Award-winning playwright Luis Valdez and actress Alma Martinez ’84 returned to the Whittier College stage to share their stories with the Poet community.
Valdez, who President Barack Obama recently awarded a National Medal of the Arts, and Martinez shared important moments in their lives with attendees in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, as well as insights they've gained into art, their communities, and the human condition.
At the Wednesday night lecture, both praised the power of the arts, which Valdez called an international language and "a human necessity." Theater too, Martinez said, is both personal and educational, "because that’s how we’re getting our messages in our communities, still.”
Known as the father of Chicano theater, Valdez is most famous for his movie La Bamba and his play Zoot Suit, the first Chicano play ever performed on Broadway. With the latter, Valdez said he was trying to answer the question: “what is the nature of the human being?
“And what I saw then in Zoot Suit… was the miracle of cultural fusion in America,” Valdez said. “Cultural fusion is a fact of our life. It’s what really makes America exceptional.”
Valdez, who began picking crops at the age of six, later founded Teatro Campesino, a traveling troupe of farm workers and students. He eventually became a founding member and the director of the California State University, Monterey Bay Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department.
For Martinez, the night marked a return to a school that she praised as “a beautiful jewel.”
“This is where someone knew my name,” said Martinez, who transferred from a larger state school. “This is where someone said you’re going to get a Ph.D. one day. This is where someone said, ‘You’re going to be an actor.’”
Martinez, an actress of film, stage, and television, first saw Chicano theater as a student at Whittier, an experience that had a large impact on her. Since graduating, Martinez became a lead actress in many of Valdez’s most significant work. Her feature film career has included 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.
