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Luis Miguel Valdez was born on
June 26, 1940 in Delano, California to two immigrant farm workers Armeda and Francisco Valdez. Luis was the 2nd of 10 siblings. -
Global conflict between the Allied and Axis powers. Rising racial discrimination in the United States despite fighting against Nazi Germany's white supremacy ideals.
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Servicemen and white Angelenos attacked young Chicano men, women, and children. Stripping them of the zoot suits they were wearing. The clothing was considered unpatriotic at the time of World War II for its extensive use of thick fabric. -
Valdez's fascination with theatre began as early as first grade. Throughout elementary school, he directed plays and would hold puppetry shows in his garage. He joined his speech and drama department at James Lick High School and participated in multiple plays in his time there.
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Luiz Valdez attends San Jose State University on a scholarship for math and physics. During his second year, he decides to switch majors and begins studying English.
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While in college, Valdez wins a play-write contest with his one act show "The Theft". Telling the story of a desperate father stealing to provide for his family. -
Cesar Chavez, Delores Huerta, and Gilbert Padilla co-found The National Farm Workers Association. A labor union created to advocate for better treatment of farm workers in the United States. Cesar Chavez becomes the face of the movement, believing and participating in non-violent protests to push for better working conditions on farms. The organization still lives on despite his death in 1993. Focusing on maintaining the rights for farm laborers and providing aid for any mistreated workers. -
Two years after writing "The Theft", Luis writes his first full length play "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa". A story symbolizing the struggles and the importance of accepting culture. It was produced and debuted at his college that same year. -
Luis joins the San Francisco Mime Troupe for a couple of months before leaving the next year to begin working with Cesar Chavez. While attending, he was introduced to many theatre forms including agitprop and guerrilla theatre.
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Working towards Chavez's mission to unionize farm workers. Luis gathers farm workers and students to form El Teatro Campesino, a farm workers theatre troupe. The group organized plays to educate not only farm workers, but the public on the struggles workers had to endure and the benefits of unionizing. Despite his departure in 1967, the groups impact lived on, being a large inspiration behind the boom in Chicano theatre in the 1970s -
A civil rights and empowerment movement, created as a result of Cesar Chaves' and Dolores Huertas advocacy, aiming to end structural racism and empower the ability to embrace cultural pride.
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Luis establishes a Chicano Cultural Center in Del Ray, California. Dedicated to preserving the wide variety of culture found in the Chicano people. -
Luis writes "I Am Joaquin" as a project for El Teatro Campesino. Based on the poem of the same name by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles. -
After its establishment in 1967, Luis' cultural center moved locations and formed the National Chicano theatre organization. First to Fresno, California, then to its final location in San Juan Bautista, California.
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After moving to its final location, the National Chicano Theatre Organization and Luis' Chicano cultural center combined to form El Centro Campesino Cultural, A fully professional production company. -
Valdez publishes the poem" Pensamiento Serpentino" (you are the other me) touching on the Mayan and Aztec belief that, "Indigenous ways of knowing were essential to the spiritual and material liberation of Chicana/os." -
Luis debuts his first widely known project "Zoot Suit" heavily based on the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trials and Zoot Suit Riots. It tells a story of young Chicano men being accused of and wrongfully charged with the murder of another young man. -
What has been described as Valdez's "Breakthrough into mainstream America". He wrote and directed the biography "La Bamba" the story of Richie Valens, a popular Chicano rock and roll musician. The film became a box office success making approximately $54.2 million with a budget of roughly $5.6 million. -
Formed by Valdez and members of the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences and Nosotros. The Latino Writers Group was created to provide better and more opportunities and pay for Latino writers in Hollywood.
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Written by Michael Kane, "The Cisco Kid" was an adaptation of the heroic Mexican caballero of the same name. Valdez directed the film and also played a small role as Presidente Benito Juárez. -
Luis' most recent play. "Adios Mama Carlota" is based on historical people and events all important to the French Occupation of Mexico from 1862 to 1867.