Everything about Luis Valdez totally explained
Luis Valdez (born
June 26,
1940) is an
American playwright,
writer and
film director.
He is regarded as the father of
Chicano theater in the United States.
Biography
Education
Valdez was born in
Delano, California to
migrant farm worker parents. Valdez graduated from
James Lick High School in
San Jose and went on attend
San Jose State University (SJSU) on a scholarship for
math and
physics. He later switched his major and earned a degree in
English in
1964.
According to Valdez when he was six years old, he watched a
teacher use part of a paper bag to make
papier-mâché masks for a theater production. This experience transformed him and would have a lasting effect. In college it helped lead him to the theater. Valdez's first full-length
play,
The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa. debuted at SJSU in
1963.
Career background
After graduation, Valdez spent the next few months with The
San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he was introduced to
agitprop theatre.
In
1965, Valdez returned to Delano, where he formed
El Teatro Campesino, a farm workers' theater troupe. Valdez's
teatro was influential, according to
Gale Resources, "[T]hanks to Valdez and
El Teatro Campesino. What began as a farm workers' theater in the migrant camps of Delano now exploded into a national Chicano theater movement. Theater groups sprang up with surprising speed on college campuses and in communities throughout the United States."
As a media figure of the
Chicano Movement, Valdez often lectures about
El Teatro Campesino, media representations of
Mexicans and
Mexican Americans, and the importance of Chicano-produced media in order to help countering negative
ethnic stereotypes.
Mr. Valdez is a founding faculty member and director (c. 1994) of the
California State University, Monterey Bay, Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department. He is helping develop a
university program that prepares students in the entertainment industry:
filmmaking, writing, sound,
cinematography, and the like.
Zoot Suit (play and film)
Valdez's first work that brought him some attention to larger audiences was the play
Zoot Suit which ran in 1978 at the
Mark Taper Forum, in
Los Angeles and played for forty-six weeks to more than 40,000 people. With
Zoot Suit, Valdez became the first Chicano director to have a play presented on
Broadway in
1979. Later, it was made into a
film in
1981.
In
Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events of the
Sleepy Lagoon murder trial--when a group of young Mexican-Americans were wrongfully charged with murder--and the
Zoot Suit Riots.
La Bamba
The film that brought Valdez his "breakthrough into mainstream America" was
La Bamba which debuted in
1987.
The film, about
Ritchie Valens, a popular Chicano
1950s rock and roller, "was an overwhelming box office success" according to
BookRags.
Filmography
- The Cisco Kid (1994), writer and director. Valdez also had a small role as Presidente Benito Juárez.
- La Pastorela (1991), writer and director.
- Corridos: Tales of Passion & Revolution (1987), writer and director.
- La Bamba (1987), writer and director.
- Chicanos Story (1982), writer and director.
- Zoot Suit (1981), writer and director.
Honors and awards (not inclusive)
Golden Globe Award nominations for "Best Musical Picture," Zoot Suit and La Bamba.
Cartagena Film Festival, Best Picture Award, Zoot Suit, 1982, Cartagena, Colombia.
George Peabody Award for excellence in television in 1987, Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution for PBS.
California Governor's Award, March, 1990.
Mexico's Aguila Azteca Award, 1994.
2007 USA (United States Artists) Rockefeller FellowFurther Information
Get more info on 'Luis Valdez'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://luis_valdez.totallyexplained.com">Luis Valdez Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
