El Teatro Campesino featured satirical portraits of the farmworkers’ enemies, from the growers to the strikebreakers. It was founded by Luis Valdez in the fall of 1965 when the actor left the San Francisco Mime Troupe to do theatre to work with farmworkers in Delano.

He was initially assigned to picket duty, where he started the Teatro Campesino together with Agustín Lira (known as Augie) doing some skits on the picket lines on top of trucks and distributing leaflets to farmworkers inviting them to show up for rehearsal. This is how Valdez and Augie met the farmworker/actor Felipe Cantú. Later Valdez, Lira, and Cantú started performing at regular Friday night meetings at Filipino Hall.

The Teatro Campesino mixed the Mexican carpa tradition and the Italian commedia dell’arte, using masks, Mexican Indigenous themes, and Mexican popular comedy. The main characters of the “actos” or skits were: Patroncito (the Little Boss), Huelguista (the Striker), Coyote (the labor contractor), Esquirol (the strikebreaker), and Don Sotaco (the helpless worker that originally came out Andrew Zermeño’s drawings for El Malcriado and that Cantú transformed into a sharper character). A sign hanging from the actor’s neck easily identified the roles they portrayed for the audience. According to Valdez, the “actos argumentales” or argumentative skits should “1) Illuminate specific points about social problems; 2) Express what people are feeling; 3) Satirize the opposition; 4) Show or hint a solution; 5) Inspire the audience to social action.”

Teatro Campesino Videos (Playlist)