-
Birth
Luis Valdez was born on June 26, 1940 in Delano, California. -
Fields
He was the son of migrant farm workers and began working in the fields picking crops when he was only 6 years old in 1946. -
Moving
Luis Valdez moved to San Jose after he had spent half of his childhood in the San Joaquin Valley. -
Education
Luis spent a lot of time at college. He attended San Jose State University. Throughout that time, he discovered what he wanted to do with his life and what impact he wanted to leave on this world. -
Valley of the Heart
Luis directed a play called "Valley of the Heart", which was a play that explored immigration and the reality of the American dream in a story set during World War 2 about two families. Luis -
First Play
Luis performed his first full-length play called "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa". He was still in University when he performed this play. This play is a comedy about Mexican-Americans on the verge of the Chicano Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the play sends up racist stereotypes still deeply strenched in the 1950s. -
El Teatro Campesino
Luis Valdez joined Cesar Chavez to fight for migrant farm workers. He is the founder of El Teatro Campesino which is a Chicano Theatre company. It is located in California and was founded in 1965. Luis founded it to help the United Farm Workers and the Chicano movement. -
Marriage
He married Guadalupe Trujillo on August 23, 1969. They had three kids, Kinan, Anahuac, and Lakin. -
Zoot Suit
Luis Valdez wrote Zoot Suit, which is the story of a real life-murder trial. It is one of his most famous writings and is regarded as one of the most significant piece of Chicano Theatre and became the first Latino written and directed play that premiered on Broadway. -
Movie
His Zoot Suit play was made into a movie. -
Teaching
Luis was a founding director and professor at the Institute for teledramatic Arts and Technology at the California State University of Monterrey Bay. -
Family
His family started becoming a part of Theatre especially his son Kinan and his brother Daniel. -
1 of 50
Luis was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship as one of the fifty US Artists in the U.S. -
Barack Obama
Luis Valdez met with Barack Obama and was awarded with the 2015 National Medal of Arts. -
Coco
I loved that I found out that Luis Valdez was the voice actor of Tio Berto in Coco. He is Roberto's uncle in the movie. -