Luis Valdez, one of the most important and influential American playwrights, and actress Alma Martinez '84 will grace the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts on November 16 at 4:30 p.m.
President Barack Obama recently awarded Valdez with the National Medal of the Arts, the highest government award one can receive in the arts. Valdez has also won a Peabody Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Known as the father of Chicano theater, Valdez is best known for the movie La Bamba and the play Zoot Suit. La Bamba follows the story of Ritchie Valens, a real-life Chicano rock ‘n’ roll star, while Zoot Suit tells the story of Henry Reyna and the 38th Street Gang, who were tried for the Sleepy Lagoon murder in Los Angeles during World War II. It was the first Chicano play ever performed on Broadway.
Growing up picking crops at the age of six, alongside his parents and siblings, left an indelible mark on Valdez and his work honors and historicizes his farmworker, Mexican/Indigenous ancestry, Chicano identity, and social justice experience. After attending San Jose State University on scholarship, he started a performing troupe, Teatro Campesino, with farm workers and students, traveling around migrant camps and performing one-act plays that served to entertain and educate. Valdez eventually became a founding member and the director of the California State University, Monterey Bay Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department.
Martinez—the lead actress in many of Valdez's most significant work—will join him for the Shannon Center visit. Her feature film career includes Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Cake, Born in East LA, and Barbarosa. On television, she has appeared on FX’s The Bridge and The People v. O.J. Simpson, OWN's Queen Sugar, and TNT’s Good Behavior.
Martinez also recently initiated a new production of Zoot Suit with the National Theatre Company of Mexico in Mexico City. She served as US-Mexico Project Coordinator and also performed. The play went on to win the “Best (Mexican) Musical of the Year” by the Association of Theatre Journalists, the first for a non-Mexican play.
Valdez and Martinez's visit is sponsored by First Year Experience, Hartley House, Latino Studies, Los Angeles Integrated Arts Program, Office of Equity and Inclusion & Ortiz Programs, and the Whittier Scholars Program.
