Luis Valdez—Early Works: Actos, Bernabé and Pensamiento Serpentino

Nothing represents the work of El Teatro Campesino (and other teatros Chicanos) better than the acto. In a sense, the acto is Chicano theatre, though we are now moving into a new, more mystical dramatic form we have begun to call the mito. The two forms are, in fact, cuates that complement and balance each other as day goes into night, el sol la sombra, la vidala muerte, el pájaro la serpiente. Our rejection of white western European (gabacho) proscenium theatre makes the birth of new Chicano forms necessary, thus, los actos y los mitos; one through the eyes of man, the other through the eyes of God.

The actos were born quite matter of factly in Delano. Nacieron hambrientos de la realidad. Anything and everything that pertained to the daily life, la vida cotidiana, of the huelguistas became food for thought, material for actos. The reality of campesinos on strike had become dramatic, (and theatrical as reflected by newspapers, TV newscasts, films, etc.) and so the actos merely reflected the reality. Huelguistas portrayed huelguistas, drawing their improvised dialogue from real words they exchanged with the esquiroles (scabs) in the fields everyday.

“Hermanos, compañeros, sálganse de esos files.”

“Tenemos comida y trabajo para ustedes afuera de la huelga.”

“Esquirol, ten verguenza.”

“Unidos venceremos.”

“¡Sal de ahi barrigón!”

The first huelguista to portray an esquirol 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 effect 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.

Looking back at those early, crude, vital, beautiful, powerful actos of 1965, certain things have now become clear about the dramatic form we were just beginning to develop. There was, of course, no conscious deliberate plan to develop the acto as such. 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. De todos modos éramos raza, (quién se iba a fijar?

The acto, however, developed its own structure through five years of experimentation. It evolved into a short dramatic form now used primarily by los teatros de Aztlán, but utilized to some extent by other non Chicano guerrilla theatre companies throughout the U.S., including the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Bread and Puppet Theatre. (Considerable creative crossfeeding has occurred on other levels, I might add, between the Mime Troupe, the Bread and Puppet and the Campesino.) Each of these groups may have their own definition of the acto, but the following are some of the guidelines we have established for ourselves over the years:

So what’s new, right? Plays have been doing that for thousands of years. True, except that the major emphasis in the acto is the social vision, as opposed to the individual artist or playwright’s vision. Actos are not written; they are created collectively, through improvisation by a group. The reality reflected in an acto is thus a social reality, whether it pertains to campesinos or to batos locos, not psychologically deranged self-projections, but rather, group archetypes. Don Sotaco, Don Coyote, Johnny Pachuco, Juan Raza, Jorge el Chingón, la Chicana, are all group archtypes that have appeared in actos.

The usefulness of the acto extended well beyond the huelga into the Chicano movement, because Chicanos in general want to identify themselves as a group. The teatro archtypes symbolize the desire for unity and group identity through Chicano heroes and heroines. One character can thus represent the entire Raza, and the Chicano audience will gladly respond to his triumphs or defeats. What to a non-Chicano audience may seem like over simplication in an acto, is to the Chicano a true expression of his social state and therefore reality.

“Los actos son muy interesantes, chistosos, y representan la realidad de la vida del campesino”.

Over the past six years El Teatro has been changing and moving constantly. Moving with and helping along the way the rebirth of Chicano culture that is shaking the American power structure clear down to its calaveras. That pride that belongs to the sons of kings and religious warriors has found its way to the surface past that mentality of colonization and has brought him face to face with the oppressive forces of ignorance. The ignorant gabacho who refuses to see him as anything more than a cheap labor supply. The Chicano has a history as ancient and as beautiful as life itself. From this he is able to grasp a new perspective on the world we live in. A perspective and a way of life that does not include the systematic genocide of unwanted races or a technology that is being used only to destroy the very earth that mothered us. The Chicano is crying for reason and sanity to be brought back to the Americas. He is reaching out, exploding into every field of art and technology known to man, some not recognized by the gabacho.

El Teatro Campesino is a part of that explosion. It is taking from the old and creating the new. It is putting all the joys, sorrows, history and culture of La Raza on stage to be examined, to be remade, to pass on to others and to show others that there are answers, that things don’t have to be this way. And it does it in its own style, its own form, the Acto. This is the most simple way to say come see what you’re doing to me, come see what I have to offer. Actos deal with almost every aspect of Chicano life and death. They are created all over the Southwest by Chicanos with an urgency to be heard. Unfortunately few have been written out and published. El Teatro has started to keep record of as many of these as possible, and would now like to share them with you. These are a select few, published in book form so that they can be used everywhere that there is need for them.