Description
Playwright, film and theater director Luis Valdez is interviewed by Lourdes Portillo at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, California on June 7, 2014. Luis Valdez describes his early observations of California in the 1940s and 1950s as a child of migrant farm workers. He recalls how World War II impacted his childhood and shares his discovery of theater and literature as a small boy. He describes his memories of Delano, California and how Mexican heritage and history was central to the community and has remained so in his career. He describes his early love for Western films, puppetry and acting. He details his involvement in theater acting and the San Francisco Mime Troupe and explains the atmosphere created by the Vietnam war and Cuban Missile Crisis. Increasingly political, Valdez met Cesar Chavez and began organizing a political theater troupe, El Teatro Campesino, in tandem with the development of a farm workers union. Valdez describes how they drew creative inspiration from Mexican and American culture, and he formed the acto from the specific political circumstances of the Chicano movement. After he parted from Chavez, Valdez did theater tours and experimented with film, making I Am Joaquin (1969), one of the first Chicano films. Valdez talks about how he developed his skills as a director, finding a role model in Michael Schultz, and how he came to film Zoot Suit after its success as a play. He discusses his wife Lupe Trujillo-Valdez, and the crucial role she played as a collaborator and fellow theater actor. Valdez further emphasizes the importance of family, citing his longtime collaboration with his brother Daniel, who has also had a successful career in the arts. Valdez discusses his 1979 play Zoot Suit and his inspiration for the character of El Pachuco. He tells the story of making La Bamba (1987) and goes on to discuss his difficulties producing a project on Frida Kahlo due to Hollywood’s reticence to make a film about the female Latin American artist. This difficulty has led Valdez to refocus on theater, though he expresses admiration for a wide variety of current-day filmmakers and artists from around the world.
(jtakahashi 7/21/17)
Production date represents the date of the interview per call sheet (tnakamoto 6/10/2022)
