Performing (R)evolution: The Story of El Teatro Campesino

Abstract

This paper examines El Teatro Campesino, a Chicano theatre company that started in California in 1965 as the theatrical arm of the United Farm Workers' Union, using El Teatro Campesino as a starting point to engage with questions about the efficacy and shifting resonance of Mexican American and Chicano cultural resistance in the United States. Examining Teatro Campesino's shift in focus, from overtly critiquing capitalism and farm worker injustice to attempting to make Chicanos "visible" in mainstream plays and films, this paper probes into questions about the corporate hegemony in the U.S., about the interconnectedness of economic and racial subjugation, and about the relationship between Chicano resistance narratives and progress-oriented narratives of capitalist America.