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Justice and Injustice in Three Mexican-American Playwrights

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Justice and Injustice in Three Mexican-American Playwrights MAN'S INHUMANITY TO MAN: JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE IN THREE MEXICAN-AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS by JOSHUA AL MORA, B.A., M.A. A DISSERTATION IN • SPANISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Accepted Dean of the Graduate School December, 1994 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this time to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Dr. Janet Perez, Dr. Harley Oberhelman, Dr. Wendell Aycock and Dr. Roberto Bravo. A special thanks goes out to Dr. P6rez who worked very closely with me and spent many hours reading and editing my dissertation. A special note of thanks goes out to all of my committee members for their belief in me and their inspiration during what have been the most difficult times of my life. Thank you for offering your help and for all you did. A special thank you also to the Department of Classical and Modern Languages at Texas Tech University and the faculty and staff for all of your support and encouragement. Esta obra va dedicada a mi padre, que en paz descanse, y a mi madre quienes con mucha paciencia esperaron que yo terminara. Gracias a su fe y sus oraciones se cumplib esta obra. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iv I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE ROOTS OF CHICANO AND OTHER TERMS 40 III. THE WAR IN THE FIELDS 72 IV. THE STRUGGLE TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES 113 V. IN SEARCH OF RESPECT IN THE SCHOOLS 148 VI. DEMANDS FOR EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW 180 VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 241 BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 111 ABSTRACT In 1965, in Delano, California, Chicano Theatre was born in the back of a pick-up truck. Cesar Chdvez instigated a movement that sought basic rights for migrant farmworkers in California. Being one of many movements that would inspire Chicano writers to expose the injustices perpetrated against Mexican-Americans, the strike against the growers became the catalyst for initiating the contemporary era of Chicano Theatre. Luis Valdez was a writer that offered his moral support in literary form. Using the farmworkers as the first actors, Valdez helped these migrants in their struggle, thus forming El Teatro Campesino (The Farmworker's Theatre), a variant of agit-prop theatre, which attempts to incite the viewers to protest against what they are witnessing. Valdez is also influenced by Bertolt Brecht who attempted to break down the barrier between the actors and the audience. Intially, Valdez's plays would focus on the plight of the workers; however, later he would also depict the inequities in the schools, the Vietnam War and the legal system. This dissertation explores injustices inflicted upon Chicanos/Mexican-Americans as Valdez portrays them in his plays. He uses historical facts as a basis when appropriate, since many of the plays are based on events that actually occurred. IV El Teatro Campesino died out but the genre has endured. The themes have become more universal; however, the majority of the writers still focus on the injustices against human beings. Carlos Morton and Estella Portillo-Trambley are two of the writers who have continued to write this type of theatre. Their works encompass many areas; however, this study concerns itself with one work dealing with inequities in the legal system and the other with injustice against illegal aliens. Like Valdez, Morton and Portillo-Trambley used real- life events as a basis in their works. The study begins with an overview of the terminology historically used to refer to Mexican-Americans since there has been and continues to be considerable controversy as to its correct usage. All the plays constitute or embody a symbolic "justice" against the alleged oppressors. The study does not hint at solutions; rather, examines some problems of human rights and social justice as seen through the eyes of these three playwrights, together with their techniques, style and degree of inventiveness or fidelity to documentary evidence. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION El Teatro Campesino and Chicano Theater Luis Valdez began El Teatro Campesino in 1965 in Delano, California, responding to a need for action on behalf of the farmworkers exploited by growers who took advantage of such things as their illegal status or lack of unionization. The intent of organizers and reform leaders to awaken the social consciousness of the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans manifested itself first in the acta, which would later give way to previously established, more traditional forms of theatre. El Teatro Campesino, undeniably the contemporary birth of Chicano theatre, was followed by other theatre companies and playwrights which eventually move social-action theatre into the mainstream of Chicano literature. While forms and writers change, the themes and purposes remain basically the same. Mexican-American theatre as a whole has never lost its purpose of being a political-social theatre set on exposing the inequalities which victimize Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. This introductory chapter examines aspects of El Teatro Campesino from its relatively recent beginning through its evolution to what it has become today. El Teatro contained in its basic message an element of protest, sometimes against injustice towards the Mexican- American, sometimes criticizing faults common to human beings in general. Primarily, however, writers who are Mexican-Americans, write about experiences that have affected them in their lives, expressing and experiencing collective suffering with those in the audience who continue to experience the same or similar difficulties. Luis Valdez, being a Chicano himself, had worked in the fields and had witnessed the suffering of his fellow Chicanes. He realized that unless someone helped them to protest their exploitation, their plight would never change. To begin, they also needed someone who would lead, who could show them the way by expressing their aims in writing and on stage. El Teatro Campesino, born in the fields of Delano, thanks to Valdez's desire to participate in the struggles of the farmworkers with Cesar Chavez, had one major goal: to incite the farmworkers to strike and to protest the injustices occurring in the fields. Neither aesthetics nor theatrical experimentation were consideration. As Jorge Huerta points out in "Chicano Agit-Prop: The Early Actos of El Teatro Campesino," Valdez desired to be part of the movement when "... the Huelga broke out in 1965. Anxious to contribute to the Union's efforts, he went to Delano to see if he could start a teatro^ Everyone liked the idea, so in November of 1965 El Teatro Campesino began its long and continuing career" (45).^ Out of this need for change, and the necessity of educating the Chicanes, was born El Teatro Campesino. Francisco Jimenez agrees with Huerta's assessment when he states that the "dominant note of contemporary drama is an urgency for change" (100).^ The change envisioned would be from a situation of oppression, inferiority, and injustice to one of justice and equality. Valdez believed that the need was so great and the context so immediate and the impact of theatre sufficiently powerful that the workers could be moved to action even without professional writers to supply the words. El Teatro Campesino, the first form of modern Chicano Theater, coincided with the tumultuous years of the 60s and 70s. El Teatro Campesino attempted to depict faithfully, through factual events and eyewitness testimony, the reality that surrounded migrant workers of the 60s. However concrete and contemporary its context, this type of social and political theatre had historical roots in earlier Spanish theatre, and these influences are evident in Valdez's and other playwrights' works. Critics and literary historians who traditionally attempted to generalize about distinguishing characteristics of Spanish literature from its earliest beginnings have noted its proximity to the events portrayed, and the presence of significant historical content. Thus, in the Poema de Mio Cid, the probability of the poet's incorporating eyewitness reports or the testimony of actual participants in the events is widely supported and accepted. As will be seen, this historicity and spatiotemporal proximity to events continues to be true with respect to the work of the Mexican-American playwrights analyzed in this study. Another traditional characteristic often cited among Spanish literature's distinguishing traits is its orality, the high degree of fidelity to popular speech, of collective or anonymous contribution to the style and/or content of materials preserved in and transmitted via oral traditions. This characteristic of Medieval balladry reappears in the Mexican corrido^ for example, and those corridos inspired by heroes and events of the Mexican Revolution may be seen as contemporary counterparts of the epic heroes and events inspiring many romances (the romances epicos. romances fronterizos. etc.) Comparable in recent Peninsular history are the romances of the Spanish Civil War, and the "romancero de la guerra civil" with its large numbers of compositions depicting the martyrdom of humble workers and peasants loyal to the Republic coincides very closely with the memorialization of comparable victims in the Mexican-American struggle against injustice, prejudice and exploitation. As will be seen in the analyses to follow, both the music inspired by the struggle of "La Raza" and the theatre which depicts it evince the same orality and proximity to reality characterizing Spanish balladry and its variants which have
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