Since 1985, the memory of Ernesto Galarza has been honored with an annual commemorative lecture given by a scholar or activist whose work exemplifies the interests and issues that were the focus of Dr. Galarza’s life work. Some of these lectures are available on video in our CCSRE Reading Room Library or as a publication that can be printed from this site.
Ernesto Galarza
1905-1984
Born in Jalcocotán, Nayarit, Mexico, on August 15, 1905, Dr. Ernesto Galarza came to the United States when he was 8 years old. One of Stanford’s first Chicano alumni, Galarza received a Master’s degree in Latin American History and Political Science in 1929. After graduation he married Mae Taylor and eventually went on to complete a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 1944.
An intellectual, civil rights and labor activist and scholar, he was a pioneer during the decades when Mexican Americans had few public advocates. As a youth, Dr. Galarza worked as a farm laborer in Sacramento and he dedicated his life to the struggle for justice for farm workers and the urban working-class Latinos, and to changing existing educational philosophy and curricula in the schools. During the 1950’s, Dr. Galarza helped build the first multiracial farm worker union, which set the foundation for the emergence of the United Farm Workers Union. His civil rights legacy also includes the founding of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).
In 1976, Dr. Galarza was the first U.S. Latino to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. His works include: Strangers in our Fields (1956), Merchants of Labor (1964), Spiders in the House and Workers in the Fields (1970), Barrio Boy (1971), Farm Workers and Agribusiness in California (1977), and Tragedy at Chualar (1977). Galarza’s papers and archives are housed in the Department of Special Collections at Stanford.
The Eighteenth Annual Ernesto Galarza Commemorative Lecture
May 9th, 2003 at Stanford University
Luis Valdez
Founder & Artistic Director,
El Teatro Campesino
Luis Valdez, council member of the National Endowment for the Arts and founding member of the California Arts Council, may be best known as the founder of El Teatro Campesino, the theatrical troupe that has set the standards for Hispanic theatre in the United States.
Valdez founded El Teatro Campesino on the strike lines in the fields around Delano, California, during its great grape strike of 1965. He created actos or short skit-playlets that were performed to dramatize the cause of the farm workers and urban Chicanos. The Teatro toured these actos across the country, garnering for Valdez and the company national attention and acclaim with an Off-Broadway Obie Award in 1969, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards in 1969 and 1972. In the course of five major European tours, Valdez and El Teatro earned international plaudits from no less than the World Theatre Festival in France, Festival of Nations in Paris, and numerous other prestigious European festivals.
In 1977, Valdez received a Rockefeller Foundation Artists-In-Residence for a commission by the Mark Taper Forum to write Zoot Suit. It became one of the most critically acclaimed productions to ever originate in Los Angeles and played to sold-out houses for eleven months – breaking all previous records for Los Angeles theatre. Mounted on the New York stage by The Shubert Organization and the Mark Taper Forum, Zoot Suit became the first play by a Chicano playwright to be presented on Broadway. He wrote and directed the motion picture version for Universal Pictures in 1981, garnering a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical Picture.
He conquered Hollywood in 1987 with the motion picture La Bamba which he wrote and directed for Columbia Pictures. The film was one of the biggest box office successes of that year and made lead actor Lou Diamond Phillips a star.
That same year, Valdez adapted his stage play Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution for PBS. It starred Linda Ronstadt and offered a striking visual history of Mexican folklore and songs, winning critical acclaim and a George Peabody Award. Other major projects include Valdez’ 1991 adaptation of the medieval classic La Pastorela: A Shepherd’s Tale for PBS Great Performances Series which aired internationally in both the United Kingdom and Spain. In 1993, Luis directed for Tuner Network Television The Cisco Kid filmed on location in Mexico. The following year, Valdez’ original play Bandido! had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
In 1994, Valdez received the distinguished Aguila Azteca Award (Golden Eagle Award), the highest decoration bestowed by the Mexican Government to citizens of other countries, and he was awarded the Governors Award of the California Arts Council in 1990.
In 2000, Valdez opened his new play, The Mummified Deer, to popular and critical acclaim at the San Diego Repertory Theater. Luis recently added to his list of accomplishments that of University Professor; he is a founding faculty tenured professor at the Center for Teledramatic Arts and Technology at California State University, Monterey Bay. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from San Jose State University (his alma mater), the California Institute of the Arts, Columbia College in Chicago, the University of Rhode Island and Santa Clara State University. The citation from Columbia College sums up the regard with which Valdez is held both in the Hispanic community and in international circles: “Dramatist, Composer, Poet, Cinema and Theatre Director – your artistry honors the Mexican-American heritage and gives crucial strength and coherence to the struggle for a decent life and justice for those who work the American land.”
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