The shrunken head of Pancho villa.

Founded in 1965 by Luis Valdez, El Teatro Campesino was initially the cultural wing of the United Farm Workers union in California's central valley. With a pointed political mission, ETC performed their actos in the fields, agitprop improvisations communicated eloquently with the workers, who could neither read nor write, but recognized themselves and their values in the actos. By 1970 ETC had gained an international reputation, with major contributions to Chicano culture in the U.S. and to the development and expansion of the boundaries of theater everywhere. Theirs is a popular theater rooted in the American streets, early California history, Mayan/Aztec mythology and Mexican folklore and spiritualism, all geared toward expression of social, political and cultural perceptions. The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa (1964) is the first full-length play written by Luis Valdez. A raucous absurdist comedy about Mexican-Americans on the verge of the Chicano Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the play sends up racist stereotypes still deeply entrenched in the 1950s, including the wino father, long suffering mother, the juvenile delinquent son, the pregnant/unwed daughter, the indigent older brother, the shell-shocked son home from the war, and the whole family on welfare. To complete his assault on prejudicial images, Valdez throws in ubiquitous head lice and giant cucarachas (cockroaches). But the capper is the character of the totally dependent oldest son, Belarmino (Belo), whose physical handicap is extreme: he has no body. Belo is a bodiless head, who cannot even talk, except to sing La Cucaracha, with a vengeance. Crawling with lice, drooling and grunting, Belos gargantuan appetite keeps his family broke, until brother Mingo comes home from the army determined to change things. Thats when the head begins to talk. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics