUll was never seen in this company as a "soft" woman, because
they confuse softness and hardness and they attach those two things to
strength or weakness. But there is no such thing in my mind.... You can't put
those two things together like thaLThey fluctuate. (Interview, 31 I I 1983)
EI Teatro Campesino continued to reenact all varieties of virgins, moth-
ers, and sleazy whores throughout the decade of the 197 Os. This is not to
imply that the women stayed in the company in the position of martyrs.
There were various other dimensions of activity that made the experience
very rewarding. The flowering of creative capacities afforded by the collec-
tive process within the Teatro was seemingly limitless, as long as it did not
pertain to the expansion ofwomen's role'>. Even the eventual entry of women
into administrative positions did not trigger a modification of the portrayal
of women on the stage.
Any theater history that places women's experience at its center will have
to include categories such as childbearing and child-care.The rigid views of
gender roles both on and off the stage created a special set of problems pe-
culiar to women in the theater. These problems ilIustrale the dose relation-
ship between the private and the public spheres in theatrical life.
T{I\\-Qfl! a Rc-VlSioo of Cbicana/o Theater History
One obstacle women had to overcome was the negative response. ofmany
to the very presence of women in reatm. The prejudice against female actors
manifested itself even amongTeatro Campcsino supporters:
It got wild when people started saying:'n1ose broads are nothing but.il bunch
of til sak5 ... que actrizrs oi que actrizes [YOli know ... actresse.", my foot]. Only
guys could be actors. For some reason we were still only women.... Somehow
or other. Critics of the Tcatro, people that were dose to the company, people
that were around: they wondered what kind of women we were. We were just
cheap broads. Now the idea is different; but traditionally women in theater-
even way back to the dark ages-were considcn.'d just whores. (S. Valdez
interview, 31111983)
In many cases, dricanas also encowuered parcntal resistance to their work
in theater. Olivia Chumacero tells of this situa.tion: "It's been eleven years
since I left the house ... but when my parents think of dIe theater they think
of loose women. In Mexico, if you are into the arts in this way eres mujer de la
calle [you're a woman of the streeL] ... Women have it harder and they have
to be strong" (Chumaccro/Rodriguez interview, 6/7 11980).
In the course of time, motherhood also becamc an issue affecting the
participation of women in El Teatro Campesino. Many critics have com-
mented on the intimate relationship between daily life and art forTeatro
Campesino members. Yet none have mentioned that if a woman's lifc in-
cluded childbearing, her days as an agent in theater history were numbered.
Childbearing and childrearing were considered incompatible with theatri-
cal touring. Rather than accept elimination from the company, however,
women struggled to demonstrate dlat touring with children was possible
and nccessary:
We wanted to have more say in certain decisions. For instance: touring and
b.l.bies. How about taking babies out 011 the road? So-and~so couldn't travel
bcuuse she had a ooby. Now that's ridiculous. Olivia was one of them ... the
forerunners of the mothers in the company. They had their babies ... and
they proved it, not only to themselves or their in-laws or their parents, but to
Luis, that it could be done. They proved that women--even now-with all
the pressures of motherhood could be seen performing on the stage and then
breast.feeding their kid in the van the next hour. il was possible. It wasn't
cur.... I usc Olivia as an example because she just trudged right through it
in the best way she knew how. And it wasn't always easy for her ... [don't
h~\'e any children but I do know how I want to be now that I've sem how thL')'
could do it. They proved certain things for me. And that was during the hard

148
times when we had to go cross-country to New York in onc van, Mid the baby
diOljlCfS and alllhal.... You know, lhat was a hcll of a point that v,romen
made. It afTeoed me a great de.! to see that. 'nle company had to make it
possible for children to go with us. "Ow's wh.u it hOld to do. Stiyin~ home had
to be a molU~ of dJoi« wd not.l m.tter of laving children. That pomt was
very important: the establishment of an acting mother. (5. v;L\dez interview,
3/1/1983)
Although acting mothers became a common lhin~ i.~ ~l Teatro Cam-
pesina. a policy of equal sharing in child-care rcspons~blhtles was nOI cs-
{.;I.blished. Each couple with children had to work out 1':-" own s~ratcgy for
dealing with the added TeSJXlDSibiUty of child care. Pa.ru~arly In !.he ase
of infanls. primary or sole responsibility usuilly rested Wlth the motl~er. As
such. acting mothers found themselves with a workload disad~tage m ,the
company. In the women's or men's testimony there is no mennon of diffi-
culties in the establishment of an acting falher.
Breaking the Mold: Creating New Pathways. . ' . trying {O cuablish the role within the group. Those characters of mcn needed to
Having devoted a good deal of attention to the hmltallons lmposed on
women and female characters on lhc stage, 1would now like to examine the
other Side of that long.smoldering contradiction. The efforts--of SOffit'
women--tO break through the confmement of stereotypical female .roles
had to some extent, been thwarted.Yet thei.r determination and consoous-
ne~ remained unaltered and became a compelling force in other directions.
New avenues had to be explored. From the backstage perspective of theater
history, I witnessed dramatic breakthroughs, some of whic.h ~lad im,?ediatc
consequences for centerstage action, while others had melr unpact m areas
ofless visibility.
Let us briefly follow the strivings of SocorroValdez, whose breakthroughs
have been dramatically inspirational. The flt'St role that Socorro ever played
in lhe COffipmy was the grandmother. 1olTer her own recollection of mat
activity:
I was fiftccn years old-my fiTSl role in the company was that of an old lady
about eighty years old. And I jumped on it real quick. because it wa~ character,
it WlS clmaaer work. It was real big, broad aaing. That WiLS my pomt of
beginning. And so when I played my flTSt character I immediately relied on
my strength. And the old lady I played WiLS by no means a whining old lady.
She WiLS a very powerful character ... maybe the way I'm going to be w~en
I'm eighty, because I don't see myself coming from a weak place. (InteTVlcw,
3/1/1983)
blwd a Re:-VJSim of CbK4nli/o Tbcala Histoly '49
Although that performance is not noted by historians of Chicana/o theater,
it is alive in the memory ofalltmlristGS. Olivia Chumacero recalled: "Socorro,
for example, created the mother and grandmother characters in the Teatro.
She was sixteen years old and she used to do the most fantastic old lady that
you had ever seen. Incredible. Really incredible: d morimicllO,1o forma, d cslHo
de: bahlar, las apftSiooc:s [her movements. her form, her style of talking, her ex-
pressions] everything. Il was wonderful" (interview, 1/191 I 983).
In spite of the vitality of the performance process, the female roles be-
came stagnant after they began to repeat themselves in various guises for over
a decade. Socorro Valdez described how she resolved to break the mold:
At lhe time then.: were no men in the group who could be nude to play
pacbDal5, or old men, etc. And it was imponant to play the men's roles well,
because the truth is that Luis writes for men. He always hiLS. His point of view
is male and it will always be so. But it \VlS kind of strange that he had no men
to play the men. So I figured "Hell. what's holding me back? Just let me put
on a pair of pants and jump into it and sec." And in fact I ended up playing
men beller than the men ... It wasn't that I was trying to get the role; I was
be played. But unfortunately the men in the group at the time were not able
or capable or free or whatever the problem WiLS. (Interview, 3/1/1983)
Assuming a male role represented a major step in the exploration of new
possibilities as a performer. And that step was an outgrowth of the living,
creative impulse tlm had become frustrated witllin the narrow confines of
~tcreolyped women's roles. The male roles enjoyed a major parl of the lines.
fur Socorro. a male role was a new adventure in role playing: as a male she
W,ll; now in an octi\"C position. In the Teatro Canlpesino repertoire, action was
trpically centered around male protagonists, wim female charaders gener-
.all)' functioning as aUXiliary figures. The women figures were dIose alTectm
b)' men; Lhey were peripheral--the ones to wboot things happened. Not that
the reverse would be desirable.'Ibc oVetJX>wering centrality of one chMac-
ter (usually male) creates limitations on dialogue, space, and action in the
dl...·c!opment of other characters. In Teatro Campesino plays in which the
main character (male) has becn balanced by other characters, those other
charactcrs are also invariably male (such as Fin dd mundo, 1980, or LJ gmn colpa
a=tlinfiC5Ca) or they are sexless characters like La Muene (Death) or El Diablo
(the Devil) (such as in LJ carpa de los Rasquachis). Female chandCTS fill the spaces
m between.
SocorroValdez's appropriation of male roles provided an opportunity for
t.(I to stretch her own self-image, 10 grow: "[The female roles] arc very Iim-
 EI Tt:lItro Campcsino
iting.There is the mother type, and then there is the'mutha': the whore type,
sleazy cheap. There is always the mother, the sister, the girlfriend, or the
grandmother.That's very limiting. And that's one ofthe reasons I dove so deep
into aborting the fact that I was female and only female. I needed explora-
tion in my work" (interview, 3/1/1983).
The exploration and im.a.gination involved in the creation of new charac-
ters in ElTeatro Campesino were considerable.To playa role or chMaeter did
not mean to follow a script or another person's directions. It meant literally
to molt a character by improvising it to life, bringing it to life vinually from
scratch. That included the creation of the dialogue and the movement
through the improvisational process. Playing each role cntailed a degree of
creative resjX>nsibiJity for performers very unlike that ofdramatic traditions
within print culrure, whose fixation rests 'vith written scripts. To perfonn a
play was to prole a play. Even the classic octos, whicll have been adopted by
Chicana/o theater groups throughout the United States and by groups in
Latin America, were never rehearsed by El Teatro Campesino using a script.
Contrary to popular belief-and contrary to the spirit and practice ofthe oral
pcrfonnance tradition----the published collection of aetas docs not represent
a "definitive" collection of texts.The concept of"definitive" is not iLt all iLp-
plicable within the oral performance tradition, in which plays change mark-
edly with every performance-based on the improvisational fam:y of the
performers and their relationship with that evening's audience. Olivia
Chumaccro described the process: "When thc aetas book was done, no scripts
existed. FClix Alvarez went MOund with a tape recorder asking people what
their lines were so that he could write it down and put the aclO rook toget-
her ... even though those lines changed. a lot as we went along, depending
on who was doing the charactcr and depending on the situation. The parts
would change a lot" (interview. 1/19/1983).
Teatro Campesino plays were clearly collaborative exercises that changed
with each performance and with each rehearsal. Much of theater criticism
and thea.ter history divorces these pieces from me human beings who cre-
ated them. Yet the texts uttered did not exist separately from those people.
They did not exist as a fIxed tcxt in "dramatic literaturc" fashion. The text
alone is not cven half the story. For much of Chicana/o theater it holds true
that academiC textual analysis cannot unfold or reveal the artistry involved.
Socorro Valdez described ber view ofbrmging expression to a "crude im-
age:' that is, a role: "The roles are like an old rock, but crack that baby open
and you have intricate, intricate layers of evolution. lOOt is what has been my
goal: to take these very crude images that were there, that have their own
form of artistry, and break them open so that the inside is express<.>d. It makes
b\llrd a Rt-V.lsioo of ChiCllnll/o 'Tbenkr History .51
~e. work harder, it .makes me push more to get inside of a choIo or to get
lIlSlde .o.f that cumptsJno who seems so obvious" (interview, 3/1/1983).
Wnung aTeatro Campcsino history from the perspective of women and
discarding historica.l accounts mat subsume the work of a group of people
under the name ofone man or a male "genius" has implications that extend
beyond questions of gender. Subsuming the work of a group of peoplc un-
der the n~e of one man implies individual authorship, .. hallmark of print
cultuft. A hlSlory of El Teatro Campesino through the eyes and voices of
women clearly demonstrates that the work of EI Teatro Campesino fits
squarely within om! culture, or the oral performance tradition, which is radi-
ally different from the print culture model of theatrical production.
In the centuries-Qld oral performance tradition, plays emerge from the
collective improvisation process. Per[onnances are stored in the human
memory and not in scripts. l1tis is an entirely different tradition than that of
print culture, where a script is create<! by an indiVidual writer and consti-
tutes the slatting point (not the result) ofa lengthy improvisational rehearsal
process. Within the oral performance tradition, actors create their characters,
their spoken lines and actions. The responsibility and function of actors are
de.uly very different within oral Ollture than they are in print Ollture.
The role of"director" of EI Teatro Campcsino similarly had a function
much unlike that within print culture or mainstream theater. The dynamics
oforal performance and collcctive authorship created a process in which the
-director" was in fuct more oftcn engaged in taking direction than in giving
::.The director was the person directed. by the actors' crea.tivity.TItis relation-
ship of reciprocity prompted Yolanda Pam to indicate that "Luis Valdez was
created by ElTeatro umpesino" when historians of the theater always put it
the other way arowld. In her words:
He [luisJ pulled a lot of stuff out of them md they gave him a lot of material,
Ions of material in the impl'O\'W.lions. And you see that nuterial appear even
In shows like Zoot Suit. He took characters that had been devcloped within the
group in a collective situation. As director he might come outAlld say. "This is
the situation." But then it was the actors that made it happen for him.... In ..
101 of ways Luis was crcatL-d by El Teatro Campesmo. The unquestionable
lop.lty of the members ilia created him. (Interview, 12121/1982)
Gh'en the extraordinary acting skill of Socorro Valdez, it would be no
~llggeration 10 speak of her as a lea.d.ing figure in the history of El Tea.tro
Campesino. In the entire history of her work with the Teatro Campesino,
howl'\"er, Socorro Valdez never played a lead female part--Qnly numerous
::"-.l.le ll'ads. That is a startling fact considering not only Socorro's almost 1eg-
lS2
endary talents 0lS Ol performer but also her yeMrnng to explore vuious roles.
Yet the stereotyped casting within the company elimin..ted her, and other
women who looked like her. from various female leads. There was sadness
in bee voice when she indicated that she was never illowed to pb.y Our Lady
of Guadalupe in LaVirymde~:
I never even got close (0 it. They wouldn't let me ... I could never lu,ve the
role ... because Luis doesn't see me llut w;ty. They see the Virgen de GU.il.da-
lupe o1.S a very soft, demure. peaceful, sUmly, ingenue type. The re~ly incred-
ible part was when it turned QUi that I have too many tet:th. I was [Old "You
gOt tOO many teeth. The Virgen dido'( have that mmy teeth." It appears the
Virgen de Guadalupe had no t~th. I thought to myselr: "nlat is the stupidest
thing I ever heard of!" Apoco estaba moJacholoViljpl de GuadaJulX'? [Are you going
to tell me that our Lady of Guadalupe WolS toothless?] (Interview 3/1/1983)
The truth. however, was that Socorro did not meet dIe standards of beauty
that had been set for the dark-skinned deity, La Virgen Morena: Socorro has
strong indigmo. features and dark brown skin.
This also partially explains how she and otherTeatro Campesino womell
ended up creating numerous roles that camouflaged their natural appearanct
In addition to the male roles, they created numerous sexless characters..
Socorro's portrayal of La Muene-in ~ (skeleton) costume-beame~
classic. She conunented: "In all these yeaI5 I was always under heavy makeup
or under heavy costume, you know. And one role that I pretty much made
my handle was the co!t:lYero because it was sexless; it was of neither sex" (in-
terview, 3/1/1983). The sexless roles became numerous, and they were
pursued as a creative outlet by 'NOmen seeking to escape the confinement of
female roles. Olivia Chumacero created the Diabla (Devil) during the roaidcls
dramatizations of the 1970s and also the Angel role and San Miguel in l.s
f\!storda; Yolanda Parra's performance as San Miguel in La Postortla (1981) is
remembered by many as one of the frnest renditions of that character.
Socorro Valdez first created the mogo (magician) role in the Pastorelo. Several
women also played male roles, but nOl as consistently as Socorro.
In the course of seeking new channels for creativity, Olivia Cbumaccro
and SocorroValdez also began directing. Socorro directed many productions
oflAVlrgen deTqq<Jc.Teatro Campcsino women, initially still heavily influenced
by the prevailing ideology of gender oppression, performed and crealed
socially approved images and stereotypes ofwomen, images oom ofthe male
imagination. Yet as these women left their tcens and twenties, their eman-
cipatory demands engendered the creation of new characters.
Today former tmnistdS are stiU clearing new pathways for sharing their
kllI"lIfd 1I Rt-V"lSioo ol ChiCllllll/o1ba:Jlet Hisl:Ol)' IS3
the.iter expertise. and most of these paths lead back to the Chicana/o com-
munity. Yolanda Parra left El Tcatro Campesino and is doing theater work
\\;th children: "I believe that an artist who does not. feed bock to the com-
munity he or she comes from, is nowhere. It's very easy to say: 'I'm my own
little artist; I'm my own little island' ... I don't think that's the way it should
be. bcry artist has a responsibility to the community, to put back some of
th,u energy. The commwtity gave me what I am ... and I feel that there is no
greater joy than to be able to feed back" (interview, 12/21/1982).
Olivia Chumacero has also developed alternative pathways for applying
her acting and directing expertise. She performed with the Teatro regularly
until 1980, while also pioneering in theater work with children of Chi-
ana/o migrant workers. She continues to do that work today, in addition to
conducting drama workshops in centers for battered women and for youth
in drug prevention centers. She has also taught drama courses at the Univer-
sil)" of California at Santa Cruz and UC-Santa Barbara. In 1990 she finished
her training in filinmaking at UC-Santa Cruz and has made docwnentary
films. Olivia's work can serve as a model for the application of theater skills
In \\';lyS that directly benefit disenfranchised sectors of society. llke most of
the fonnerTcatroCampcsino members. Olivia is strongly committed to doing
mC;ller work that gi~ to the community from which it has drawn. In a
\lmilu vein, Diane Rodriguez now works primarily with the sociocriticaI
comedy group Latins Anonymous.
The paths taken by Socorro Valdez, Olivia Chumacero, and Diane
Rodriguez provide us with but a few exmtples of the new roles that women
h"xe .usumed and created. in an elTon to break the mold of distorted and
frligmented images ofChicanas. But at different times and in different ways
nnually ill the women have consciously engaged. in the effort to create new-
sp.lccs and models in which they and other women-and men---<:an move.
'-1m)' hlive managed to transform old frustrations into new options. These
oL'"C women who are keenly aware of tllC poSSibilities within themselves-as
performers and as human beings. The history of El Teatro Campcsino must
tr.clude thc history of its contradictions and of the emergence of women
who hase cbarted new territory for subsequent generations.
An Epilogue: Chicanas Onstage in the I980s
The long history ofEiTeatroCampesino's collective work had ceased entirely
b'i 1980. When Luis Valdez went to Hollywood. and then to Broadway, the
membcrsoflhe ensemble for the most part wenl tlleirseparate ways. ElTeatro
(.l.lnpcsino still exists on paper. as a largely dormant production company
whose name is altached to an occasional production in the hope ofimbu~
IS4 EI Tcotro Campesino
ing it with the aura of the distinguished. but defunct ensemble.Yet the name
ElTeuro Campesino no longer stands for an acting ensemble that is strongly
committed to specific cultur~ and social ideals; Luis Valdez M long since
left the arena of alternative theater and is committed to rnainstreaming---a
process he sometimes likens (0 a narcotic injection: "1 see it as mainlining
into the veins ofAmerica" (Martin 1983).
I would like to focus altention on LuisValdez's flUjor stage creation of the
19805, a production entitled Corridos. The show enjoyed considerable box
office success bolh in San Jum Bautista (1982) and at the Marines' Memo-
rial Theater of San Frandsco (1983). It also traveled to the Old Globe The-
ater in San Diego and lheVariery ArtsTheater in Los AngeJes in 1984. Corridos
harvested the critical acclaim of the establishment press and received virtu-
ally all Bay Area theater awards for the 1983 season. In 1987 Corridos pre-
miered as a PBS television spedal fUm. As will be shown in chapter 4, tlle
stage production of Corridos and the subsequent filming of that production
can serve as model cases for hypotheses concerning Chicana/o mainslream
entertainment products.
Since his departure from alternative theater, Luis Valdez has described his
artistic goa.! in terms of creating cu1tur..I products with mass appeal. as op-
posed to playing primarily for Chicana/o audiences.The redefmed audience
relationship h.1s of course necessarily brought on a considerable change
in what could be termed artistic orientation. Corridos is very wilike anything
ever produced by the Teatro Campesino ensemble. A careful examination
of the Corridos production reveals that the shift in ..udience iillimce---a shift
away from Chicana/o community audiences and toward Euro-Americ.ms
and middle-class Americans-had inimediate effects on the type of wort
produced.
Here I wish to explore only the representation of women in the main-
stream stage production Corridos. A brief examination ofCorridos corresponds
with the trajectory of the present inquiry: the stated. goal of Corridos is "to
explore the relationship berween men and women" (narrator). Let us ex-
amine the results of this exploralion especially as they pertain to women.
I also want to look at how the corrido itself is represented. As will be shown,
the Valdezian construction of woman and of the corrido tradition are closely
related.
The corridos (traditional narrative ballads) chosen for the stage performance
were "Rosita Alvirez," "Cornelio Vega," "Delgadina," and a Luis Valdez weav-
ing of "La. Riclera/l.a Valentina/l.aAdclita" entitled "Soldadera:'What then,
is the nature of the relationship between men and women? One prominent
feature common to these corridos is the murder of a woman. One exception
Olivia Chumocao in 1979. Courtesy
01 &gd~ """ c.ll«tioo.
is "Cornelio Vega," where a man is murdered "por amar a Wla mujer [for
100ing a woman]."Valdez himself indicates in an interview (Martin 1983):
wHoIY un tema central que tieue que ver con la violenda en contra de las
mujeres que desgradadamcnte es rea.!, hasta hoy en dia. Es parte de nuestra
historia como es parte de nuestro prescnte" (There is a central theme hav-
lllg to do with violence against women that unfortWlatcly is real, to this very
dlr· It is pan of our history as it is part of our present). The theme of vio--
!cnce against women, however, is in no Wily treated as an issue or a prob-
lem. To the contrary: it is used as a comic element or simply as • dramatic
clllnax. And through the very choice of corridos. violence against women is
.migned a prominent and almost exclusive role in "the relationship between
Mexican men and women" (nurator).In fad. relationships berween males
.uK! females seem to exhaust themselves in violence. In the San Francisco
production, the corrido of "Dona Elena y EI Frances" (Dona Elena and the
Frenchman) was added; Doiia Elena is ofcourse shot by her husband. In an
droft to establish a kind of equality between tlle sexes, a corrido in which a
woman murders her husband was also added: "E1 corrido de Conchita la
'·iuda alegrc" (The Ballad of Conchita, the Happy Widow). The heavy focus
on $hooting and blood projects tlle image of Mexicans as a bloodthirsty,
l'tngcful crowd, a people quite busy killing each other. In spite of the abun~
d.i.nee or existing corridos in which no one is murdered., only corridos with vio-
knec between men and women are dramatized. The desire to explOit the
c.lmalic tensions ofviolence clearly takes precedence over the desire to pro-
'l~C a balanced pomayal of people and of their ballad tradition.

Left 10 right: Diaf'lC' Rodriglll2. Ohio Chumoctro, and Rw:I Maria Escalanu. ill
Don Juan Tenorio (1982). Coultesy of Olivia ChumocaoArchil't'.
The exce$ivc violence in the vision ofrelationships between men and w0-
men is not startling. given Luis Valdez's mylhical imd violent vision of w~
he terms "basic human experience." Within that vision, historical process 15
put in tenns of the sexual imagery of rape. And. by impJicatio~, sexual expe~
riCllcc is likened to the hisLOrical process of raw conquest. In his own words.
We who are of the Third World and are victims of colonization have been
subjected with the rest of the world to the phenomenon of Europe for the last
five hundred years. These people leff that section of the world and they went
out wd conquered other v~t sections of the world. Now conquest md that
wuriorlike su.no:: is not peculiar to this period of history, it has bttn .ill
throughout the history of the humm race and ilia in the Ameria5: Perhaps
what is upsetting us is that we Me still in this period. thaI we Me suU stuck.
The modem Genghis Khan is still with us and he came from Europe in ill of
his forI115. He came in a r-nicululy masculine form. In the case of the
Spanish he came in iron armor. The male erection made flesh. if you will.
"ChinlJ'lle.Cabran!" [Fuck you, you bastard]. rfl may refer to the basic mythic.aJ
experience of the male in the sex act-that is what it takes. In order to do
your stuff as a moU1, you have to have armor and a spear and you have to
penetrate and the more you penetrate the better it is. Di~ q~ ~ [Tell me thatS
not true]. On the other hand. there is the other part which IS lust as natunl
which is the female experience which is "\b]It,Cabroo" [Fud: me, you
bastard]. Those tWO fit together. I ;1m nol trying to embarnss you. 1mJ
talking basic hum.m experience. (Calibs 1982;43)
bun! , Re- VISioo of Cbic:am/a l'balla History 157
Related to the presence of violencc is the Corridos production narrator's
Slatement that the corridos portray types such as la coquetQ (the coquette) or d
\uliolle (the bravc-but-foolhardy).l1lc type that cmerges in the cour~e ofstag·
ing a corrido, however. is very much a result of dramaturgic interpretation .
.-\uaching one label to a corrido figure involves a choice by which one cha.rac-
leristic, among many possible ones, is Singled out. Il is the essence of ste-
reotyping. One example of this procedure can be seen in the decision to
chMaeterize the figure of Rosita Alvirez. as a coquette. Instead of focusing on
lhe hijo desobedimlt (i.e., the mother/daughter relationship), she is poruityed
.IS it sexually loose and reckless woman. Highlighted action includes, for
example. Rosita seductively lifting her dress in front of a mirror and flash-
Ing her legs. At the dance, Rosita is staged as lcwdly flirtatious and then scelm
10 "get what she deserves." In other words. her provocative behavior seem·
mgt}' justifics HipOlilO'S violence against her. Rosita could also have been
typed as the hijQ dtsobtdimte. the disobedient daughter. however, to highlight
the mother/daughter relationship. Yet that relationship, and the traditional
~te:x.ican value ofa mother's advice, is sabotaged from the outset by the will-
ful decision (0 portray the mother as a stumbling drunkard.
The dramatization of "Tierra sin nombre" distons the corrido text by pro-
jeCting a male fantasy of female submissiveness. Its plot consists of a love
U"imgle: a woman loves two men and finally chooses one over the other. At
me wedding she is murdered by the man she did not ChOOSe.nIC dramatized
omido distorts the text in various ways. For example, the successful suitor is
portrayed as a rich, "handsome" Spanish-type gentleman whereas the re-
it«cd man is cast asa barefooted indio+campesino (lndian-fannworker) type.
it is through a dramaturgiC sleight of hand t1lat the female character is subl1y
nuneuvcred out oflegitimately choosing between two men based on erno-
con~ considerations. She bases her decision on money (class) and looks
(r.lce); she chooses the rich, tall, "handsome" man, who symbolically throws
.l.:ound a bag of coins. But is it really her decision? Cast in the ingenuc mold,
;.'1t' female charaetercannot resist the advances ofthe good-looking rich man.
He acti\'c1y pursues her and she passively submits, her eyes lowered in shy-
l"~~. We arc left with the stereotype of the passive yet opportunistic Mexican
'o\oman. None of that is in the original corrido tcxLAs a comment on the na-
~..!.!e of relationships between men and women, and as a comment about
. ·...omen. the stage portrayal projects a male fantasy offemale submissiveness.
Throughout the show the narrator emphasizes the point thou "corridos are
f:".J.cho in viewpoint." Commentary such as that would appear (0 indicate
t.~: the images of men and women \ve see befort': us simply represent a ret-
~ude Mexican tradition. That is also what the script indicates to us when
 EI Tt.Olro Campesim
158
we are told that "the corridas are reproduced with loyalty to the corrido tradi-
tion." Such statements seek to equAte what conidas are with what is in reality
one interpreu.tion of them. A sharp distinction between the 1\"/0 must
be drawn, however. Otherwise:. not only a number of female and ma.lt
couido characters are stereotyped but also the entire corrido tradition.The im-
ages of women for sale. women as passive viaims, ~~en as d.runk~
mothers are not acreation of!.he oorrido tradition but a proJectlon ofthe CorJidao;
production.
Valdez's emphasis on so-called machismo could easily have ?,ceIl bal.mc~
by the inclusion of other neglected non+sexist oorridos. such as Juana Gallo,
"Agripina." "FJ carriclo de las comadrcs," or "Maria YJulian:' all of which
provide multifaceted, narrative ballad portrayals of women. "1ll.ana. GaUo.~
graphically describes the heroic actions of a young fCI:nale warnor,ln van·
ous battles of the Mexican Revolution. Agripina-herome of the romdo bear·
ing that title-also engages in batlie. . . . .'
The longest single performance segment wlthm lile Comdos productIOn ~
entitled "Soldadera," a pastiche of three famous rorridos about women. It IS
ofspecial interest because Luis Valdez conceived it as a corrective to his own
interpretation of the rorrido tradition as "macho:"
In 5eU'Ch of some justice 10 the lfue role of women in Mexian history, m:
now go to the period most afici<lnadl:5 consider to be the high point ... of rne
corrido: the Revolution of 1910.... And there 'W~ fmd three legenduy songs
about three legenduy women-Lo IJditCl, La.\bknlino, md La Ridau .... These,
together with "- ch.lneter inspired by ~e dispuches of m Amcrlan jourm.\isl
riding wirn ~ncho Villa back in 1914-,;l, man by Ihe name of John Reed, nov;
combine to give US.i partnit ofMexian woman.il WH. (V~dez 1983:59)
"Soldadera" is of furlher interest because Socorro Valdez played a lead
female role. For Socorro the piece marks another breakthrough in her career
as a performer. After 1980 she went to Hollywood in search of ~~er acting
opportWlities. Her return to San Juan Bautista was not unconditional. She
demanded to playa role that she had long been denied. in her words:
He [Luis Valdez] put the corriJo logcther and he wantcd me to play lhe role,
because I had becn .ifter him for a length of time. You know, I wanted 10 play
;l, young girl. And 1didll't W;l,llt Ilukeup on my face. I didn't wolIlt lipstick. I
didn't wanl false eyduhes or fake boobs or nOlhing. I just WolIltt.-d to be
myself up there, just wanted to be the Indian person that I am ... I came
back to him [LuiS], bUll said: "Th;l,l's it. No more masks, no more aJ1amo
face, no more ((llama bones on my face. None of that shit. I'll go out there in
a plain cotton dress md I'U have those people going." (Interview, 3/1/1983)
"'\\IN a ill-VISion of ChiCWlll!o Thatttf Hislo'}' 1S9
And she did, in truth, have Corridos audiences going. Her stage presence and
commitment to the work at hand were unique within lhe cast. Yet, the
suength ofher performance was diminished by the script's vision of women.
\Vh.t is Valdez's vision of the \\-'Omen of the Mexican Revolution? One of
me striking features within "Solda:dera" is that it is not female characters such
.i~ La Adelita, La Valentina, and La Rielera. who address women's role in his-
torrThc production does not draw from even om: female testimonial source
conccrning lhe Mexican Revolution of 19 t O. Nor were rnslorians ofwomen
consulted. The result is a highly superficial and distoned portrayal of
\\umcn's participation in the Revolution, and from a white male pcrspec-
uRThe '\ruc role of women in Mexican hislory" is-ironically-narratcd
1.Iuough the agency of a white male character. The character of John Reed
(iuthor of Insurgent Mexico) does most of the talking in the piece entitled
·Soldadcra." Mexican women are thus positioned in such a way that a white
l!'.1le speaks of their experience for Ulcm. What could be more contndic-
:01")' .nd counterproductive than to foreground and privilege a white male
1ubjecl even as you propose to do "justice to the role of women in Mexican
~_alor)'''? John Reed, the only Anglo in the production, also functions as a
white 54vior: he is the only male in the production who does not engage in
'lolence against women. He is a heroic Anglo man who speaks gently .md
protCClS Elizabet. (Socorro Valdez) from her brutal Mexic.J.n companion.
Reed's manner stands in strong contr4St to that of the three soIdoderos (the
"mdier ,,'Omen of the Mexic.J.n Revolution) and the Mexican men.1be ver-
exchanges bctv.'een these men.md women are almost exclusively aggres·
\:\'C or .ibusive. Men and women faU into the c.J.tcgorics of conqueror or
<'OOquered. Some effort is made within "Soldadcra" to demonstrate diver-
Ul}' in women-bul that diversity is external: La Valentina is the hip-sway-
l.-:g. hard-nosed companion to the colonel. In the San Juan Bautista
~oduction she also displays a strong inclination toward attire highly un-
~lcd to the rigors ofthc Mexican Revolution: spiked-heel boots and skin·
~iht pants. La Adclit<l. carries a fine; La Rielera (Socorro Valdez) is a
:;;'tolle-souled Indian woman who follows men. The semblance of diversity
(oUapscs entirely whcn the women engage in dialogue. Their contribution
~ the narrative line consists entirely of discussions concerning lhe finding
r..d losing of men, about follOWing men, about holding on to men.There is
Clothing in their dialogue or actions to reveal any depth in their dlaracter nor
1:. tlildcrstanding of the revolution around lilem. Mexican women are nOl
1t>O\\'ll in their true roles as thinking historical agents but only as helpmates
aamen.
160 EI Tmtm CampcsinD
John Reed. for ill his talking. provides no insight into the social forces
within the Revolution. He has been edited in such a way that he portrays
battles without causes. All discussion of social forces. of the colonial bond-
age iliat Mexicans sought to overthrow, has been eliminated from his narra-
tion. The Mexican Revolution, and history in general. are reduced to a
backdrop, a foil for song numbers and ccntcrstage chatter. La Rielera (the
railroad woman) engages in only two activities: sleeping with her man,Juan,
and making tortillas.
The VaJdezian portrayal of soldodaw: constitutes a distorted simplification
of the historical role of lhese women. for although some women did cook
for men on the revolutionary campaigns. many women also fought in battle;
and many joined the revolutionary forces on their own. By positioning
women wilhin the shadow of John Reed. Valdez most clearly articulatcs his
conscious or unconscious view of them as insign.ificant. Il is fair to conclude
that Luis Valdez's "search ofsome justice to the (tue role of women in Mexi-
can history" was conducted less than halfheartedly, for it produced highly
questionable findings. The professed search amounted to little more than ~
rhetorical device aimed at paying lip service to women's presence in histOry.
Notwithstanding the vast critical acclaim that greeted the piece, with it the
stage portrayal of Mexican women reached a new low.
The deplorable representation of Mexican and Chicana women is ~
chronic weakness and signature of Luis Valdez's mainstream productions,
such as Zoot Suif, Corridos.or the film La Bomba (1987).lnZoot Suit, which earned
widespread recognition as a landmark play and movie in the 1980s, we again
encounter the stereotypical dom.inant mother, the whorelike Bertha. the vir·
ginal Del.La., and a white savior, here Alice Bloomfield. Most lamentable. thr
true historical role of Chicana Jose1lna Fierro in organizing the Sleepy u·
goon Defense Committee in 19+2 in behalf of the zoot SUilCCS was com·
pletely erased. Valdez supplants her in the play and fihn by a white fcm~
character. Chicanafo community leader Bert Corona sharply criticizes Luis
Valdez's distortion of the facts;
In 19'~2, Joscfina Fierro, as national secretary of the Congreso Nadonal de 101
Pueblos de Habla Espaiiola, carried out (wo very significant actions. One W.tS
the formation of the Sleepy ugoon Defense Committee (contrary to the
distorted version in Luis Valdez's play ZOO! SUit) which conducted the public
defense of Ihe twenty-two Mexicans who were tried for the death of one.
}osefuu traveled ;&]1 over the nation, assisted by LuiQ Moreno, (Q develop tht
broad nation;&] campaign agililst the ncisl rod divis.ive indictments.ad
yellow journ;&]istic press descriptions of the Heust Press. ... It is lO be
161
deplored that Luis ViJdez could fwd insuffident duma in the true faets about
the Defense of the ~Ieep~ L.tgoon rod Zoot Suit victims, that he had to rely
upon Hollywood gmllmd:s of a fictitious melodrama between two person
[Alice Bloomfield and Henry Reyna] that never took place in order to tell ~iS
story. (1983:16)
Tr~tll and subst.mce have taken a backseat to melcxirama in Corridos as well.
In SpIte of tlle production's undeniable entertainment qualities--the visual
effects, .ll~e dancing. musical direction and performmce. tbe fast pace--it is
emertammg with?ut being thought-provoking. What is worse, Corridos af-
flfITls Hollywood .Im~gcs of men in sombreros and on horseback engaged,
for the ~~ part. m Vlolence. and colorful senoritas defined in tenm ofmen.
The. traditIon of such images and their marketability in the entertainment
busmess has been described. by Luis Valdez;
Now dl~ was a time when this country reveled in u.rino images-
co~mero;illy-mdlhilt was in the 1940s of course.. f>MOlllei with the Zoot
Suit era.... The U.S.... tUfllcd its attention to l..a.tin America and said, "How
can we s~ll ~ore movies in l..a.tin America.?" And obviously they ~id "Let's put
more Latlll I.mages on films, but let's make them 'safe' images," So what we
e:~ded up With was Carmen Miranda. What we cnded up with was the l..a.tin
NIght Club and Rhumbaing down to Rio or what have you ... Desi Arnu
came out of that era, you know. But nothing came from the Mexican
Rt.'\"Olution ... itt leasl not dUring World War n. (CaMas 1982:46-47)
With ~dm, the Mexican Revolution has now entered the ranks of safe
(1.1:.: cancaturc), COm~llerci.al "Latino" images such as those projected by
Desl Arnaz, Carmen Miranda, and various others. The media may well revel
l.'\ 1~~SC wclI~\\urn images, now marketed byValdez as "New American The-
.etr.. Some may thrill at the visibility the show provides for so-ca.Iled His-
puliCS. Oth~rs may take pride in seeing Mexican Americans perform in what
tS known III show business circles as legitimate theater. But EI Teatro
Cunpcsino in the 1960s set the standard to demand more tllan that
~he higltl~ ~isib~e p.rofessional Olicana/o productions ofrecent y~ars of-
k: hltl: that IS msp~atlOnal or alternative. With regard to the representation
~ ~fcxlcan an~ ChIcana women, productions such as Zool Suit, Corridas, or La
!:r.-~~ ~re nothmg short of devastating. It would appear that the abse.nce ofa
CoUt'CII~'C work. context has left luis Valdez wholly unrestrained in giving
aprcsslon to his fragmented vision of women. The division of labor inher-
«! III professional theater and commercial fllm, with its hierarchy of per_
ttJC~e1 and constant turnover of hired aaors, does not foster discussion or
- _... '<

162 EJ Tealro G1mpcsioo 163

the developmem ofa critical consciousness, let alone disagreement or a chal- The activities ofseveral of the 'WOmen from E1Tea.tro Campesino-Olivia
lenge to established models.The production team recruits from a generation Chumacero, Socorro Valdez, Diane Rodriguez. Yolanda. Parra-and the work
of actors for whom the portrayal of Mexicans on stage is not an issue. In my ofSilvia Wood in Tucson, Arizona; Nita. LWla from ElTeatroAguacero in New
conversations with the cast members of Corridos it became apparent that the Mexico: the women and men ofEiTcatro de la Esperanza; Ruby Nelda Perez's
images of women (and men) the production projected were not a matter of or Maria Elena Gaitan's one-woman shows; the plays by Estela Portillo
particular concern. In the absence of a group of female actors who have Tr.ambley, Denise Chavez, Cherrie Moraga, and more recently by Josefma
learned to question and reject shallow roles, the emergence of a broader lOpez. Edit Villareal, and Evelina Fcm.indez, all mark the entry into a new
vision of women within the new Luis Valdez productions seems unlikely. <)'cle of theatrical activity for Chicanas. 1 We are not without inspirational
EI Tearro Campesino is now the name of a small administrative apparatus models, nor without the example of women who question and who strive
that puts on an occasional play in which lhe spirit of group commitme.nt and to reclaim a fully human female identity on stage. We would do well to ac~
the performance energy characteristic ofTeatro Campesino ensemble is al- lnowledge that activity in the writing oftheater history. A quantitatively dif~
together missing. The tight-knit acting ensemble has been displaced by ac- ferent historical account emerges when we attempt to recover the silenced
tors who do lheir jobs and then return to Los Angeles in search of the next history a.nd rcoonccptua.lize the established historical record. when we as-
gig. The model for lhe new organization comes from business administr.t- pire to discover marginalized voices and perspectives.The history of Y/Omcn 's
tion. Theatrical production is streamlined: actors Jct, the director directs, pa.ttictpation in theater history is of far-reaching significance in and of itscl(
administrators administe.r. In the arena of glittering lights, the struggle to let it is but one of the possible correctives to the monolithiC great~mal1
establish new women's roles has dissipated.Yet far from the limelight we can \i.s.ion of human activity, which has obscured. many aspects of history.
perceive the efforts ofChicanas who continue to explore and create dramatic
alternatives for women.The dream to represent the vast spectrum of Crucaru
womanhood on the stage will in time find creative expression. After tbt
Corridos production Socorro Valdez described her dream of representing tht
vast spectrum of Chicana womanhood on the stage:
l'lltcll you what my dream is--one or my dreams. And , k.now ,'11 get 10 it
beca.use it's a. driving thing in me ... My dream is to be ~ble to do a thea.ter
piett on the phases or womanhood.·lt's soilletlling that h.....~ not been done
yet. All the times that I've seen women's progra.ms or women in this or
women in that, it somehow has never been quite !iatisfactory ror me, you
know. No one can take womanhood a.nd put it into one thing. But tholl is
precisely wh.1t I want to do. I wanl to put wommhood into every rorm tlut I
can'express: in singing, in crying, in lolughing, everything. TIuI role is nOl ytt
there. That role Ius not bc..'Cn written. MolYbc It ius been written in ol
Shakespearean WiY. But I don't relate to those European imolges of women....
Women arc obviollsly in a type of great void. Th,:y arc balanced, but in terms
orthe way the world looks a.t us they've put us in this position where we've
iccepted the oondition or doing one role inslea.d of nu.ny. If there wcn= ~
Wily or Wing that and putting it into words thit are theatrical. I would like to
do thaLI don't believe i min is going to write tholl.1 don't believe tha.t for
one Single minute. And I sure ca.n't sit around ind wolit ror Luis to write that
role. (Interview, 3/ I / 1983)