El Teatro Campesino

El Teatro Campesino creates and presents new and historic works of theater based in the Latino experience. As an ensemble company committed to generating social change through the arts, El Teatro Campesino offers mainstage productions, school-based performances, arts education, and performances in public settings that are often free of charge. In a typical year, the organization serves more than 10,000 audience members. This grant aligns with the Performing Arts Program’s Communities strategy.

El Teatro Campesino grew out of the Delano Grape Strike picket lines of Cesar Chavez’s United Farmworkers Union in 1965, when founder and artistic director Luis Valdez created and performed short skits on flatbed trucks and in union halls. Since then, the organization has been recognized nationally and internationally for setting the standard for Latino/Chicano theater. An ensemble company committed to generating social change through the arts, the organization reaches more than 10,000 audience members each year through school programs, theatrical productions at its renovated warehouse theater, and free performances in public venues. A new grant to El Teatro Campesino would help it implement its new strategic plan to reach deeper into Northern California communities.

Born out of the Delano Grape Strike picket lines of Cesar Chavez’s United Farmworkers Union in 1965, El Teatro Campesino is now a long-standing institution that creates and presents new works of theater based in the Latino experience. As an ensemble company committed to generating social change through the arts, the organization reaches more than 10,000 audience members each year through school programs, theatrical productions, and free performances in public venues.