Biography

Luis Valdez

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Acknowledged as the founder of modern Chicano theatre and film, Luis Valdez was born to migrant farm workers Francisco and Armida Valdez and spent his early life traveling with the family, working in the fields himself. He eventually found himself at San Jose State College, where his play "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa" was staged in 1964. He later joined the United Farm Workers and staged improvisational theatre with the help of union actors to further their causes. This work lead to the formation of his El Teatro Campesino, which produced most of Valdez' early plays in both the US and Europe. His account of racism in 1940s Los Angeles, Zoot Suit (1981), was released in 1982 to less than critical acclaim. Valdez continued to write and direct throughout the period; his film La Bamba (1987), the tragic story of Chicano singer Ritchie Valens, proved wildly successful and launched the screen careers of Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales. He continues to travel extensively while remaining true to his Chicano theatrical roots.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tony Adam <anthony-adam@tamu.edu>

Attended and graduated from James Lick High School in San Jose, California.
Founding director/professor of the Institute for Teledramatic Arts and Technology (TAT) at California State University of Monterey Bay, created in 1995. The major interlinks theater, video, film, radio and new media as different forms of theatrical expression.
He was awarded the 2016 National Medal of the Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C. for his services to theatre and music.
Attended San Jose State University (SJSU) on a scholarship for mathematics and physics.
He directed three films which have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": I Am Joaquin (1969), Zoot Suit (1981) and La Bamba (1987).

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