Revision Chi Can At Heater

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3. Toward a Re-VlSion of Chicana/o Theater History: The Roles oMmen in EI Teatto Campesino

Introduction In the summer of 1980 I wilnessed. a performance ofEiTeatro Campesino's Fin del mundo in Europe. That production marked the end of the ensemble

known as El Teatro Campesino. a group that represented a way of performing and a way of living. bom intimately linked. dose.ly associated with the United Farm Workers Union. the theater troupe eme.rged in 1965 as put of the Chicana/o laoor and civil rights struggles of that en. After disassociating itself from direct union involvement, El Teatro Campesina remained a spiri1U.tI, cultural, and ideologica.l standard-bearer ofthe Chicano movemenl.The spirit of group commitment was still evident in the 1980 production of Fin

'and Sororro~lda (Skdrton) in 1978 I' (I: rop'llD toUr) Courtesy of La Clrpa ,de l~_,~uap~I""lOuph by Fudi~ Schusttr. Dione RDdrigua UIU<\'lCII. '''''''11

•

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DiQll( Rodngua (standmg)

dd mundo and contributed (0 the rare power of that performance. power that W~ visibly transmitted to German and French audiences despite language md cultural. barriers. St.1nding OViltions ensued in a frenzy of enthusiasm such as I had never wimessed from a Gennan theater audience. Among the male characters, the most expressive was a Pachuco yom.h, nicknamed "Huesos" (Bones). Huesos controlled the audience and the motion on stage. How astonished I was to discover backstage after the perform.rnce that the extraordinary Huesos was pl.ayed by a woman, Socorro \'olldez. Her performance was unforgettable.Yet her presence in theTeauo has neo."er been noted by scholars or historians of Chicanalo drama. Her talent. U \\"eU as that of the other women (and men) I saw perfoml, has always been subsumed under the general heading ofElTeauoCampesino, with individual crt'dil going (0 iLS now-wcll-knovvll director, Luis Valdez. The history of women's participation in the long tradition ofMexican the~Icr in the Southwest constitutes a negleo:cd cultural legacy whose contours ha\"e yellO be mapped. The comributions and struggles of the women in Fl Tutro Campesino are a part of that rich legacy that, once exposed, will ..lter me csublished version ofTeatro history:To illustrate, I will comment in gencroll terms on the body ofwriting about FlTeatro Campesino since its founding in 1965. I will not reiterate specific findings but rather will indicate

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EI Tealm Cwnpo;il1O

T\l'tYllrn a Rt:-V'lSion of Cbicono/a Theater History 131

some chardeteristic orientations and omissions in Chicana/a theater criticism and history, which in many cases predetermined researchers' fmdings.

Spealdng generally. the history of E1 Tealro Campesino since its founding in 1965 has been canonized as the hisloryofthe ijfcand times ofLuisValdcz. like history in general, Tea.tro history has largely been reduced to a chronol· ogy of the dOings ofonc individual. its director. The nature and significance of Valdez's contributions have never been examined in relationship to the

contributions of the anonymous others. The reality of collective creation in the Tcatro has been noted by some researchers. but that has not altered their overriding historical framework, ~ on the greaHnan concept, simi· lar to the hierarchical division oflabor with a supposedly omnipotent boss at the lOP. It is a way of looking at the world. It is a way of writing history. The ten· dency to place individuals at the center of history ronstitutes a radical over· simplification by which the dynamics ofHfe process are filtered out, rod only names, dates, and places are left behind. By creating monuments to individuals, we eclipse the memory of group achievement and feel dwarfed by all those "great men" instead oflcarning ofthe strength we have through com· munity and collaboration. Although Luis Valdez. indeed. functioned as director [0 the group, virtually all Teatro Campcsino creations were collectively created. In literature on El Teatro Campesino, thal collaborative activity is either overlooked entirely or considered to be of secondary importance. Yet refcrcnces to "Luis Valdcz's Actos" or to "Valdcz's characters" or (0 "his teatro"l are descriptive inaccuracies reflecting the age-old method of COIlveniently subsUming the work of a group of people under the name of one man. Jorge Huerta, in numerous articles and a book (Huerta 1982), has extensively chronicled the history ofChicanala theater groups, including EITeatro Campesino. Huerta's Significant book examines the themes of Chicanala theater as a reflection of greater sociohistorica1 forces that generated dozens of tc:nIos. Furthermore, he offers a vivid and comprehensive description of Chicana/o theatrical productions for the period 1965-1980. Huerta's perspective on the history ofElTeatro Campesino ha.~ become something of an official version, shared by countless other researchers. Underlying his pioneering trea.unent of Chicano theater history is th~ great-nun conceptUal. framework; despite recurrent mention ofa "collectivt process," "collectivity," and "collective authorship," Huerta does not deliver a usable description of the actual steps involved in the process of collective authorship, nor a broader sociocultural framing of that collt..'Ctive process so common among Chicana/o lheater groups. lbe group dynill11ics of theatri·

~cn:atio~ &Ie sUbs,~ed~d::r the ,~ndividua.l rubric ofLuis Valdez, thereby

rv~~~tlCu~der

ucmgt cterms. collectIve and improvisation"tosomethin thatha _ ns the aegis of a genius. Huerta (1982: 17) writes' "But}ew fJ: efforts ~a~are now aVailable in print approxinla~e the qual~ty o~ \vith .an actas. ~ ps the s~ccess of this creative genius' collaborations t I . hIS ever-evOlvlIlg troupe IS due (0 the fact that Valdez is a wnght, actor and director who can see aU of the I poe payfective lheatcr d h e eJnents necessary or of" . a~ ~ Dean transpose those visions to thestage."The qualities creative gernus as well as the capacity to "see alIlh eJ for effective theater" and "trans . . e em:~ts necessary to Valdez. as if the anon:us stag; arc genius o~ vision or hwnan agency. upe possess no ro'

sol~.ly

~~;:.~~~~~

cr-

~bed

In reality lhe creative proces.~ drew from the vision ofallTeatroCam

.

members. Teatm veteran Olivia Chwnaccm describes the writing of ~~~

~ ~ to d.cvdop our scriplS u we went illong, from me improvis.ltions. ... Some~mes,.like when we were doing La ClIrpa. whic.h was in roIDda form we

~<1d m~hts m .which people mct who wantcd to work Oil writing the ~ for lie comda. Smiley and I would go aJong w,'th di~ I . 'iler~t ot ler people who were ~ntercstcd in writing. ~'d sit down with Luis md work at illh<1t wOlY : :F~~ 'M.: wou1~ t~ ideas. OIbout where 'M.: vnIlted to go in the piec~. And o h would write different verses or whatever. <1nd then select from th<11 . r t cn w? would tollk olbom what we wanted 10 say. then we would do oln . ImprOVisatIon and he [luisVaJdcz] would walch. (InterView, 1/19/1983) OliVia Chumacero descr'l>es til·· I .hic h I IS Intcose y collaborative way of working "ru e~~m~ not only the writing ofindividua.l pLa.ys, but all face~ o leatnl..4l actlvHy: It lVolS a collective woly of working. We made om own COStumes we built our own props and SClS ... ""ie did iIll the work collcctivdy whi"h th .u <1 c . . . ... meant OIt .en,~J11 lime .....' e aJ1took lim~ to mue the props, or to mue the set. At a ~;LllII lime we ill1100k time to clean up. All the work was done in lhat Wily course the person or persons who were more knowledgeable in a certai~ u,eol \':e re res~n~ible for that area., but everybody Iud to help. Yes? [See?] \\ h<11 IS ~m<1Z111g IS IhOit we were in conLiCt with each other OI!mOSI 24 I ~ d<1r-illlthe time. (Illlerview, 1/19/1983) lOurs

,In spi~e ofthis collective reality, theater historians' anlhologists' d ' fixa.tlon on " a n Cnt· \.!m I f; a great ~an snowballed into an account that distorted the on.! ~L~i~ ~~~. AnthologIes of Chicana/o theater, for example, usually name ) ez as the author ofworks that were in fact collectively authored ~

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EITmtro CAmprsioo

TlMurcl a Rt-V"lSioo of Chic4na/oThcultt HisuKy

l33

(see for example cardenas de Dwyer 1975. CastaIieda Shular et aI. 1972, Harth and Baldwin 1974). Luis Valdez has also conuibuted to this myth by republishing the collectively authored aclos as his "early works" (Valdez. 1990). The most widely anthologized octo, Soldodo rom, runs withom excep· tion underValdcz's name. Yet Olivia Chwnacero reCAlls that this octo, like all others, was written by various members of the ensemble through lhe pro-

cess of collective improvisation: Once ~ ~re working on SoIdodo fU). working on we ide.. In folet I remember ~ were going to do this IIcto specifically for me moratorium agAinst the wu in Yielflmt.... Enlonces [Then] there was a girl in the T~lro who told us wb;l,t hold happened in her f~y.... And so the IICtO is twed on a real SIOry. well, Luis introduced the ca/motru [skeleton] character into olle of me improvi!w..tions; and Phil [Esparza] did !.he caJavero in the improvisoitions. He stutcd doing various numbers. And we inunediately thought thaI this is a great 1001 to use in this oclo. And it worked. I remember that was when Luis actwlly wrote the diol.logue that the mother and the son have ill the letter ... for the rest of the \1CIO we were working 01T improvisalions that ~ were doing. Luis was leaching at the University and he didn't have as much time 10 help put it together. So I remember tW.I he wrote thOit p.m. But 01.1.1 the other parts were dOlle collectively. Everybody's ideas, everybody's input, the improvisations. Luis functioned u sifter.... We ""'-ere like an experiment, you know. We were the experiment and we would just keep going and he would just keep taking from that. nul is how we worked, and it W;l$ great. You know, il wu really greOlt, because people had 10 be on their toes, people had {O think, people had 10 have this 'information within them, too. You w.d to draw from yourself, from where you were coming from. Things came ou{ from you. from what you thought. from what you had experienced in life.... h wu your life. (Interview. 1/19/1983)

The vital facets ofhistory that become blurred or erased by the great-man ~pective are the very fon::es that shape lhe "great individuals" and sustain

lhem in a position of prominence. The special contributions of women are among lhose facets that are absent in lhe writing oftheater history. Nonetheless, the actual dynamics of the creative process in El Teatro Campesino are blurred by Jorge Huerta's linear vision (chronological and tcxt-centered) of a "great man" directing the anonymous masses of actors. Teatro members who devoted ten or more years to tlut intense collective underuking--Ollvia Chumacero, Roberta De.lgado, Lupe Valdez. Rogelio Rojas, Philip Espana, Diane Rodriguez, Jose Delgado, to list only a few-are not even named in Huerta's history. Danie!Va.ldez is introduced simply as LuisValdez's "younger

brother Danny'" the ex.traordin Soco ing as "his multi~alented s' t .. rro Valdez only mentioned in passforValdez appears IimitIess1San~ (ll uer~ 9~2:22,209).Huenasadmiration "V&l.dez' \'\'Odd enCOrnn:>w..., ec thPS'" hi at ~~ all other ensemble members: r-....--,more an s cnUCSC.lJ1 comprehend" "TIl pressure might have stopped a Jesser "( ; or, e gran ClltpcJ dt 10 &uruJia RasquochiII ~an pp. 183.178). With regard to La "but La gron CllrJlo1 J. 1__ h,a co ech~lvely authored work-Huerta tells us: 'r lit JUS rosquac IS was IS (emph' . 1 there was nothing that could Stop him from dan~ ~e tour de force and is portrayed as a figure so reat th t g (p.206).lndced,Valdez of his genius: "Valdez w~" gd . ' hi,:e can barely hope to grasp the nature ..., anang s way to truth ;,., . ell could understand" (p 205) Oth ... a way no lOt Cetual qUoted, nor are their' 0 W· :r members.ofEiTea tro Campesino are never profLIe or even contrasrto ~n; ~~~~ay mcluded. for the sake of adding these names stand for the variet h y qUOted v~ews o~ Luis Valdez. Yet lions. clashes and resolutio th Y u~an forces, mteracuons, contradic_ ns at constnute Tea.tro histo ry.. Only by learning to ask new question.
a:J

w

de

Who bUilt Thebes of the seven gOites?

iJ~ the books you will find the names of kings. Old thc kings haul up thc Jumps of rock? .

Every ~ge a victory. Who cooked the feasl for tbe victors? Every tell years a g~at man, Who ~d the him So many reports. So many questions.

Without an understanding of the collision and . an aCCOUnt of the daily life p d mergmg of forces, without stances ofperforma.nce, Teatro r~;:es~ struggles, of tIle liVing circummusewn. y mes a promenade lhrough a wax f' In the years since the European t drnamics of El Teatro Cam in our 0 Fin dd mundo I have explored the extensive interviews with ~c o~nd o~e:c ft.llfras, combining fieldwork, Canlpesino, day-to-day Iivin : ~: o~mer members of El Teatro El Tcmo Campesino in Calif~ . pe d ces with ~e women and men of uchives. During my two an reseat;=h 10 t~e Teatro Campesino years 0 research residence 10 San Juan Bautista,

rmt

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Ef To:Jlro Campcsino

the base of operations for El Teatro Campesino. I developed All understanding of the day-by-day behind-the-scenes C'J'tllive process thAt predated. that final production of Fin dd mundo and especially the roles of the women in that process.

'M::>men have constituted a distinct force within theTeatro Campesino and. by extension, within the history ofChicana/o theater.Yet inTeatro history. as in history writing in general, the JWtidpation ofwomen is often overlooked. The course charted by lhese women is rich in contradictions and human potential. By presenting these conflicts and contradictions and their resolutions in aU their human breadth, I hope to rectify the history of El Tealro

Campesmo so that process-the full range of human action, including women's contributions-becomes visible. nlU.~ in seeking to reconstitute a portion of the unwritten history of Chicana/o theater I focus here primarily

all the women, and the roles they played-both 011- and offstage. In researching and reconstructing Chicana performance history, my richest-and most exclusive---source of information has been female performers themselves. It is through interviews--collected over a ten-year pcriod-that I have begun to develop an llllderstanding ofthe life, work, and struggles of Chicana performers. None of these women-including the women of the Teatro Campesino-had ever been interviewed before. I view this chapter as collectively written. It could never have been written without the intense panidpation and reflection ofthe women whose life and work are examined here. In order to express the reiility of collective authorship, I have chosen a collective presentational forron rich in quou.tions from the oral histories I have ~ollected. In inlcgrating is much of women's testimony as possible, I funhermore reflect a feminist commiunem to honor women's words, to validate the notion that a woman's experience is best described in her own words. in spite of what researchers may think to the contrary. The focus on women's experience should also serve as a corrective to the hundreds of existing works of exclusively male focus. Consultation with male members ofElTeatro Campesino on thc participation of women elicited scant results; their tendency was to pass over the topic in olS few words as possible before changing the subjcct altogether. It was the women who most eloquently addressed what has been their own historical experience. In this chapter, theoretical perspectives are elaborated implicitly rather than explicitly. I do not privilege theory and the theoretical as the most important or most significaDl way of knowing or communicating; what I do privilege is women's own 'words concerning their own life experience. Ctreful atlention to women's experiences must provide the grounding for any

Ji7,o;ard Q

Re-YlSion of Chkona/oThalltr History

theory we construa and for any categories of analysis we apply. Putting women at the center of analysis does not Simply mean that we now include subjects who were formerly excluded. Rather. the inclusion of women's experience will fundamentally alter the way in which performance history or other history is written. The experience of these women not only illustrates the struggle by women in El Teatro Campesino and other kUtros but in many ways parallels efforlS by women outsilk the theater.Their stories interest us precisely because they are not the stories of "creative geniuses" but the stories of all women.

The Roles of Women in El Teatro Campesino Within the vast body ofcritical writings on ElTeatro Campcsino, critics have overlooked the history ofwomen's participation.The amply documented and discussed repertoire ofElTeatroCampcsino has been viewed principally from the perspective of gerne: documenting the company's development ofvarious theatrical genres, from the aetos to mitos to oorridos. A different historical configuration appears, however, when we focus on the roles of women in EI Teatro Campesino. Throughout the course of El Teauo Campe:sino's dramatic evolutionary process. the female roles have remained fairly constant in all the genres: varia+ Uons of the same three or fow types or categories. These characters are defined in a familial or age category: mother, grandmother, Sister, or wifel girlfriend. Note, for example, the cast. ofcharaaers in the 1970 octo Hudguistm. Whereas the male characters are named according to place of origin or by workplace function (e.g., CampcsinoTejmo, Campesino Coyote), the w0men are described in terms of age and marital status (Campesina Us.il.da, CunpcsinaViejita [Married Campesina. Old Campesina]).These designations ere irrelevant to the nature of their statements in the octo, hO'NeVer. In addition to the familial or age category, all womco are also assigned one of two sc.x~al categories: whores or virgins. a categorizing evident since the early period of the aetos. Wives. sisters, girlfriends, and mothers are made to faIl
136

EI Taltro CdmpGino

Chicano movement, the daughter Cantinflucha enters and makes the comical but characteristic remark: "What about Chicmas. valO? Or do \".Ie get only bit parts in tillS revolutionary carpal I havc a script loo!"This line strongly signals an awareness within EJ TealrO Campcsino of the gender oppression within the Chicano movement: Women were expected to panicipatc in political activity. but not as leaders. nlC double standard relegated women to bit parts. TheTeatro Cunpesino's apparent awareness aCme problem did not, however, make an impact on the group's portrayal of women. In U1SIUn (0tpd clIntinnescll the Chicana's "script" is nonexistent and her role is concluded shortly after her bit part. Depending on the drcumstances of any given Tcatro Campt..'Sino playall of which have male prou.gonislS--the handful of available female traits are mixed or malcht.."tt to create lhe desired c!Too.TIle 000 of lm \i:ndidos prcw

sents a somewhat differcm-but equally troubling---projection ofdlicana women. It features one Chicana woman secretary (and five males) in speaking roles. The Chicana is sent from Republican governor Ronald Reagan's office to recruit a token Mexican for the administration. She angliciZes her Oi,me(from Jimenez to JIMenez) and upholds the conservative Republican politics. Although the GCto Los\tndidos creates a space for Chicmas as speaking political. subjects, her politics is that ofa l'CIldido (scll·out).l1tis acto replicates the male colonial ideology that created the tcnn "malinchismo"; that term and that ideology assign historical responsibility for "selling out" (or col· laboration with the enemy) to female subjects. Like the bulk of the Teatro Campesino female characters, Miss JIMenez of Los\t'ndidos also engages only in activities which are accessory to those of males. Women's roles do not enjoy the dramatic space necessary for the unfolding of a full character. In their confinement, \'YOmen do not evolve beyond a single dimension. With the exception ofLaVirym deTepeyuc, allTeatro Campesina plays have males as their focus.1be female figures are those affected by men; they are peripheral, the ones to whom things happen. Never is the world seen through the eyes of a woman. This is refleaed in the very titles of the works, which usually carry the nanle of the male protagonist. Even in ","'Ora of an almost epic scope, such as La carra de Ia familia Rasquachi (1973), later renamed La curpll de}tsw Pelado Rasquachi, women are male-centered and limited to being victims or satellites of men. Whereas the three Rasquaclli brotller:s are endowed with various personal ambitions, Rosita Rasquachi's single intent is to not lose her boyfriend: (Children gather uound Pelado and complain about going to Mexico) Joe: Oh no, Papa. I want to join the Marine Corps!

~ from 1980 Fin del mWldo Europmn lour. LdIIO right Rogdio &;as. Pi ~g.Jdo.YoI.m:IlI flgrm (as NewsrJl5I.a), Olivia Chwnoctro (silUIlB), Diane Rodngua, Sorono \bJda. Courtesy of Olivia ChlU"llllCtrO Archil'e. Louie: I WiUlt 10 make some feria! Mucario: I wanllO go to college! RositG: What about my boyfriend! (EiTeatro Umpes.ino 1973:22)

In the exciting 1980 European production ofFindd m.._J - fi _. h lers· th h (i.1 li WKIU, em-ue c. aracIn e s 0,:," ot ke carbon copies of those from earlier Teatro 1.1 S' ~lere was the samtJik.e, wilting wife; the sleazy whore; and the grandm~tle; gure S.i . Co~p~~ With the male characters, the women were one~d.imen. fI on~ an~ Utslgru~caIll. l~ Valdez's winter 1981 play about the 1860s Cali. onua ChIQllO soaal banditTibumoVasquez (BaOOido!) the Wstori-I fi . legendarv qUCSI r; '.' . . • '-
us,

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To\\urd a Re~VlSiOll of CbiOlllll/O ThMteT History

139

out exception the women placed these roles within the context of their own personal development. The stereotyped roles found in the work of El Teatro Campesino to some extent reflect the stereotyped views of Chicanas in sociely at large. The women who joined the company in the 1970s inherited these stereotypical female roles. Roles were to some extent preestablished and were never submitted to scrutiny by male members of the Teatro. Nor did the women question these roles at the time, principally because of their roulh. Most women entered theTeatro in their teens, when their consciousness of themselves as women and of their roles as women in the theater was not highly developed. Teatro member Diane Rodriguez described the women's early passivity:

Socorro\1lJda ill chamctuiSlic expression as Hucsos ["&n5"J in Fin del mundo. 1980 Euwprotl lour. Courtesy of Olivia Cbumoctro Archh"t.

In a perceptive article exploring the roles ofw~mcn i~ lheTeatro de 1,1, Esperanza, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano points to the Ideological problems of having individual prOlagonists-male or female: The question wncerning main characters goes beyond the fact of ~ing .~ale or female. It is actually part of a larger question of spL'Cial interest In JXlhtlCai theater, namely, what is implied by having a main character at all. There has been much discussion of lhe dassical Lukacsian idea of lhe protagonist who incarnates the dash of anlagonistic social forces. Instead, people have begun to wonder whether the inclination in theater to create heroes does not imply a tendency to envision social problems as the problems of iI.ll cxtraordinary individual, usually male. (1981 :8, 10) Individual heroes as protagonists also create dramatic proble~s. The overpowering centrality of one character creates limitalions of dIalogue, space, and action in the development of other characters. In Teatro Campesino plays there is invariably a main male character, although balanced by other male characters (such as in Fin del mundo, 19~0, or La gran .carpa cantinlle:sca) or by allegorical figures like La Muerte or ~l Diablo (such as Ill!JJ Cllrpa de los Rasquachis). Female characters ftll the spaces In bet':eetl. In my interviews with Teatro women I ~xplored the genesIs of~hese ro.les, the women's views of them, and women s development across time. Wah·

Al the beginning we were playing various types, like the supportive Wife, rOll know, or the Virginal type, like an icon, literally she was just a statue-and that was a character: thaI was aile of the main roles. We were playing these roles, we let that happen. And we had some input. But where were we. as women, al that JXlint? Somehow at that paint we didn't haye the consciousness and we played these cardboard roles. Or maybe we did haY\, some consciousness but we didn't know how to gel it on the stage. There was something thaI was not as slrong as it is now, of course. There is more of a consciousness of women-in oneself---t.hat there wasn't then. (Interview, 617/1980)

Socorro Valdez, who performed her firstTearro Campesino role at age fifteen, also said that her youth prevented her from questioning the female role": "I was growing up, you knOw. So for me to confront Luis [Valdez] at that time and say: Look. Your writing about women is no good ... well, that is not where I was coming from; he was much older than me and had more life experience. But he didn't have female experience" (interview, 3/ I / 1983). Furthermore, efforts to address the polities of Chicanas/os as a whole during the 1960s somehow precluded any special consideration ofwomen's rob or problems. A discussion of gender issues was given very low priority. Diane Rodriguez recalled how the importance of the show did not allow the women's roles even secondary consideration: "It seems that because we have l1wa)'s worked for a certain goal, we have overlooked some things. I admit that. I admit it very much ... we perform his [LuisValdez.'s] view ofwomen, imically. Now there is some input. But in order that the show go on ... well. \\t,: have said: Okay we'll go with this and we have performed these roles... . \\c have talked aboul this and I think all of us are very conscious. But I don't think lhat we have found the answer yet either" (interview, 617/1980). PUlting women's issues second, or discounting them altogether, was com-

,""

EI TallO Compesino

bwrd er Rt-ytSim of Chicancr/1l1balta Hwllf)'

'<1

mon among leftist groups oflhe 19605.md the 19705 in the United States and around the world. The liberation of people in general was considered the chiefpriority. It is ironic !.hat those cngdged in struggles for human equality \\--ere slow to recognize that class struggles Uld ethnic muggles would not necessarily better lhe lot of women. The women of the Chicano movement orthe 19605 and 19705 who raised women's issues were accused of being divisive. The situation was equally touchy for women in EI Teatro Campesino, despite the ensemble's history of perpetual transformation. Gradually, with the development of OJ. consciousness as women, the confinement of these roles bcame increasingly apparem and increasingly frus· trating to the women. Socorro Valdez. the youngest of the group, lamented: It was like walking the same P4th over and over. There was the mother. the sister, or the grandmother or the girlfriend. Only four. You were either lhe OO\:ill, la lJ\OllllI, lallbuda, or la hmnanll. [The girlfriend, the mother, the grutdmothe.r, or lhe sisler]. And masl of the time these cluncters were ~ive. The WOly those femOllcs Olrt bid out Olrt for the mQ5t put very pusive utd bjd bOlck, y agU4J1tllbon todlI [Olnd they put up with everything]. 1 think thOit is whOit reilly chewed me up ,It the time. (lnlerview, 3/1/1983)

The women's dissatisfaction with these roles led to one of the longest and deepest struggles in the development of the Teatro Campesino. I would even venture to say that the question of women's roles became the most enduring contradiaion within the company. a contradiction paralleled in various ways within the Chicano movement. It was a comradiction bet\Yeen what was, on the one hand, a constant process of renewal in lhe form of new performance visions and experimentation, and what was, on the other hand. a static clinging 10 well-worn stereotypes of gender roles. The reatro Campesino repertoire. with its strong progressive strides in the treaUTIent of labor issues. of Chicano culture, of historical issues, consistently demonstrated stagnation in its lreatment of women. Resistance to change was in some ways anchored in the makeup of the company, which had been predominantly male since its founding. Socorro Valdez describes how the women struggled to be viewed and treated as equals: Alone lime there w~ only IIlrCe women in Ihe whole darn tIring: Olivia Chunucero, myself, and a third I don't rememoo. Thai Wils a rea.l interesting time. We were either going to remain members of the compmy, or just be ~the women of the compOlny."That made a real difference. you know, beca~ I hated 10 be put into a mold like "These are the ladies of the Teatro." Aw shut

&m.: from 1980 Fin dcl mundo Ellropmn tour. Left 10 riah!: Dil1l1t

Rodnsua. YoIooclcr fl:IrRl, Olivier CblllnOWO; Sacoml Wdda in bociground. Courtesy of Olivier ChUlJVX'CrO Arthht.

up! ~n't give me Ihal!They would separate you without needing to. And so Ohvla fought f~r her own, as I did. You know we were boul very young. We both ended up ill the role of fighters because that's what Wils needed to get th~ mcn's heeds to a place where they would be able to discuss something wuh you. Wt: would have open meetings where the shit would fly across the room.... But I know how imporu.nt those three .....-omen were at that period, because there was no other femalc voicc in the compOlny." (Interview, 3/1/83) Administrative and decision-making power was, to a large extent, in the hands of the men. In time, women learned (0 queslion the division or labor .uong gender lines: \Ve even got down to questioning who Wils going to be telling who what to do: because I personally gO£ very tired of being under the thwnb of a rnut. We had a male touring manager. We had 01 male booking agent. We had a male director. We had a male stage manager. We had a male everything. And there are women there who arc just as StrOllg. .•. r could pick up a house if I hid 10, )'Ou know. ... But thl-'Y just never thought I could. And it w~ up to me to show Ihem that J could. There WiIS no fault to beu, just resjxmsibility. (Socorro VOlIdcz interview, 3/1/1983)

The patri~cha1 organiution ofEiTeatro Campcsino reinforced the aspect of male dommance in administrative matters. Luis Valdez typically worked

"

blutd Q Rt-VISion of Chiama/o Thalia History

)42

143

know what SlUtS it ex.actly ... bill you start to think. Abolll you and about your position, your own honor, your own dignity ... wd then you ask yourself: Well, why am I doing this? And dIe wswer is; Well, because be sUd. Well, docs tit know what I'm fl.-eling? Can he tell me how to livd (Interview, 12121/1982)

The process of changing the pon.rayal of women, of developing fuller roles and images of women, was percciv1.."
Socmro\l:llda performing in 011 acto CJ('IItal ~r tilt 1976 United Furnl \Mldlm: Scrond Cooslitutioo:tl CorMnti(ll. Courttsy of Unital flinn V\ilrkm of Nntric8.

with persons much younger than himself.And the relationship between. the members of the ensemble, a group that worked and Jived together, was defimtely a familial one. The group was officially defined as a familia; Luis Valdez was the symbolic father, or person in charge.TIle rest of the company was much younger. Olivia Chumaccro describes the relationship as follows: When I joined the company I vns nineteen, you know. He [Luis) was much older, tbineen yeal'S, WhUevef. For me it wasn't a problem. Within my reality it was alw",ys the oldest person th"'t was in darge. That is just part of the cultu~ if the older person is only twO yean older than me; lbat was the person you respected "'nd that witS the person who was in charge. But thai didn't mew ili"'t you didn'l have a mind, or iliat you didn't think, that you didn'tcxpress what your opinions were 011 everything. (Interview, 1/19/83) LuisValdez's paternalistiC role presented a problem forYolanda Parra.. who joined the company in 1977. Parra initially acceptcd but eventually fC]ooed the obedient daugbter role, both on and off the stage: Luis did not treat one as an adult. ... The most da.ngerous thing wiili me and Luis is when he gelS dlilt parentldaughter thing wiili me.... It's "ery easy to fall into iliat; whatcver the man uys, and yielding, yielding, yielding, not questioning. I have been trained really good that way. But sc:>mewhere alon~ the Une I start thinking, "Wait a minute."There comes a pomt-and I don t

Luis las seen a lot of Sluff through the work that the women have done in this group. nlCY'VC always given him a little ... to chclUmgc him. And there were timcs in the group th.'Illhe .....o men were JUSt outraged. We'd Sily, "What are you doing? I'm sick of playing mothers! I'm sick of playing sisters!" (Interview, 3/1/1983)

As the women developed, so did their desire to create more integrated female characters, female characters possessing many [fails and nOt just the n,u mother, sister, whore figures typical ofthcTeatro Campcsino repertoire. Yolanda Parra recalls the limited roles forced on female actors: There is this comunt stereotypical portrayal of women. His women cbarac· tel'S.ire virgins, whores, or mothers. Is there anything else? No. But you see. women don't come like that. Women are Gll three, not one or the other. And they are more things; tbey are men, too, and they are children. It's not just three separate things. like: "I'm iill virgin!" ... Who's going to buy that? See. that's a real problem. (Interview, 12121/1982) The question ofredefining female roles, however, met with pdSSive resisUnce. For one thing, it never rca1ly found acceptance as a problem. Far from being taken up as a challenge, it was treated as an unnecessary provocation. Women's efforts to dramatize a new vision ofwomen ~e frequcntly countered by a subLie form ofostracism-the suggestion that tllCy write their own pi.lys.The collective spirit dearly suffered a collapse when gender roles were questioned. Suddenly an individual solution was suggcsted for what was a collective problem. That response was indicative of the lack of ensemble wmmitment to the creation of adequate roles for women. Women of the Tutro view that resistance--on one level-as a function of the men's not 1>..lI;ng "female experience:' But a more complex dimension of that resis-

ElTallro Cam~ino

tance is also articulated: the narrowness in ' linked to the narrowness in the m ' . If men s 'perc~ption of women is perience women any Other wa en s se -perception: He [Luis] can't ex:ither, unless they are wiJIin/t~Xs~~c~ aSha. man.~nd no one else,~an do that t elf own lm0gt of IhfmSt'lves (S. Valdez IlHerview, 3/1/1982), Male resistance to female self-detennil' '. mem, however, should not be personaliz~anon W1~un the Chicano movelem of this or that man or rou I ' or.c~nsldered lhe special prohCampcsino. Male supremacis;ideJ~ n ~~uth, It ~s n~t unique to EI Teatro gy .d praetIc~, III a~J se~tors of society, have been the focus of extensive d. . lSCUS.S lOn and I~vestlganon within the women's movement A rime to accept women beYO~d thei~~i~st~t~on~f that. Ideology is the inability g;c ro es: wlfe/mother/lover. It is a form of blindness that p-ve , h •'- n s many iTOm perce" experiences that in reality m,k, I IVlng t e vast spectrum of . . up woman lOad The v· . / 1 d· J1117.atlon of women is the distoned ro.,.· lrglll W lore IChotoogy. Maimenance of male powe ~ectlon of male supremacist ideolimage of women. Although ~ a ragm.emed (i.e., nonthreatening) . bl vanous women III the Teat C . sem e were a liVing antithesis f th I ro ampesmo envirtually no evidence ofa new unOde "md~ e ste,;;otypes of women, there is . rs an mg or suet h "Th • Image remained at odds with th . f' c. e womell Sselftheir wholeness; the issue of wo e Im~gesl 0 those un~ble to see women in The growing desire of some T:~~s~~mes w:'"s consistently deflected. Out roles with greater de th t PCSIll? ",:omen to create and try gradual striving to assUInePgrea:::opome ext:n,t. COInCided with Luis Valdez's ' . wer WI( un the organizati Tha . mg was not WIthout implications fc h on. t stnvroles ofwomen Castin dec" or t I.' WOmen engaged in redefining lhe And casting de~isions beg,'mISlons bec~e the exclusive right ofLuisValdez. .. e a conscIous or u n c ' ,. peruation of the classic stereo f onSC10US too In the perensemble production (Fin del ~~ a I~~;)en.~n ~le last Teatro Campesino Vera--companion to the dru d .0, , t e email' lead character of

nee!

hig~ly

chara~l~ri~~~~ ~~~~l~~l~~YI~~~~was

incongruous but p,layed in the castmg decision: a novice actress was ch . IS was t le res~lt of a Teatro women As in so many rod . osen over the more expenenced delivered very ·little. Yolanda ~ UctlOns, ~ role that ~romised a great deal ra, an expenenced tromsto, recalled: The one role Ihat all of us women Iried out fa naJlt Wife-girlfriend. Unfortunal 1 1 1 r was the role ofVera, the prege Yo I tat ro c was handled b actress.... She was physirolly maybe suited for I . Ya very weak terms Of,IHs f think tl", 01·· n' he role. a pretty face. But in .. IVla or lane were rn I be . a real hurt for ll~ because we Id uc 1 Her slUted.... It was , wou Iry 10 coach he . "00' I" clinging vine! Leave us a little bit of pride!" II had thT. ki~ t aetflke such a e rna ngs 0 a wonderful

Tomnd a Re-V/Sion of CbiCllJld/o Theater History

145

role, but it didn't get developed. Luis cast her in that role. (Interview, 12121/1982)

The same practice of casting weak female actors in pivotal roles was repeated in subsequent roles, to the detriment of the plays as a whole. The production of Rose of the Rancho, which inaugurated theTearro Campesino Play~ house (1981), featured a wilting Juanita character in the play's center. That role was the result of a casting decision and of playwriting. A powerful and expreSSive female actor in the role of Rose might well have created a character highly incompatible with the general thrust ofthis lightweight melodramatic comedy. The drama seeks to entertain and to attract: a broad audience by offending no one. As such, it follows a stereotyped entertainment formula: the weak Mexican Juanita character and her roncho are saved by an Anglo whom she then marries. All live happily ever after. The same novice who played the Rose character then played the principle female role in Luis Valdez's Ikmdido! (198/), a play about the 1860s California's Chicano heroic outlaw, Tiburdo VasqueZ-with predictable results. The historical figure's legendary quest for justice becomes insignificant as Valdez highlights Vasquez's quest for women. Casting decisions were at times even based on the female actor's skin color, as evidenced in the play about the Indian deity Guadalupe, Las (U
EI ramo Camptsioo

,4<>

Control over casting decisions provided a kind of insurance policy for lhe director. It assured thal the roles would be played in accordance with his view of women. Within the three or four role types available to women, only cer~

tain predetermined women could play certain predetermined roles. Just as female roles in plays had become cemented, women also became stereotyped along rigid lines offstage. A vicious circle of typecasting was created. In the words of Socorro Valdez: As it were, the actresses that were "soft" offstage and just muy buO'"IOS, muy muy

bUaJus [tame, real, real tame] got the "soft" roles. And the ladies that were

medias cobronas [the ones who wouldn't take shit from anyone) and had a beer and cigarette hanging out of their mouth, well you know what role they got. ... I always ended up with that other stuft (Interview, 3/ II 1983) Women were divided basically into "soft" types and "hard" types-into good and bad. Yet this division did not go unquestioned. What is more, it deepened the women's understanding of themselves and of their roles. In dIe words of Socorro Va.ldez: Now I know these choices. And I know there were moments in the group when there was to be a "girlfriend."Well, can Socorro be the girlfriend? No, Socorro can't be the girlfriend. Socorro is either the old lady or she is the jokester. BUll was never seen in this company as a "soft" woman, because they confuse softness and hardness and they attach those two things to strength or weakness. But there is no such thing in my mind.... You can't put those two things together like thaLThey fluctuate. (Interview, 31 I I 1983) EI Teatro Campesino continued to reenact all varieties of virgins, mothers, and sleazy whores throughout the decade of the 197 Os. This is not to imply that the women stayed in the company in the position of martyrs. There were various other dimensions of activity that made the experience very rewarding. The flowering of creative capacities afforded by the collective process within the Teatro was seemingly limitless, as long as it did not pertain to the expansion ofwomen's role'>. Even the eventual entry of women into administrative positions did not trigger a modification of the portrayal of women on the stage. Any theater history that places women's experience at its center will have to include categories such as childbearing and child-care.The rigid views of gender roles both on and off the stage created a special set of problems peculiar to women in the theater. These problems ilIustrale the dose relationship between the private and the public spheres in theatrical life.

T{I\\-Qfl! a Rc-VlSioo of Cbicana/o Theater History

One obstacle women had to overcome was the negative response. ofmany to the very presence of women in reatm. The prejudice against female actors manifested itself even amongTeatro Campcsino supporters: It got wild when people started saying:'n1ose broads are nothing but.il bunch of til sak5 ... que actrizrs oi que actrizes [YOli know ... actresse.", my foot]. Only guys could be actors. For some reason we were still only women.... Somehow or other. Critics of the Tcatro, people that were dose to the company, people that were around: they wondered what kind of women we were. We were just cheap broads. Now the idea is different; but traditionally women in theatereven way back to the dark ages-were considcn.'d just whores. (S. Valdez interview, 31111983)

In many cases, dricanas also encowuered parcntal resistance to their work in theater. Olivia Chumacero tells of this situa.tion: "It's been eleven years since I left the house ... but when my parents think of dIe theater they think of loose women. In Mexico, if you are into the arts in this way eres mujer de la calle [you're a woman of the streeL] ... Women have it harder and they have to be strong" (Chumaccro/Rodriguez interview, 6/7 11980). In the course of time, motherhood also becamc an issue affecting the participation of women in El Teatro Campesino. Many critics have commented on the intimate relationship between daily life and art forTeatro Campesino members. Yet none have mentioned that if a woman's lifc included childbearing, her days as an agent in theater history were numbered. Childbearing and childrearing were considered incompatible with theatrical touring. Rather than accept elimination from the company, however, women struggled to demonstrate dlat touring with children was possible and nccessary: We wanted to have more say in certain decisions. For instance: touring and b.l.bies. How about taking babies out 011 the road? So-and~so couldn't travel bcuuse she had a ooby. Now that's ridiculous. Olivia was one of them ... the forerunners of the mothers in the company. They had their babies ... and they proved it, not only to themselves or their in-laws or their parents, but to Luis, that it could be done. They proved that women--even now-with all the pressures of motherhood could be seen performing on the stage and then breast.feeding their kid in the van the next hour. il was possible. It wasn't cur.... I usc Olivia as an example because she just trudged right through it in the best way she knew how. And it wasn't always easy for her ... [don't h~\'e any children but I do know how I want to be now that I've sem how thL')' could do it. They proved certain things for me. And that was during the hard

blwd a Re:-VJSim of CbK4nli/o Tbcala Histoly 148

times when we had to go cross-country to New York in onc van, Mid the baby diOljlCfS and alllhal.... You know, lhat was a hcll of a point that v,romen made. It afTeoed me a great de.! to see that. 'nle company had to make it possible for children to go with us. "Ow's wh.u it hOld to do. Stiyin~ home had to be a molU~ of dJoi« wd not.l m.tter of laving children. That pomt was

very important: the establishment of an acting mother. (5. v;L\dez interview, 3/1/1983)

Although acting mothers became a common lhin~ i.~ ~l Teatro Campesina. a policy of equal sharing in child-care rcspons~blhtles was nOI cs{.;I.blished. Each couple with children had to work out 1':-" own s~ratcgy for dealing with the added TeSJXlDSibiUty of child care. Pa.ru~arly In !.he ase of infanls. primary or sole responsibility usuilly rested Wlth the motl~er. As such. acting mothers found themselves with a workload disad~tage m ,the company. In the women's or men's testimony there is no mennon of difficulties in the establishment of an acting falher.

Breaking the Mold: Creating New Pathways. . '

.

Having devoted a good deal of attention to the hmltallons lmposed on women and female characters on lhc stage, 1would now like to examine the other Side of that long.smoldering contradiction. The efforts--of SOffit' women--tO break through the confmement of stereotypical female .roles had to some extent, been thwarted.Yet thei.r determination and consoousne~ remained unaltered and became a compelling force in other directions. New avenues had to be explored. From the backstage perspective of theater history, I witnessed dramatic breakthroughs, some of whic.h ~lad im,?ediatc consequences for centerstage action, while others had melr unpact m areas ofless visibility. Let us briefly follow the strivings of SocorroValdez, whose breakthroughs have been dramatically inspirational. The flt'St role that Socorro ever played in lhe COffipmy was the grandmother. 1olTer her own recollection of mat activity:

I was fiftccn years old-my fiTSl role in the company was that of an old lady about eighty years old. And I jumped on it real quick. because it wa~ character, it WlS clmaaer work. It was real big, broad aaing. That WiLS my pomt of beginning. And so when I played my flTSt character I immediately relied on my strength. And the old lady I played WiLS by no means a whining old lady. She WiLS a very powerful character ... maybe the way I'm going to be w~en I'm eighty, because I don't see myself coming from a weak place. (InteTVlcw, 3/1/1983)

'49

Although that performance is not noted by historians of Chicana/o theater, it is alive in the memory ofalltmlristGS. Olivia Chumacero recalled: "Socorro, for example, created the mother and grandmother characters in the Teatro. She was sixteen years old and she used to do the most fantastic old lady that you had ever seen. Incredible. Really incredible: d morimicllO,1o forma, d cslHo de: bahlar, las apftSiooc:s [her movements. her form, her style of talking, her expressions] everything. Il was wonderful" (interview, 1/191 I 983). In spite of the vitality of the performance process, the female roles became stagnant after they began to repeat themselves in various guises for over a decade. Socorro Valdez described how she resolved to break the mold: At lhe time then.: were no men in the group who could be nude to play pacbDal5, or old men, etc. And it was imponant to play the men's roles well, because the truth is that Luis writes for men. He always hiLS. His point of view is male and it will always be so. But it \VlS kind of strange that he had no men to play the men. So I figured "Hell. what's holding me back? Just let me put on a pair of pants and jump into it and sec." And in fact I ended up playing men beller than the men ... It wasn't that I was trying to get the role; I was trying {O cuablish the role within the group. Those characters of mcn needed to be played. But unfortunately the men in the group at the time were not able or capable or free or whatever the problem WiLS. (Interview, 3/1/1983) Assuming a male role represented a major step in the exploration of new possibilities as a performer. And that step was an outgrowth of the living, creative impulse tlm had become frustrated witllin the narrow confines of ~tcreolyped women's roles. The male roles enjoyed a major parl of the lines. fur Socorro. a male role was a new adventure in role playing: as a male she W,ll; now in an octi\"C position. In the Teatro Canlpesino repertoire, action was trpically centered around male protagonists, wim female charaders gener.all)' functioning as aUXiliary figures. The women figures were dIose alTectm b)' men; Lhey were peripheral--the ones to wboot things happened. Not that the reverse would be desirable.'Ibc oVetJX>wering centrality of one chMacter (usually male) creates limitations on dialogue, space, and action in the dl...·c!opment of other characters. In Teatro Campesino plays in which the main character (male) has becn balanced by other characters, those other charactcrs are also invariably male (such as Fin dd mundo, 1980, or LJ gmn colpa a=tlinfiC5Ca) or they are sexless characters like La Muene (Death) or El Diablo (the Devil) (such as in LJ carpa de los Rasquachis). Female chandCTS fill the spaces m between. SocorroValdez's appropriation of male roles provided an opportunity for t.(I to stretch her own self-image, 10 grow: "[The female roles] arc very Iim-

EI Tt:lItro Campcsino

iting.There is the mother type, and then there is the'mutha': the whore type, sleazy cheap. There is always the mother, the sister, the girlfriend, or the grandmother.That's very limiting. And that's one ofthe reasons I dove so deep into aborting the fact that I was female and only female. I needed exploration in my work" (interview, 3/1/1983). The exploration and im.a.gination involved in the creation of new characters in ElTeatro Campesino were considerable.To playa role or chMaeter did not mean to follow a script or another person's directions. It meant literally to molt a character by improvising it to life, bringing it to life vinually from scratch. That included the creation of the dialogue and the movement through the improvisational process. Playing each role cntailed a degree of creative resjX>nsibiJity for performers very unlike that ofdramatic traditions within print culrure, whose fixation rests 'vith written scripts. To perfonn a play was to prole a play. Even the classic octos, whicll have been adopted by Chicana/o theater groups throughout the United States and by groups in Latin America, were never rehearsed by El Teatro Campesino using a script. Contrary to popular belief-and contrary to the spirit and practice ofthe oral pcrfonnance tradition----the published collection of aetas docs not represent a "definitive" collection of texts.The concept of"definitive" is not iLt all iLpplicable within the oral performance tradition, in which plays change markedly with every performance-based on the improvisational fam:y of the performers and their relationship with that evening's audience. Olivia Chumaccro described the process: "When thc aetas book was done, no scripts existed. FClix Alvarez went MOund with a tape recorder asking people what their lines were so that he could write it down and put the aclO rook together ... even though those lines changed. a lot as we went along, depending on who was doing the charactcr and depending on the situation. The parts would change a lot" (interview. 1/19/1983). Teatro Campesino plays were clearly collaborative exercises that changed with each performance and with each rehearsal. Much of theater criticism and thea.ter history divorces these pieces from me human beings who created them. Yet the texts uttered did not exist separately from those people. They did not exist as a fIxed tcxt in "dramatic literaturc" fashion. The text alone is not cven half the story. For much of Chicana/o theater it holds true that academiC textual analysis cannot unfold or reveal the artistry involved. Socorro Valdez described ber view ofbrmging expression to a "crude image:' that is, a role: "The roles are like an old rock, but crack that baby open and you have intricate, intricate layers of evolution. lOOt is what has been my goal: to take these very crude images that were there, that have their own form of artistry, and break them open so that the inside is express<.>d. It makes

b\llrd a Rt-V.lsioo of ChiCllnll/o 'Tbenkr History

.51

~e. work harder, it .makes me push more to get inside of a choIo or to get lIlSlde .o.f that cumptsJno who seems so obvious" (interview, 3/1/1983). Wnung aTeatro Campcsino history from the perspective of women and discarding historica.l accounts mat subsume the work of a group of people under the name ofone man or a male "genius" has implications that extend beyond questions of gender. Subsuming the work of a group of peoplc under the n~e of one man implies individual authorship, .. hallmark of print cultuft. A hlSlory of El Teatro Campesino through the eyes and voices of women clearly demonstrates that the work of EI Teatro Campesino fits squarely within om! culture, or the oral performance tradition, which is radially different from the print culture model of theatrical production. In the centuries-Qld oral performance tradition, plays emerge from the collective improvisation process. Per[onnances are stored in the human memory and not in scripts. l1tis is an entirely different tradition than that of print culture, where a script is create
lS2

kllI"lIfd 1I Rt-V"lSioo ol ChiCllllll/o1ba:Jlet Hisl:Ol)'

endary talents 0lS Ol performer but also her yeMrnng to explore vuious roles. Yet the stereotyped casting within the company elimin..ted her, and other women who looked like her. from various female leads. There was sadness in bee voice when she indicated that she was never illowed to pb.y Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaVirymde~:

the.iter expertise. and most of these paths lead back to the Chicana/o community. Yolanda Parra left El Tcatro Campesino and is doing theater work \\;th children: "I believe that an artist who does not. feed bock to the community he or she comes from, is nowhere. It's very easy to say: 'I'm my own little artist; I'm my own little island' ... I don't think that's the way it should be. bcry artist has a responsibility to the community, to put back some of th,u energy. The commwtity gave me what I am ... and I feel that there is no greater joy than to be able to feed back" (interview, 12/21/1982). Olivia Chumacero has also developed alternative pathways for applying her acting and directing expertise. She performed with the Teatro regularly until 1980, while also pioneering in theater work with children of Chiana/o migrant workers. She continues to do that work today, in addition to conducting drama workshops in centers for battered women and for youth in drug prevention centers. She has also taught drama courses at the Universil)" of California at Santa Cruz and UC-Santa Barbara. In 1990 she finished her training in filinmaking at UC-Santa Cruz and has made docwnentary films. Olivia's work can serve as a model for the application of theater skills In \\';lyS that directly benefit disenfranchised sectors of society. llke most of the fonnerTcatroCampcsino members. Olivia is strongly committed to doing mC;ller work that gi~ to the community from which it has drawn. In a \lmilu vein, Diane Rodriguez now works primarily with the sociocriticaI comedy group Latins Anonymous. The paths taken by Socorro Valdez, Olivia Chumacero, and Diane Rodriguez provide us with but a few exmtples of the new roles that women h"xe .usumed and created. in an elTon to break the mold of distorted and frligmented images ofChicanas. But at different times and in different ways nnually ill the women have consciously engaged. in the effort to create newsp.lccs and models in which they and other women-and men---<:an move. '-1m)' hlive managed to transform old frustrations into new options. These oL'"C women who are keenly aware of tllC poSSibilities within themselves-as performers and as human beings. The history of El Teatro Campcsino must tr.clude thc history of its contradictions and of the emergence of women who hase cbarted new territory for subsequent generations.

I never even got close (0 it. They wouldn't let me ... I could never lu,ve the role ... because Luis doesn't see me llut w;ty. They see the Virgen de GU.il.dalupe o1.S a very soft, demure. peaceful, sUmly, ingenue type. The re~ly incredible part was when it turned QUi that I have too many tet:th. I was [Old "You gOt tOO many teeth. The Virgen dido'( have that mmy teeth." It appears the Virgen de Guadalupe had no t~th. I thought to myselr: "nlat is the stupidest thing I ever heard of!" Apoco estaba moJacholoViljpl de GuadaJulX'? [Are you going to tell me that our Lady of Guadalupe WolS toothless?] (Interview 3/1/1983)

The truth. however, was that Socorro did not meet dIe standards of beauty that had been set for the dark-skinned deity, La Virgen Morena: Socorro has strong indigmo. features and dark brown skin. This also partially explains how she and otherTeatro Campesino womell ended up creating numerous roles that camouflaged their natural appearanct In addition to the male roles, they created numerous sexless characters.. Socorro's portrayal of La Muene-in ~ (skeleton) costume-beame~ classic. She conunented: "In all these yeaI5 I was always under heavy makeup or under heavy costume, you know. And one role that I pretty much made my handle was the co!t:lYero because it was sexless; it was of neither sex" (interview, 3/1/1983). The sexless roles became numerous, and they were pursued as a creative outlet by 'NOmen seeking to escape the confinement of female roles. Olivia Chumacero created the Diabla (Devil) during the roaidcls dramatizations of the 1970s and also the Angel role and San Miguel in l.s f\!storda; Yolanda Parra's performance as San Miguel in La Postortla (1981) is remembered by many as one of the frnest renditions of that character. Socorro Valdez first created the mogo (magician) role in the Pastorelo. Several women also played male roles, but nOl as consistently as Socorro. In the course of seeking new channels for creativity, Olivia Cbumaccro and SocorroValdez also began directing. Socorro directed many productions oflAVlrgen deTqq<Jc.Teatro Campcsino women, initially still heavily influenced by the prevailing ideology of gender oppression, performed and crealed socially approved images and stereotypes ofwomen, images oom ofthe male imagination. Yet as these women left their tcens and twenties, their emancipatory demands engendered the creation of new characters. Today former tmnistdS are stiU clearing new pathways for sharing their

IS3

An Epilogue: Chicanas Onstage in the I980s

The long history ofEiTeatroCampesino's collective work had ceased entirely b'i 1980. When Luis Valdez went to Hollywood. and then to Broadway, the membcrsoflhe ensemble for the most part wenl tlleirseparate ways. ElTeatro (.l.lnpcsino still exists on paper. as a largely dormant production company whose name is altached to an occasional production in the hope ofimbu~

IS4

EI Tcotro Campesino

ing it with the aura of the distinguished. but defunct ensemble.Yet the name ElTeuro Campesino no longer stands for an acting ensemble that is strongly committed to specific cultur~ and social ideals; Luis Valdez M long since left the arena of alternative theater and is committed to rnainstreaming---a process he sometimes likens (0 a narcotic injection: "1 see it as mainlining into the veins ofAmerica" (Martin 1983). I would like to focus altention on LuisValdez's flUjor stage creation of the 19805, a production entitled Corridos. The show enjoyed considerable box office success bolh in San Jum Bautista (1982) and at the Marines' Memorial Theater of San Frandsco (1983). It also traveled to the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and lheVariery ArtsTheater in Los AngeJes in 1984. Corridos harvested the critical acclaim of the establishment press and received virtually all Bay Area theater awards for the 1983 season. In 1987 Corridos premiered as a PBS television spedal fUm. As will be shown in chapter 4, tlle stage production of Corridos and the subsequent filming of that production can serve as model cases for hypotheses concerning Chicana/o mainslream entertainment products. Since his departure from alternative theater, Luis Valdez has described his artistic goa.! in terms of creating cu1tur..I products with mass appeal. as opposed to playing primarily for Chicana/o audiences.The redefmed audience relationship h.1s of course necessarily brought on a considerable change in what could be termed artistic orientation. Corridos is very wilike anything ever produced by the Teatro Campesino ensemble. A careful examination of the Corridos production reveals that the shift in ..udience iillimce---a shift away from Chicana/o community audiences and toward Euro-Americ.ms and middle-class Americans-had inimediate effects on the type of wort produced. Here I wish to explore only the representation of women in the mainstream stage production Corridos. A brief examination ofCorridos corresponds with the trajectory of the present inquiry: the stated. goal of Corridos is "to explore the relationship berween men and women" (narrator). Let us examine the results of this exploralion especially as they pertain to women. I also want to look at how the corrido itself is represented. As will be shown, the Valdezian construction of woman and of the corrido tradition are closely related. The corridos (traditional narrative ballads) chosen for the stage performance were "Rosita Alvirez," "Cornelio Vega," "Delgadina," and a Luis Valdez weaving of "La. Riclera/l.a Valentina/l.aAdclita" entitled "Soldadera:'What then, is the nature of the relationship between men and women? One prominent feature common to these corridos is the murder of a woman. One exception

Olivia Chumocao in 1979. Courtesy

01 &gd~ """ c.ll«tioo.

is "Cornelio Vega," where a man is murdered "por amar a Wla mujer [for 100ing a woman]."Valdez himself indicates in an interview (Martin 1983): wHoIY un tema central que tieue que ver con la violenda en contra de las mujeres que desgradadamcnte es rea.!, hasta hoy en dia. Es parte de nuestra historia como es parte de nuestro prescnte" (There is a central theme havlllg to do with violence against women that unfortWlatcly is real, to this very dlr· It is pan of our history as it is part of our present). The theme of vio-!cnce against women, however, is in no Wily treated as an issue or a problem. To the contrary: it is used as a comic element or simply as • dramatic clllnax. And through the very choice of corridos. violence against women is .migned a prominent and almost exclusive role in "the relationship between Mexican men and women" (nurator).In fad. relationships berween males .uK! females seem to exhaust themselves in violence. In the San Francisco production, the corrido of "Dona Elena y EI Frances" (Dona Elena and the Frenchman) was added; Doiia Elena is ofcourse shot by her husband. In an droft to establish a kind of equality between tlle sexes, a corrido in which a woman murders her husband was also added: "E1 corrido de Conchita la '·iuda alegrc" (The Ballad of Conchita, the Happy Widow). The heavy focus on $hooting and blood projects tlle image of Mexicans as a bloodthirsty, l'tngcful crowd, a people quite busy killing each other. In spite of the abun~ d.i.nee or existing corridos in which no one is murdered., only corridos with vioknec between men and women are dramatized. The desire to explOit the c.lmalic tensions ofviolence clearly takes precedence over the desire to pro'l~C a balanced pomayal of people and of their ballad tradition.

bun! , Re- VISioo of Cbic:am/a l'balla History

Left 10 right: Diaf'lC' Rodriglll2. Ohio Chumoctro, and Rw:I Maria Escalanu. ill Don Juan Tenorio (1982). Coultesy of Olivia ChumocaoArchil't'. The exce$ivc violence in the vision ofrelationships between men and w0men is not startling. given Luis Valdez's mylhical imd violent vision of w~ he terms "basic human experience." Within that vision, historical process 15 put in tenns of the sexual imagery of rape. And. by impJicatio~, sexual expe~ riCllcc is likened to the hisLOrical process of raw conquest. In his own words. We who are of the Third World and are victims of colonization have been subjected with the rest of the world to the phenomenon of Europe for the last five hundred years. These people leff that section of the world and they went out wd conquered other v~t sections of the world. Now conquest md that wuriorlike su.no:: is not peculiar to this period of history, it has bttn .ill throughout the history of the humm race and ilia in the Ameria5: Perhaps what is upsetting us is that we Me still in this period. thaI we Me suU stuck. The modem Genghis Khan is still with us and he came from Europe in ill of his forI115. He came in a r-nicululy masculine form. In the case of the Spanish he came in iron armor. The male erection made flesh. if you will. "ChinlJ'lle.Cabran!" [Fuck you, you bastard]. rfl may refer to the basic mythic.aJ experience of the male in the sex act-that is what it takes. In order to do your stuff as a moU1, you have to have armor and a spear and you have to . penetrate and the more you penetrate the better it is. Di~ q~ ~ [Tell me thatS not true]. On the other hand. there is the other part which IS lust as natunl which is the female experience which is "\b]It,Cabroo" [Fud: me, you bastard]. Those tWO fit together. I ;1m nol trying to embarnss you. 1mJ talking basic hum.m experience. (Calibs 1982;43)

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Related to the presence of violencc is the Corridos production narrator's Slatement that the corridos portray types such as la coquetQ (the coquette) or d \uliolle (the bravc-but-foolhardy).l1lc type that cmerges in the cour~e ofstag· ing a corrido, however. is very much a result of dramaturgic interpretation . .-\uaching one label to a corrido figure involves a choice by which one cha.racleristic, among many possible ones, is Singled out. Il is the essence of stereotyping. One example of this procedure can be seen in the decision to chMaeterize the figure of Rosita Alvirez. as a coquette. Instead of focusing on lhe hijo desobedimlt (i.e., the mother/daughter relationship), she is poruityed .IS it sexually loose and reckless woman. Highlighted action includes, for example. Rosita seductively lifting her dress in front of a mirror and flashIng her legs. At the dance, Rosita is staged as lcwdly flirtatious and then scelm 10 "get what she deserves." In other words. her provocative behavior seem· mgt}' justifics HipOlilO'S violence against her. Rosita could also have been typed as the hijQ dtsobtdimte. the disobedient daughter. however, to highlight the mother/daughter relationship. Yet that relationship, and the traditional ~te:x.ican value ofa mother's advice, is sabotaged from the outset by the willful decision (0 portray the mother as a stumbling drunkard. The dramatization of "Tierra sin nombre" distons the corrido text by projeCting a male fantasy of female submissiveness. Its plot consists of a love U"imgle: a woman loves two men and finally chooses one over the other. At me wedding she is murdered by the man she did not ChOOSe.nIC dramatized omido distorts the text in various ways. For example, the successful suitor is portrayed as a rich, "handsome" Spanish-type gentleman whereas the reit«cd man is cast asa barefooted indio+campesino (lndian-fannworker) type. it is through a dramaturgiC sleight of hand t1lat the female character is subl1y nuneuvcred out oflegitimately choosing between two men based on ernocon~ considerations. She bases her decision on money (class) and looks (r.lce); she chooses the rich, tall, "handsome" man, who symbolically throws .l.:ound a bag of coins. But is it really her decision? Cast in the ingenuc mold, ;.'1t' female charaetercannot resist the advances ofthe good-looking rich man. He acti\'c1y pursues her and she passively submits, her eyes lowered in shyl"~~. We arc left with the stereotype of the passive yet opportunistic Mexican 'o\oman. None of that is in the original corrido tcxLAs a comment on the na~..!.!e of relationships between men and women, and as a comment about ·...omen. the stage portrayal projects a male fantasy offemale submissiveness. Throughout the show the narrator emphasizes the point thou "corridos are f:".J.cho in viewpoint." Commentary such as that would appear (0 indicate t.~: the images of men and women \ve see befort': us simply represent a ret~ude Mexican tradition. That is also what the script indicates to us when

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we are told that "the corridas are reproduced with loyalty to the corrido tradition." Such statements seek to equAte what conidas are with what is in reality

one interpreu.tion of them. A sharp distinction between the 1\"/0 must be drawn, however. Otherwise:. not only a number of female and ma.lt couido characters are stereotyped but also the entire corrido tradition.The images of women for sale. women as passive viaims, ~~en as d.runk~ mothers are not acreation of!.he oorrido tradition but a proJectlon ofthe CorJidao; production.

Valdez's emphasis on so-called machismo could easily have ?,ceIl bal.mc~ by the inclusion of other neglected non+sexist oorridos. such as Juana Gallo, "Agripina." "FJ carriclo de las comadrcs," or "Maria YJulian:' all of which provide multifaceted, narrative ballad portrayals of women. "1ll.ana. GaUo.~ graphically describes the heroic actions of a young fCI:nale warnor,ln van· ous battles of the Mexican Revolution. Agripina-herome of the romdo bear· ing that title-also engages in batlie. . . . .'

The longest single performance segment wlthm lile Comdos productIOn ~ entitled "Soldadera," a pastiche of three famous rorridos about women. It IS ofspecial interest because Luis Valdez conceived it as a corrective to his own interpretation of the rorrido tradition as "macho:" In 5eU'Ch of some justice 10 the lfue role of women in Mexian history, m:

now go to the period most afici
"'\\IN a ill-VISion of ChiCWlll!o Thatttf Hislo'}'

1S9

And she did, in truth, have Corridos audiences going. Her stage presence and commitment to the work at hand were unique within lhe cast. Yet, the suength ofher performance was diminished by the script's vision of women. \Vh.t is Valdez's vision of the \\-'Omen of the Mexican Revolution? One of me striking features within "Solda:dera" is that it is not female characters such .i~ La Adelita, La Valentina, and La Rielera. who address women's role in historrThc production does not draw from even om: female testimonial source conccrning lhe Mexican Revolution of 19 t O. Nor were rnslorians ofwomen consulted. The result is a highly superficial and distoned portrayal of \\umcn's participation in the Revolution, and from a white male pcrspecuRThe '\ruc role of women in Mexican hislory" is-ironically-narratcd 1.Iuough the agency of a white male character. The character of John Reed (iuthor of Insurgent Mexico) does most of the talking in the piece entitled ·Soldadcra." Mexican women are thus positioned in such a way that a white l!'.1le speaks of their experience for Ulcm. What could be more contndic:01")' .nd counterproductive than to foreground and privilege a white male 1ubjecl even as you propose to do "justice to the role of women in Mexican ~_alor)'''? John Reed, the only Anglo in the production, also functions as a white 54vior: he is the only male in the production who does not engage in 'lolence against women. He is a heroic Anglo man who speaks gently .md protCClS Elizabet. (Socorro Valdez) from her brutal Mexic.J.n companion. Reed's manner stands in strong contr4St to that of the three soIdoderos (the "mdier ,,'Omen of the Mexic.J.n Revolution) and the Mexican men.1be verexchanges bctv.'een these men.md women are almost exclusively aggres· \:\'C or .ibusive. Men and women faU into the c.J.tcgorics of conqueror or <'OOquered. Some effort is made within "Soldadcra" to demonstrate diverUl}' in women-bul that diversity is external: La Valentina is the hip-swayl.-:g. hard-nosed companion to the colonel. In the San Juan Bautista ~oduction she also displays a strong inclination toward attire highly un~lcd to the rigors ofthc Mexican Revolution: spiked-heel boots and skin· ~iht pants. La AdclitO\\'ll in their true roles as thinking historical agents but only as helpmates aamen.

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John Reed. for ill his talking. provides no insight into the social forces within the Revolution. He has been edited in such a way that he portrays battles without causes. All discussion of social forces. of the colonial bond-

age iliat Mexicans sought to overthrow, has been eliminated from his narration. The Mexican Revolution, and history in general. are reduced to a backdrop, a foil for song numbers and ccntcrstage chatter. La Rielera (the

railroad woman) engages in only two activities: sleeping with her man,Juan, and making tortillas. The VaJdezian portrayal of soldodaw: constitutes a distorted simplification of the historical role of lhese women. for although some women did cook for men on the revolutionary campaigns. many women also fought in battle;

and many joined the revolutionary forces on their own. By positioning women wilhin the shadow of John Reed. Valdez most clearly articulatcs his conscious or unconscious view of them as insign.ificant. Il is fair to conclude that Luis Valdez's "search ofsome justice to the (tue role of women in Mexican history" was conducted less than halfheartedly, for it produced highly questionable findings. The professed search amounted to little more than ~ rhetorical device aimed at paying lip service to women's presence in histOry. Notwithstanding the vast critical acclaim that greeted the piece, with it the stage portrayal of Mexican women reached a new low. The deplorable representation of Mexican and Chicana women is ~ chronic weakness and signature of Luis Valdez's mainstream productions, such as Zoot Suif, Corridos.or the film La Bomba (1987).lnZoot Suit, which earned widespread recognition as a landmark play and movie in the 1980s, we again encounter the stereotypical dom.inant mother, the whorelike Bertha. the vir· ginal Del.La., and a white savior, here Alice Bloomfield. Most lamentable. thr true historical role of Chicana Jose1lna Fierro in organizing the Sleepy u· goon Defense Committee in 19+2 in behalf of the zoot SUilCCS was com· pletely erased. Valdez supplants her in the play and fihn by a white fcm~ character. Chicanafo community leader Bert Corona sharply criticizes Luis Valdez's distortion of the facts; In 19'~2, Joscfina Fierro, as national secretary of the Congreso Nadonal de 101 Pueblos de Habla Espaiiola, carried out (wo very significant actions. One W.tS the formation of the Sleepy ugoon Defense Committee (contrary to the distorted version in Luis Valdez's play ZOO! SUit) which conducted the public defense of Ihe twenty-two Mexicans who were tried for the death of one. }osefuu traveled ;&]1 over the nation, assisted by LuiQ Moreno, (Q develop tht broad nation;&] campaign agililst the ncisl rod divis.ive indictments.ad yellow journ;&]istic press descriptions of the Heust Press. ... It is lO be

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deplored that Luis ViJdez could fwd insuffident duma in the true faets about the Defense of the ~Ieep~ L.tgoon rod Zoot Suit victims, that he had to rely upon Hollywood gmllmd:s of a fictitious melodrama between two person [Alice Bloomfield and Henry Reyna] that never took place in order to tell ~iS story. (1983:16)

Tr~tll and subst.mce have taken a backseat to melcxirama in Corridos as well. In SpIte of tlle production's undeniable entertainment qualities--the visual effects, .ll~e dancing. musical direction and performmce. tbe fast pace--it is emertammg with?ut being thought-provoking. What is worse, Corridos afflfITls Hollywood .Im~gcs of men in sombreros and on horseback engaged, for the ~~ part. m Vlolence. and colorful senoritas defined in tenm ofmen. The. traditIon of such images and their marketability in the entertainment busmess has been described. by Luis Valdez; Now dl~ was a time when this country reveled in u.rino imagesco~mero;illy-mdlhilt was in the 1940s of course.. f>MOlllei with the Zoot Suit era.... The U.S.... tUfllcd its attention to l..a.tin America and said, "How can we s~ll ~ore movies in l..a.tin America.?" And obviously they ~id "Let's put more Latlll I.mages on films, but let's make them 'safe' images," So what we e:~ded up With was Carmen Miranda. What we cnded up with was the l..a.tin NIght Club and Rhumbaing down to Rio or what have you ... Desi Arnu came out of that era, you know. But nothing came from the Mexican Rt.'\"Olution ... itt leasl not dUring World War n. (CaMas 1982:46-47) With ~dm, the Mexican Revolution has now entered the ranks of safe (1.1:.: cancaturc), COm~llerci.al "Latino" images such as those projected by Desl Arnaz, Carmen Miranda, and various others. The media may well revel l.'\ 1~~SC wclI~\\urn images, now marketed byValdez as "New American The.etr.. Some may thrill at the visibility the show provides for so-ca.Iled HispuliCS. Oth~rs may take pride in seeing Mexican Americans perform in what tS known III show business circles as legitimate theater. But EI Teatro Cunpcsino in the 1960s set the standard to demand more tllan that ~he higltl~ ~isib~e p.rofessional Olicana/o productions ofrecent y~ars ofk: hltl: that IS msp~atlOnal or alternative. With regard to the representation ~ ~fcxlcan an~ ChIcana women, productions such as Zool Suit, Corridas, or La !:r.-~~ ~re nothmg short of devastating. It would appear that the abse.nce ofa CoUt'CII~'C work. context has left luis Valdez wholly unrestrained in giving aprcsslon to his fragmented vision of women. The division of labor inher«! III professional theater and commercial fllm, with its hierarchy of per_ ttJC~e1 and constant turnover of hired aaors, does not foster discussion or

- _... '<

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the developmem ofa critical consciousness, let alone disagreement or a challenge to established models.The production team recruits from a generation of actors for whom the portrayal of Mexicans on stage is not an issue. In my conversations with the cast members of Corridos it became apparent that the images of women (and men) the production projected were not a matter of particular concern. In the absence of a group of female actors who have learned to question and reject shallow roles, the emergence of a broader vision of women within the new Luis Valdez productions seems unlikely. EI Tearro Campesino is now the name of a small administrative apparatus that puts on an occasional play in which lhe spirit of group commitme.nt and the performance energy characteristic ofTeatro Campesino ensemble is altogether missing. The tight-knit acting ensemble has been displaced by actors who do lheir jobs and then return to Los Angeles in search of the next gig. The model for lhe new organization comes from business administr.ttion. Theatrical production is streamlined: actors Jct, the director directs, administrators administe.r. In the arena of glittering lights, the struggle to establish new women's roles has dissipated.Yet far from the limelight we can perceive the efforts ofChicanas who continue to explore and create dramatic alternatives for women.The dream to represent the vast spectrum of Crucaru womanhood on the stage will in time find creative expression. After tbt Corridos production Socorro Valdez described her dream of representing tht vast spectrum of Chicana womanhood on the stage:

The activities ofseveral of the 'WOmen from E1Tea.tro Campesino-Olivia Chumacero, Socorro Valdez, Diane Rodriguez. Yolanda. Parra-and the work ofSilvia Wood in Tucson, Arizona; Nita. LWla from ElTeatroAguacero in New Mexico: the women and men ofEiTcatro de la Esperanza; Ruby Nelda Perez's or Maria Elena Gaitan's one-woman shows; the plays by Estela Portillo Tr.ambley, Denise Chavez, Cherrie Moraga, and more recently by Josefma lOpez. Edit Villareal, and Evelina Fcm.indez, all mark the entry into a new <)'cle of theatrical activity for Chicanas. 1 We are not without inspirational models, nor without the example of women who question and who strive to reclaim a fully human female identity on stage. We would do well to ac~ lnowledge that activity in the writing oftheater history. A quantitatively dif~ ferent historical account emerges when we attempt to recover the silenced history a.nd rcoonccptua.lize the established historical record. when we aspire to discover marginalized voices and perspectives.The history of Y/Omcn 's pa.ttictpation in theater history is of far-reaching significance in and of itscl( let it is but one of the possible correctives to the monolithiC great~mal1 \i.s.ion of human activity, which has obscured. many aspects of history.

162

l'lltcll you what my dream is--one or my dreams. And , k.now ,'11 get 10 it beca.use it's a. driving thing in me ... My dream is to be ~ble to do a thea.ter piett on the phases or womanhood.·lt's soilletlling that h.....~ not been done yet. All the times that I've seen women's progra.ms or women in this or women in that, it somehow has never been quite !iatisfactory ror me, you know. No one can take womanhood a.nd put it into one thing. But tholl is precisely wh.1t I want to do. I wanl to put wommhood into every rorm tlut I can'express: in singing, in crying, in lolughing, everything. TIuI role is nOl ytt there. That role Ius not bc..'Cn written. MolYbc It ius been written in ol Shakespearean WiY. But I don't relate to those European imolges of women.... Women arc obviollsly in a type of great void. Th,:y arc balanced, but in terms orthe way the world looks a.t us they've put us in this position where we've iccepted the oondition or doing one role inslea.d of nu.ny. If there wcn= ~ Wily or Wing that and putting it into words thit are theatrical. I would like to do thaLI don't believe i min is going to write tholl.1 don't believe tha.t for one Single minute. And I sure ca.n't sit around ind wolit ror Luis to write that role. (Interview, 3/ I / 1983)