La carpa de los Rasquachis.
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. La Carpa de los Rasquachis was originally produced in 1974, and underwent several revisions until 1976, when it was locked into the definitive version seen in this revival performed by a new generation of ETC actors more than twenty years after its premiere. The carpa (itinerant tent show) presents the epic life story of the farmworker in America. Told through the struggles, frustrations and ultimate victory of a single Chicano, the Rasquachi saga (working-class, underdog) comes alive in corridos (Mexica ballads) that tell of lifes tragedies with an ironic, rollicking earthy good humor. The story follows Jesus Pelado Rasquachi, leaving his own mother and brother in Mexico as he heads for the United States, in hopes of getting rich as a bracero. Misfortune and fate, however, stalks his every footstep, in the guise of El Diablo and La Calavera. Tricked and betrayed at every turn, Jesus Pelado becomes a pathetic comic figure in the hands of the growers, contractors, bar owners, and social workers, and ultimately, the undertaker. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics