Luis Valdez was a young drama graduate in 1965 when he decided to join the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) led by César Chávez in Delano, California. His decision was guided by a political and artistic vision: creating a popular theater that would serve as support to the organizational activities of the striking farmworkers. In addition to his academic preparation, Valdez had worked with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he gained valuable experience in translating controversial social issues into political theater. Valdez knew firsthand the issues involved in the labor dispute: he was born in Delano, and his family still resided in the area after spending many years as migratory farmworkers. He was thus especially sensitive to the different conflictive responses La Huelga (The strike) would elicit in the surrounding Chicano communities. This extraordinary combination of formal training, practical experience, and intimate knowledge of farmworker culture proved to be a most valuable foundation in the development of El Teatro Campesino.1 Valdez faced difficult conditions to establish the Teatro Campesino. The headquarters of the UFWOC had no staging facilities; the majority of cast members were volunteers, most without previous acting experience; and the audience engaged in a lively, sometimes chaotic interaction with the performers. Furthermore, the attention of the striking members of the UFWOC was directed principally at the strikebreakers, the ranch owners who resisted signing contracts, and the ever-threatening presence of the local police. Valdez has described the beginnings of El Teatro Campesino as an immediate emotional response of the farmworkers to the incidents occurring at the picket line:

The first huelguista [striker] to portray an esquirol [scab] in the Teatro did it to settle a score with a particularly stubborn scab he had talked with in the fields that day. Satire became a weapon that was soon aimed at known and despised contractors, growers and mayordomos. The ef-

32 Chicano Satire

fect of those early actos on the huelguistas de Delano packed into Filipino Hall was immediate, intense, and cathartic. The actos rang true to the reality of the Huelga. (Actos 5)

Comic and Satiric Figures

An immediate source for Valdez was the agitprop theater and the epic theater of Bertold Brecht; Valdez received both of these influences from the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Bread and Puppet Theater. This theatrical indebtedness, however, does not indicate a direct or indiscriminate borrowing of plots or individual characters. In order to appeal to an audience of farmworkers, Valdez adapts motifs, character traits, and dramatic strategies that conform to relevant aspects of Mexican folk culture. Significant in this regard is the linguistic authenticity of the Actos, in which the everyday speech of Chicanos is introduced, including code switching between Spanish and English, and the use of dialectal forms that mix archaisms, regionalisms, and caló (underworld slang.2 This popular orientation was central in the naming of the Actos:

Even the name we gave our small presentations reflects the hard pressing expediency under which we worked from day to day. We could have called them "skits," but we lived and talked in San Joaquin Valley Spanish (with a strong Tejano influence) so we needed a name that made sense to the Raza. Cuadros, pasquines, autos, entremeses all seemed too highly intellectualized. We began to call them Actos for lack of a better word, lack of time and lack of interest in trying to sound like classical Spanish scholars. (Actos 5 - 6)

Some important characteristics of his antitraditionalist stance may be ultimately traced to dramatic tradition, particularly to Roman comedy. Valdez acknowledged this classical influence, pointing out some ironic parallels with his own experience: "There are certain people that appeal to me, I think of them as Chicanos. Plautus, for instance, the Roman playwright, who used to be a slave and wrote comedies.... I liked the fact that he was a slave that became a playwright. That's me!" (Hernández, "Interview with Luis Valdez"). Indeed, a number of parallels may be drawn between the actos and Plautine comedy, including the relationship between masters and servants, the use of exaggeration, buffoonery, and sexual humor, as well as the portrayal of conflicts involving money, morals, and intricate social loyalties.3 Some of the ancient figures that evolved during the Renaissance also captured Valdez' imagination:

Luis Valdez 33

"The cunning slave is one of the classic figures; [it] starts with the Greeks, goes into the Romans, goes into the Renaissance; is [evident] throughout" (Hernández, "Interview with Valdez"). In addition to this acquaintance with classical Greek and Roman drama, Valdez received the influence of authors such as Tirso de Molina and Moliere, whose wily servants are re-created in the actos in the figure of the coyote and the esquirol (scab). He associates the character of the boastful soldier (miles gloriosus)-that is, the figure of Falstaff in Shakespeare-with some of the figures in the Actos, including the deceitful attitude displayed by false student militants and corrupt, dishonest ranchers. The works of the English dramatist Ben jonson made Valdez aware of the Italian commedia dell'arte. In the birth of the Actos, then, there is a merging of learned and popular traditions .4 A significant example of the syncretic nature of Teatro Campesino is found in the portrayal of the labor contractor (el contratista), or Don Coyote. This is a traditional trickster figure who flatters his masters while he displays ingenuous resourcefulness and callous self-interest. In the actos this character borrows from the coyote figure of Hispanic folklore and the classical figure of the wily servant (see Meléndez 301) The figure of Don Coyote is an artistic response to both the external and the internal factors that have molded the social and psychological experience of Chicanos. But actual labor conditions were the direct inspiration for the figure of the contractor in his role as a parasitic and opportunistic middleman:

The farm labor contractor is one of the most hated figures in the entire structure of agri-business. He is paid by the growers for having the special skill of rounding up cheap stoop labor in the barrio and delivering it to the fields. The law stipulates that he must provide safe transportation and honest transaction. The sorrowful reality is something else again, ranging from broken down buses that are carbon monoxide death traps to liquor and meager lunches sold at exorbitant prices to the workers. In the field, Don Coyote sits in his air-conditioned pickup while the workers suffer the blistering heat or freezing cold of inclement weather. (Actos 21)

The representation of Don Coyote provided the Teatro Campesino with rich dramatic possibilities. His role was a blend, in parodic fashion, of the privileged status of the rancher and that of the subservient and exploited farmworker. But the tension thus created avoids the danger--inherent in all satire--of becoming repetitive or exhausting the themes of victimization and oppression. Indeed, relentless satirical attack on ranchers may easily tire audiences pain-

34 Chicano Satire

fully familiar with the callous attitude of landowners, and the continual derision of scabs (strikebreakers) might alienate nonstriking farmworkers and hinder the proselytizing efforts of the union. Don Coyote's transformation from a folk figure into a humanized character draws from another important tradition: the picaresque. Valdez, however, inverts the conventional trait of the picaro as "half-outsider," into what may appropriately be referred to as "half-insider." That is, whereas the picaresque anti-hero is portrayed, comically, as an outsider who fails in his attempt to enter a higher social group, the contratista-coyote is perceived, satirically, as failing in his attempt to abandon his peers. This emphasis on insideness over outsideness is fundamental in the interpretation of many Chicano literary texts whose protagonists, as marginal minorities, confront hegemonic barriers that impede their self-realization. The values of Don Coyote represent a satire on aspiring Chicanos who seek personal advancement while rejecting their cultural and community ties. His function is to provide a negative model opposed to an implicit normative figure represented by the honest Chicano who maintains loyalty to the community. In many of the Actos, Valdez is critical of mainstream adverse attitudes internalized by some Chicanos. Valdez thus shifts his denunciation from external factors that foil the struggles of Chicanos to internal, questionable values that cause unscrupulous behavior. Self-defeat is portrayed by two types of characters: (1) oppressive figures who profit through the exploitation of Chicanos who are in weak or vulnerable positions and (2) victimized figures who foolishly accept conditions that are denigrating. Don Coyote is a comic figure who illustrates how internal and external factors help shape the social and psychological experience of Chicanos.

Las dos caras del Patroncito

In this, the first published acto of Teatro Campesino, Valdez already includes some of his favorite dramatic techniques, such as the use of masks, the portrayal of ludicrous characters, plot reversals, and jesting dialogues. The plot of Las dos caras is based on a simple inversion of roles: determined to realize his wish to be a Mexican worker, a wealthy and powerful landowner (Patroncito) orders one of the strikebreakers he has hired (Farmworker) to trade identities with him. After exchanging masks--a symbolic representation of fate's whimsical assignment of social roles--the landowner, deprived of his privileged status, understands firsthand the injustices suffered by agricultural laborers and becomes an ardent supporter of

Luis Valdez 35

César Chávez and the striking farmworkers.6 This reversal of roles is conventional in the Western tradition and is usually employed to depict a sudden loss of triumph or privilege. Such changes usually indicate a personal and social crisis that tests individual character. In the acto, however, this transformation involves the arbitrary ascent of the farmworker and the descent of Patroncito toward opposite ends of their respective hierarchical status. it subverts the notion that social identity and evaluating frameworks are the result of personal choice, since, as these two protagonists demonstrate, values depend on the fortuitous circumstances of birth. A sense of irony is evident in the choice of the protagonist's name: Patroncito. The term patrón has a variety of meanings, ranging from admiration and respect, to fear, and even hatred, depending upon the context in which it is employed and the intentions of the speaker. By attaching the diminutive ending cito, Valdez highlights the ambiguity of the noun and its connotations of admiration or dislike. It is this latter derogatory usage and context that is conveyed by the name Patroncito, and the subservience of the scab when thus addressing his boss renders the worker a subject of ridicule to the audience of striking farmworkers. Throughout the acto the implicit authorial voice assumes the role of arbiter and invites the audience to share in unmasking (literally and figuratively) the contradictions that inform the social injustice represented by the figure of the Patroncito and the internalization of servile attitudes on the part of the scab farmworker. In spite of his newly enlightened perspective, Patroncito ultimately reveals the false values that underlie his oppressive behavior. The duality conveyed by Patroncito's having "two faces" reveals his unredeeming hypocrisy: he is arrogant when wielding power but rebellious when experiencing the unjust treatment accorded to his workers. His moral delusion is only defensible from the perspective of the corrupt--that is, ranchers and apologists for the agricultural lobby who oppose the striking farmworkers. Only a distorted sense of reality can justify Patroncito's belief that rural poverty is a pastoral existence free from tax burdens and the great expenses besieging the wealthy. His envy and wish to live the life of a Mexican worker is grounded on such fallacy:

[PATRONCITO] just one of my boys. Riding in the trucks, hair flying in the wind, feeling all that freedom, coming out here to the fields, working under the green vines, smoking a cigarrete, my hands in the cool soft earth, underneath the blue skies, with white clouds drifting by, looking at the mountains, listening to the birdies sing. [FARMWORKER] (ENTRANCED) I got it good. (Actos 14)

36 Chicano Satire

The incongruity of this parody of the ideal landscape is compounded by the comic figure of Patroncito frivolously trading his identity with the laborer. He is thus the protagonist of a mock epic in which foolishness, not blinding pride (hubris), causes his absurd downfall. To an audience of farmworkers, who know the dehumanized conditions confronted daily in the fields, the debasement of the figure represented by Patroncito was an important turning point in the assertion of their dignity. Maintaining the goals pursued by the UFWOC, the Teatro Campesino addressed the improvement of salaries and working conditions of the farmworkers. This purpose is evident in the closing scene of the play where the farmworker decides to keep Patroncito's cigar but disregards the possibility of seizing either the rancher's property or power. Although the UFWOC and the Teatro were often accused of communist sympathies, the comic ending painstakingly avoids a possible Marxist denouement where the workers would take possession of the rancher's property, signaling a proletariat triumph over their capitalist oppressors.' The truly heroic figure implicit in this acto is the farmworker who demands a rightful compensation and has joined the strike with dignity and moral resolve.

Los vendidos

In 1967, in a most significant decision, the Teatro Campesino separated from the UFWOC and moved to a new location in Del Rey, California, and a new beginning as an independent company.8 This turning point in Valdez' career allowed for new dramatic possibilities, since the Teatro could now expand its audience as well as incorporate new themes, characters, and plots in their performances. Los vendidos illustrates how the company met this challenge. First performed at Elysian Park in East Los Angeles before a gathering of the Brown Berets, a group of Chicano community activists, the acto addresses a young urban Chicano audience concerned with sociopolitical issues. Adapting themes previously employed--such as the praise of in--group solidarity and the denunciation of personal success when it entails materialism and cultural disloyalty--the satiric target of this acto focuses on the stereotypical images of Chicanos. The Teatro's audiences responded enthusiastically to the dramatization of some of their innermost conflicts involving social identity, now portrayed openly and unapologetically. El Teatro Campesino thus emerged as a vital arm in a Chicano movement of cultural affirmation.

Luis Valdez 37

Los vendidos, following the Teatro's characteristic dramatic techniques, includes a deceptively simple plot, ingenious humorous episodes, and a surprising reversal of events for its closure. The setting is at Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop, a title that suggests both the dishonesty associated with the sale of secondhand cars and the banality of the Mexican arts and crafts sold to tourists. To Honest Sancho's shop arrives Miss Jimenez (spelled "JIM-enez," mocking an English pronunciation of her name), who has come to purchase a Mexican type to serve in "Governor Reagan's office." Sancho, its proprietor, manager, and salesman, describes the several models he has in stock.9 Miss Jimenez finds the first few models unsuitable, as the farmworker is unpolished, the revolutionary is unable to speak English, and the pachuco is a delinquent. Her requirements are met by the Mexican-American model whose linguistic and social assimilation she judges to be appropriate for a role in state government.10 After she has concluded her purchase, however, the Mexican-American model develops a "dysfunction" and begins to voice antiestablishment statements. He is joined by the other models, forcing the frightened Miss Jimenez hurriedly to depart from the shop. in a final scene, the audience discovers that the models are in fact real people acting out stereotypical roles, whereas Honest Sancho is only a mannequin that must be carried out at the end of the performance." The creation of the characters of Honest Sancho, a former labor contractor, and Miss Jimenez, a Mexican American, represents a variation of such earlier figures as the Coyote and the scab. These are figures who personify traits considered detrimental to Chicanos and who are essentially mediating parasites who operate between the Chicano and the Anglo communities. The name Sancho is associated in popular speech with the lover of a married woman and has a series of connotations ranging from the tragic to the comic, depending on its context." These meanings are not likely to escape the audience who would also respond skeptically to someone with "Honest" as a name. Indeed, Sancho is a figure who, taking advantage of the weak socioeconomic position of other Chicanos, profits by manipulating their negative images in Anglo-American society--an extension of his previous role when, as a labor contractor, he capitalized on their work. The figure of Sancho has as counterpart the ridiculous Miss Jimenez, a character blending the traditional image of the pocha with the emerging Mexican-American middle class. Within this context Miss Jimenez represents a level of assimilation into the U.S. main-

38 Chicano Satire

stream that makes her a virtual stranger to her own culture and people, whereas Sancho is still socially and culturally indistinguishable from other Chicanos. Both figures, however, demonstrate their complicity--one as an agent of the out-group, the other as an ingroup member--in the support and exploitation of stereotypical images that are antithetical to the well-being of Chicanos. Ironically, these deviants, Sancho and Miss Jimenez, are figures who might otherwise be considered as role models for Chicanos in the eyes of Anglo-American society. The two figures portray variations on a salient theme that informs Valdez' early work and which may be formulated as follows: given the sociocultural conflicts encountered by Mexicans living in the United States, their only viable ethical conduct is to maintain loyalty toward their own group in spite of the overwhelming external pressures to turn against their own. Los vendidos is the acto that has probably been most often performed by other Chicano theater companies (Huerta 61-62). This success lies, undoubtedly, in the ridicule the play directs toward portrayal of Chicanos as stereotypical figures. Los vendidos demonstrates how social restrictions reduce Chicano cultural variability to a series of comic figures. Valdez satirizes these representational types, but he vents his wit primarily on those individuals who are able to perceive Chicanos only in farcical terms. In a single stroke, he also synthesizes a problem causing great tension within the Chicano psyche: the contradictions of internalizing the normative values of a dominant group that relegates them to a status of marginality--denying prestige to Chicanos who assert their cultural background while rewarding those who demonstrate social and cultural disloyalty. The importance of this acto, therefore, cannot be overemphasized: it marks a historic turning point in Chicano self-perception. In satirizing the false image of Chicanos, Valdez employs a narrative structure that resembles a Menippean type of dialogue, Philosophies for Sale,, written by the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata (A.D. 120?). Both Los vendidos and Philosophies for Sale, involve the public sale of individuals who represent specific social traits. In the ancient dialogue, Hermes, the Greek god of trade, auctions various philosophical positions (a Pythagorean, a Cynic, a Cyrenaic, a Democritean, a Heraclitean, an Academic, a Stoic, a Peripatetic, and a Skeptic), whereas in the acto the characters sold by Honest Sancho are representative of Chicano stereotypes (a farmworker, a revolutionary, a pachuco, and a Mexican American). In both representations the human merchandise is displayed comically. Although the

Luis Valdez 39

figures reflect contemporary values, they are characterized in exaggerated terms. It is an absurdity further compounded when some of the prospective buyers feel reluctant to pay the prices asked for certain models. Especially notable are the parallels between the figures of the Cynic and the pachuco. The unconventional behavior advocated by the Cynic summarizes those views presenting the pachuco life-style in negative terms:

[CYNIC] You should be impudent and bold, and should abuse all and each, both kings and commoners, for thus they will admire you and think you manly. Let your language be barbarous, your voice discordant and just like the barking of a dog: let your expression be set, your gait consistent with your expression. In a word, let everything about you be bestial and savage. Put off modesty, decency and moderation, and wipe away blushes from your face completely. (Lucian 469)

The pachuco displays these traits of male abusiveness, uncouth language, and affected gestures and body movements. Sancho describes him as an expert on urban survival, particularly through the use of violence, and proceeds to demonstrate the model's behavior. In a slapstick scene, Johnny pulls out his switchblade and swings at the retreating Miss Jimenez, who screams in horror (40). The eccentrically frugal life advocated by the Cynic parallels the comically modest upkeep Johnny Pachuco will cause his purchaser:

[SANCHO] Nickels and dimes. You can keep Johnny running on hamburgers, Taco Bell tacos, Lucky Lager beer, Thunderbird wine, yesca. (Actos 41)

[CYNIC] Next I will compel you to undergo pains and hardships, sleeping on the ground, drinking nothing but water and filling yourself with any food that comes your way. (Lucian 467)

In both cases this deprivation includes physical torture:

[CYNIC] ... and if anyone flogs you or twists you on the rack, you will think that there is nothing painful in it. (Lucian 467)

[SANCHO] He [Pachuco] can also be beaten and he bruises, cut him and he bleeds, kick him and he ... He is a great scapegoat ... Why, the LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] just bought 20 of these to train their rookie cops on. (Actos 41 - 42)

In one Lucianic scene, Hermes reassures a fearful buyer to disregard the frightening appearance of the Cynic:

40 Chicano Satire

[BUYER] I am afraid of his sullen, hang-dog look; he may bark at me if I go near him, or even bite me, by Zeus!

[HERMES] Don't be afraid; he is gentle. (Lucian 463)

A similar conclusion is reached in the acto by the secretary after Sancho has encouraged her to test the physical resiliency of Johnny Pachuco:

[SECRETARY] Well, alright. just once. (SHE KICKS PACHUCO) Oh, he's so soft. (Actos 42)

Other philosophies ridiculed by Lucian find parallels in Valdez' acto. For example, the Revolutionary and/or Early California Bandit type share features with the Cyrenaic:

[HERMES] In general,he is accommodating to live with, satisfactory to drink with and profligate master when he riots about town with a flute girl. (Lucian 473)

[SANCHO] Another feature about this one (revolutionary] is that he is economical. He runs on raw horsemeat and tequila!

[SECRETARY] Isn't that rather savage?

[SANCHO] Al contrario it makes him a lover. (Actos 43)

The final model offered by Sancho, the Mexican American, shares a number of significant elements with the peripatetic philosopher. Both are knowledgeable, expensive, and have a dual nature.

[HERMES] (TO PERIPATETIC) I say, you who are handsome, you who are rich! (TO THE BUYERS)Come now, buy the height of intelligence, the one who knows absolutely everything!

[BUYER]What is he like!

[HERMES]Moderate, gentlemanly, adaptable in his way of living, and, what is more, he is double ... Viewed from the outside, he seems to be one man, and from the inside, another; so if you buy him, be sure to call the one self "exoteric" and the other "esoteric." (Lucian 503)

[SANCHO] Ain't he a beauty? Feast your eyes on him! Sturdy US Steel frame, streamlined, modern. As a matter of fact, he is built exactly like our Anglo models except that he comes in a variety of darker shades: naughahide, leather, or leatherette ... Yes, señorita, this model represents the apex of American engineering! He is bilingual, college educated, ambitious! Say the word "acculturate" and he accelerates. He is intelligent, well-mannered ... (Actos 44-45)

The similarities between Lucian's dialogue and Valdez' acto may be solely a literary coincidence. Valdez does not recall reading Lucian and, when asked to comment on a possible Lucianic influence

Luis Valdez 41

on his work, replied that should such borrowing from the Greek author have occurred it would have been "perhaps at a subconscious level."13 It is probable that the resemblances between the dialogue and the acto may have arisen from the employment of similar characters and social settings. After all, in the ancient world, the marketplace was a center of life, and slavery had ramifications into virtually every aspect of society. Similarly, the car industry is a fundamental factor in modern American society. In satirizing philosophers Lucian employed a marginal figure, the slave trader, whose function was considered as disreputable in antiquity as the used-car salesman is in our times (Wiedemann 6; Konstan P). Given this initial coincidence in setting and plot, the employment of traditional comic figures by Valdez produced a resemblance between the two dramatic pieces--that is, in the mocking of poverty, food, and dress, the drinking and carousing, or in the presence of characters with "dual" or incongruous personalities. In other words, the characters coincide because in the representation of these figures there is a distortion of positive normative values, that is, frugality, courage, love, wisdom, strength, and so forth. These parallels between Lucian and Valdez may actually demonstrate how the stock repertoire of literary and popular figures is easily adaptable to diverse chronological and cultural settings as well as to a variety of ideological persuasions.

No sacó nada de la escuela

The acto No sacó nada is addressed to an audience composed primarily of students at high schools, colleges, and universities. Its title (literally: "He didn't get anything out of school") is a Mexican colloquialism used as a derogatory expression when referring to individuals who, having attended school, are lacking either in knowledge, manners, or judgment. It is an expression generally employed to censure the learner for failing to uphold the positive normative characteristics of the educated. But in the acto, this expression is employed sarcastically, since it is the teaching institution that is censured for failing the student. It is a criticism directed to the in sensitivity of schools toward the educational needs of Chicano children.14 Thus, in No sacó nada, American education is the object of attack--Valdez' most pointed satire in the actos; and the teachers' prejudices are portrayed as the most formidable social barrier facing Chicano students. The importance of No sacó nada lies in its treatment of events

42 Chicano Satire

from the perspective of Chicano children who enter an alien educational world. The focus on childhood has been conventional in contemporary Chicano literature. In many Chicano creative works, young children or adolescents are portrayed as undergoing painful experiences in the transition from the support and familiarity of their homes and communities to the foreign and sometimes unsympathetic world of U.S. social institutions.15 While initiation into a school environment may pose a difficult transition for most children, for Chicanos it can be a traumatic experience due to the cultural conflicts it often entails, that is, an abrupt change in language, values, and attitudes. Valdez focuses on this theme while subjecting the teachers, the school system, and U.S. society to his satire. The acto dramatizes this criticism by following the experience of a group of students through their attendance in elementary school, high school, and college. The students represent a variety of characteristics that include class, race, and culture, and their interaction is portrayed as a grotesque microcosm of U.S. social relations. Accordingly, the classroom socialization of youth is a process of acculturation whereby teachers reinforce the biased divisions and class structures that exist in U.S. society. This censure of educational institutional practices coincided with a period of generational rebellion by American youth that has been unparalleled in U.S. history. But Chicano groups adhered to the belief that their social and economic advancement depended on a better education. Thus, No sacó nada is important as a Chicano satirical text because it posits education as a central factor in liberating Chicanos from their status of marginality. A central character in the play, Francisco, is the object of abuse and isolation in school as punishment for demonstrating cultural loyalty to his community. Francisco serves as an exemplary character while his antithesis, Monty (Moctezuma), as a prototype of the Mexican American, rejects his own culture while vainly seeking the acceptance of the white middle-class fellow students and teachers. Another significant character is Esperanza, who undergoes a radical transformation: from being a feminine counterpart to Moctezuma, in her caricatured portrayal of the Mexican American, to a position where she becomes a socially conscious Chicana. In naming these figures, Valdez follows his practice of portraying characters that represent types or roles. Thus, Francisco's rebelliousness is inspired by the Mexican revolutionary hero Francisco Villa, a revered figure for many Chicanos and the subject of an earlier play by Valdez, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa (Huerta 49-60). Moctezuma, a name Valdez had employed in La conquista de México (Actos

Luis Valdez 43

50-65), evokes the figure of the Aztec emperor who surrendered to the Spaniards and is used here as a symbol of weakness. The name Esperanza (Hope) clearly reflects a didactic purpose. She is a model for change suggested to an audience that is likely to include many young people who consider themselves Mexican Americans. The teachers are portrayed as unidimensional figures whose identity is hidden behind a cruel white mask. This dramatic recourse, already introduced in the characterization of the rancher in Las dos caras, allows the playwright to maintain unity throughout the classroom scenes as the teachers remain distant and predictable while the focus of interest is on the interaction among the students.16 The acto ends as students from the audience converge on the stage to solicit entrance into institutions of higher learning, a dramatic strategy that coincided with the movement for the establishment of Chicano studies in many colleges throughout the southwestern United States. The influence of Teatro Campesino during this time became evident as thousands of Chicano students organized in a concerted effort to obtain educational reforms. At this juncture the Teatro reached its greatest success in linking theater with social mobilization, a telling indication of the power of art.

Transitional Actos

As mentioned before, the criticism Valdez has toward attitudes that relegate Chicanos to a marginal historical dimension is twofold. On the one hand, he seeks to denounce a number of injustices exerted from outside the Chicano community. On the other hand, he appeals to an in-group normative model to censure any self-defeating type of behavior. Such a double-edged satirical purpose is evident in The Militants. This brief acto portrays two intense but naive Chicano activists who, in spite of their vitriolic denunciation of the academic system, kill each other after an absurd ideological competition. Behind their self-destruction stands the figure of a perverse Anglo-American university administrator, Dr. Bolillo, plotting and rejoicing at the extremists' empty rhetoric. The seminal idea for this acto had appeared in No sacó nada in a scene where Monty mimics the slogans of radical nationalists in order to impress Florence, his Anglo-American girlfriend. In The Militants, however, the targets of satire are Chicano students who mindlessly paraphrase political slogans:

What is that pair of something every macho has in the barrio? That makes every revolutionary willing to die at any moment? Like me, I'm

44 Chicano Satire

willing to die! Any pigs in the audience? Kill me! Go on, I'm ready! KILL ME! I'm not afraid, because I know what it takes: a pair of ... BIGOTES Imustaches]. Viva la Huelga! Viva la Causa! Viva la Raza! Viva la Revolución! Viva los bigotes (Actos 97-98)

This brief acto is notable because Valdez, who had introduced characters rebelling against the dominant culture, now criticizes students who foolishly adopt such a role. Chicano militancy is now presented as an empty formula, and the role played by the two student radicals resembles that of a boastful soldier (miles gloriosus) whose bravado is but a hollow epic gesture. In The Militants the message is that divisiveness is the result of false consciousness, whereas the positive norm is represented by a return to sober social activism. In his introductory essay to the Actos, the playwright gives a warning concerning the limits of the figurative language used by the activists.

It is particularly important for teatro Chicano to draw a distinction between what is theater and what is reality. A demonstration with a thousand Chicanos, all carrying flags and picket signs, shouting CHICANO POWER! is not the revolution. It is theater about the revolution. The people must act in reality not on stage (which could be anywhere, even a sidewalk) in order to achieve real change. (Actos 2)

In 1970 Valdez directed two actos that focused again on the plight of the farmworkers and their efforts to improve working conditions in the fields. In Vietnam campesino he dramatizes these sociopolitical issues in terms that may appeal to the young urban audiences the Teatro has cultivated. It depicts the political role of powerful agricultural interests who support the military establishment while receiving their subsidies and who have launched a concerted effort against Chicano campesinos [farmworkers] and Vietnamese farmworkers:

[GENERAL] (POINTS AT VIETNAMESE) Farmworkers just like them farmworkers. (POINTS AT CAMPESINOS, THEN BACK AT VIETNAMESE) Campesinos just like them campesinos. (POINTS AGAIN) Poor people just like them poor people. (POINTS AGAIN) And we've been killing them for ten years. (Actos 119)

In blending these two themes, agriculture and war, Valdez points out to both rural and urban Chicanos that their lives are intimately dependent on international events. This thematic duality also marked a most significant transition for the Teatro Campesino at a time when it ceased to address rural concerns and began to articulate issues of interest to urban audiences.

Luis Valdez 45

The second of these plays, Huelguistas, is a brief and plotless vignette that depicts various farmworkers confronting a ranchowner (Patroncito) and his hired contratista (Coyote). The primary purpose of Huelguistas is no longer to convince workers to abandon the fields and join the strikers, but to provide a background or motif in what is basically a musical dramatization. At this point in his career, Luis Valdez had expanded his public to include national and international audiences, conditions that allowed him to experiment with new facets in the Teatro's repertoire and permitted him to bring to the foreground the entertainment aspects of the performances. In Huelguistas music assumes a central function. An important factor in this musical emphasis involves lessening the importance of culture and language: the company now required plays that could be presented to non-Chicano audiences at home and abroad. Indeed, European, Anglo-American, and Latin American monolingual audiences would find difficulty in understanding detailed references to Chicano life, colloquialisms, or the code switches frequently employed in the Actos. 17

Soldado razo

The final phase of this early, Teatro Campesino, period in Valdez' career is represented by Soldado razo, a study on the effect of the Vietnam War on a Chicano family.18 In comparison with previous actos, Soldado razo realistically projects characters with psychological depth. The focus is on the motivations and emotional responses of the victims of war. In this denunciation of the culture of war, therefore, the portrayal of human caricatures is no longer viable. Although oppression still looms in the background, Valdez illustrates how personal decisions--sometimes apparently inconsequential choices--may result in great suffering. The acto shows the protagonist, Johnny, and his immediate family circle formed by his father, mother, younger brother, and fiancée. This is a typical Chicano family with positive aspects as well as shortcomings, and the audience can not fail to sympathize with their predictable attitudes--whether it be the false bravado of the father, who has had a few beers to hide his pride at seeing his son reach adulthood; the mother's calm resignation at the departure of her son; or the brother's youthful energy that disrupts the decorum at the dinner table. An important theme here is Johnny's rite of passage into adulthood, represented by his engagement and his leaving to fight in the war. Since we know from the beginning the fatal outcome that awaits Johnny, the events before his departure acquire

46 Chicano Satire

added significance. Irony intensifies the pathos of Johnny's family, whose love and good intentions actually guide him to his death. The tragedy of Johnny's family lies in their helplessness to avert his death: an inescapable fate that is sealed by their acceptance of the ideology of war. This message is dramatized by the figure of the Death narrator--a refinement of the masked figures of early actos--who serves as a perverse quasi-director, conducting and interpreting events that are only perceived by the public, while Johnny, his family, and his girlfriend remain unaware of the larger social forces that help shape their destinies. As in other actos performed by Teatro Campesino, the playwright's criticism is directed toward ideas and practices that threaten Chicanos, whether in the internalization of values that confine them to playing the roles of victims or that arise directly from the centers of power in U.S. society. The Death narrator tells the story of Johnny, shown at first at home as he prepares to leave for Vietnam and, later, at the frontlines as he writes home of the horrors he has witnessed and urges other Chicanos not to enlist in the armed forces. This double perspective of Johnny at home and at war establishes the correlation between the human dimension of Chicanos and the innocent people of Vietnam who suffer the ravages of war. In its role as narrator, Death at first provides humorous insights into the events depicted but gradually recedes into the background, until it finally appears, as a deus ex machina, mechanistically describing Johnny's fate. Personal responsibility serves as a thread throughout the acto, linking the psychological makeup of the characters portrayed. This approach helps demonstrate how family life, community expectations, and historical context are closely interwoven in determining the behavior of the characters. That is, Valdez makes Johnny and his family directly involved in the decision to prolong the war, although a fine balance is maintained between their personal acquiescence in his participation and the societal forces that organize their experience. The criticism of community values in Soldado razo serves a purpose already evident throughout the actos: in combating the ills that affect Chicanos, it is necessary to condemn practices that are self-defeating. This self-reflexive condemnation, however, does not mean a total rejection of the Chicano community. Indeed, what renders Soldado razo a touching piece is Valdez' intimate dramatization of Chicano family life: the acto is an ironic depiction of family foibles that, nevertheless, recognizes the underlying emotional strength the family provides its members. Thus, in portraying their psychological depth, Valdez supersedes the conception of Chicanos as merely "types," a view that he, had satirized in Los vendidos. This

Luis Valdez 47

dramatic shift signals a move away from satire and toward a generic borderline where Chicano life may be conveyed in predominantly tragic or comic terms.

The mito

In a relatively short time-1965 to 1971-the actos were performed and imitated by dozens of Chicano community theatrical groups throughout the country.19 During this period Teatro Campesino was awarded numerous prizes and achieved its international reputation. Yet always searching for new dramatic possibilities, Valdez explored another genre: the mito, a religious performance that allegorizes figures and motifs from pre-Columbian mythologies (Shank 61-67). Interest in religious themes was not new for Valdez, whose first play, The Theft, written in 1959, satirized contemporary mores and underscored the lack of Christian charity.10 This focus on religion had appeared before, too, in the puppet show La conquista de México, a parody of the Spanish conquest and the domination of the native American cultures. In contrast to the clear satirical purpose of the actos the mito represented a significant generic change that conveyed a contrasting perspective on Chicano life. In his poem "Pensamiento serpentino," Valdez outlines this new ideological thrust which may be summarized as follows:

1. Due to their colonized status, Chicanos have lost a vision of their own condition. 2. In order to supersede their immediate negative situation, Chicanos must become neo-Mayans and adopt the wisdom of ancient pre-Columbian culture. 3. Cosmic man attains a superior view of mankind, an ideal level that is beyond the immediate historical circumstances of a particular group identity.

In this new orientation, the individual, disregarding the authority of norms, must operate from a value-free perspective. Since topical references are inherent to satire, Valdez' new vision is beyond this possibility:

48 Chicano Satire

Para el hombre cósmico EL CAN de los Mayas antiguos la muerte no existe Racial distinctions no existen límites materiales no existen nations, wealth, fashions, hatreds, envidias, greed, the lust for power no existen, not even the lust for CHICANO POWER (9- 10)	[For cosmic man THE CAN of the old Mayans death does not exist do not exist material limitations do not exist envy do not exist.]
Yet, Valdez advocates change as an inescapable process:
But REALITY es una Gran Serpiente a great serpent that moves and changes and keeps crawling out of its dead skin And so los oprimidos del mundo continue to become los liberadores in the true progress of cosas and the Chicano is part of the process el proceso cósmico that will LIBERATE OUR CONQUISTADORES or their descendants. (2 - 3)	[the oppressed of the world the liberators things the cosmic process]

Implicit in this new approach to Chicano culture is the suggestion that the satirical attacks underlying the actos can be superseded by a spiritual humanism. Accordingly, a new morality is offered in the Mayan concept "IN LAK 'ECH: Tzi eres mi otro yo" (You are my other self) that provides a pre-Columbian equivalent of the Christian "Love thy neighbor as thyself." From this perspective of a new vision, Valdez declared: "But above all / to be CHICANO is to LOVE GOD."21

Beyond the Teatro Campesino

If satire is a genre that conveys an opponent in terms of marginal qualities-while urging the adoption of the satirist's own norm as superior--Valdez' introduction of the mito and the musical drama were generic shifts that had important implications for his employment of satire. Since the mito's central orientation is the affirmation of pre-Columbian virtues and a heroic legacy, its dignified and prophetic qualities belie any alternative human rivalry and thus eliminate the need to launch a satiric attack. Similarly, the entertainment

Luis Valdez 49

qualities of predominantly musical dramatizations dispel the urgency for change that is characteristic of satire. Another important artistic change occurred when the Teatro Campesino purchased land and moved to San Juan Bautista, California, in 1974. The financial, logistic, and theatrical demands imposed by this move led Valdez to expand his own area of activity independently of Teatro Campesino. Thus, in 1978 Valdez opened a play in Los Angeles, Zoot Suit, whose success ushered him into a new career in commercial theater and film. The narrative structure of Zoot Suit has numerous parallels to the actos, including its denunciation of the grave injustice committed to a group of pachucos during World War II. A central focus of the play, however, is on the psychological conflict that confronts the protagonist, Henry Reyna, a tragic figure who agonizes over the limited options he encounters during a period marked by profound social inequity. Zoot Suit maintains a number of dramatic similarities with Soldado razo, including the themes of war, family, and love, as well as its realistic depiction of individual character and the presence of an omniscient narrator (the Pachuco). As in Soldado razo, Zoot Suit has displaced the satirical pungency of the earlier actos; in the play (later made into a film), music plays a predominant function. In a most interesting generic development, the play "I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges" (1986) translates the comic figures of the actos into theatrical comedy that parodies the television sit-com. This re-creation includes the portrayal of Chicanos as professional actors who are assigned irrelevant, stereotypical roles in Hollywood films. It also involves substituting the profanity in the actos for the humor appropriate to American television. Perhaps the most significant change in the play is the thematic shift away from barrio struggles to the representation of the anguish that confronts Chicano middle-class characters--a nuclear family consisting of a couple of professional actors and their college-educated son. But most notable in Badges is the absence of culprit figures as fair subjects of satirical attack--presumably a group of "media Patroncitos" bent on denying professional Chicano artists the opportunity to act in serious roles--in what is inherently a comedy with tragic overtones. Music had always been an important element in the representations of the Teatro. In Hue1guistas Valdez had experimented with a musical dramatization of an acto that included portrayals of the Patroncito and Don Coyote. Similarly, in Zoot Suit the musical aspect of the performance becomes central to the play. This new generic development is further explored in the theatrical, television, and

50 Chicano Satire

video productions of Corridos, a reinterpretation of Mexican traditional ballads (corridos), as well as in the film La Bamba, the biography of rock star Richie Valens (Ricardo Valenzuela).

Any comparison between the actos of Teatro Campesino and Valdez' later work for television, film, and theater is likely to be uneven, since the constraints, possibilities, and audiences of one media are totally different from the other. Satire thrives, indeed cannot exist, without bitter conflict: the cause of striking farmworkers or the protests of students represented excellent opportunities for its employment. The mass media and public later addressed by Valdez posed special requirements unimaginable in the early years of Teatro Campesino--especially the need to address the normative values of a sizable, mainstream, Anglo-American audience.22 This public would not be particularly favorable toward supporting representations that involve controversial and highly politicized interethnic issues. Thus, it may not be surprising if the most popular (and profitable) productions are those in which social criticism is least evident, unlike the actos where the skill in attacking the satiric target is a primary criterion in assessing the success of a performance.23 Yet there is a danger in the employment of Chicano images in comedy, without the benefit of satire, since this may be interpreted as a reaffirmation of the dominant norm and a return to the representation of Chicanos in stereotypical terms, a problem that Valdez had masterfully addressed in Los vendidos. The figures that Valdez created for Teatro Campesino exist within an imaginary continuum that extends from one extreme of power and wealth to another of defenselessness and poverty. These two poles are clearly defined along cultural and racial lines, one Anglo-American and white, the other Chicano and dark. The anti-Chicano characters, who illustrate the abuses perpetrated on the marginal, are generally satirized figures who portray social and psychological maladies: ranch owners whose single-minded materialism generates economic inequality, socially myopic teachers who distort learning experiences, institutional officials who govern with cultural and racial insensitivity, and unscrupulous politicians who misuse taxpayers' money. These characters, following the Theophrastian tradition, depict types, rather than three-dimensional individuals. The audience must then assess the truth of the satiric attack posed by these figures and interpret their significance in relation to daily experience. This link between fiction and reality has a doubly important function: a series of comical figures entertain the public, but

Luis Valdez 51

the values inherent in their imaginary behavior are of immediate and vital importance to the audience. With an apparent artlessness, the characters in the Teatro Campesino are exaggerated, and plots and dialogues are blatantly contrived. This overemphasis, to the point of distortion, is a parody of theatrical conventions in what must be understood as a satire on form. Stylistic devices thus provide an iconoclastic atmosphere where all normative values are automatically ridiculed. It is an earthy and festive tendency evident in the humorous use of scatological references, maledictions, and sexual allusions. In this sense the actos observe the function Mikhail Bakhtin ascribed to the marketplace in his study of Rabelais: "[It is] the center of all that is unofficial; it enjoyed a certain extraterritoriality in a world of official ideology, it always remained 'with the people'" (153 - 154). Valdez noted a corresponding attitude on the part of the audience was required for Chicano theater: "Without the palomía [crowd] there, laughing, crying and sharing whatever is on stage, the teatros will dry up and die. if the Raza will not come to the theater, then the theater must go to the Raza" (Actos 4). The dramatization of long-felt social dissatisfaction within the community helped establish a rapport between Teatro Campesino and Chicano audiences. The themes, as well as the tone, of the Teatro responded to a number of contemporary issues, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. These two events, which profoundly altered the American consciousness, helped bring to the forefront issues of racial, economic, and social redress. Valdez was an effective voice in linking these concerns to his attack on attitudes that had confined Chicanos to marginality, a situation the actos of Teatro Campesino denounced as dehumanizing. These historical conditions encouraged the emergence of a new generation of Chicano scholars, professionals, and activists who proceeded to question the conditions that had molded their communities. In this sense the art of Valdez was decisive in molding the cultural consciousness of his generation.