Zoot Suit is the greatest play! I knew nothing about the Zoot Suit Riots until I took a class in Mexican-American Society and Culture and was introduced to this topic. When did it get erased from our history, and why don't we hear about it?

There is so much symbolism involved in the play, which adds to its appeal. Read it today! Also, take some time and learn about the Sleepy Lagoon trial and the zoot suit riots.

Reproduced are three plays by influential Chicano director/playwright Luis Valdez. They are "Zoot Suit," "Bandido!" and "I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges!" Included is a 14-pg. introduction to Valdez's creative history by Univ. of Calif. theater scholar Jorge Huerta.

I first met Valdez and his wife in San Francisco after a preview of the revised "Badges!" in March of 1990. I was impressed by his unhurried cordiality. Valdez's son Kinan was playing Sonny Villa, a Harvard undergraduate who shocks his Hollywood-extra parents with the news that he has quit school. A 1986 production of "Badges!" inspired Josefina Lopez to write her first play "Simply Maria, or The American Dream" and to go on to create more roles for Chicana/Latina actresses.

This past weekend I saw Kinan at the San Diego Rep as the gallant outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez in the fun and bawdy musical "Bandido!" Vasquez was a native Californian of good breeding and above-average education whose legal public execution by hanging in 1875 strained relations further between native Californians and Americans of that era. I read the script immediately before the production, but it's best to wait till later so you don't spoil the suspense of what's going to happen next.

Valdez became the first Chicano playwright to have access to mainstream theater and Broadway stages with the production of "Zoot Suit" in the late '70s. The play was especially successful in Los Angeles, where for people of my father's generation the Sleepy Lagoon case and the Zoot Suit/Servicemen Riots became a part of family history and a bad memory of the virulent racism against Mexicans. Actor Edward James Olmos made the narrator role of El Pachuco memorable.

I guess this book was a culture shock for me - not because I am completely unacquainted with "chicano" culture, but because I was unprepared for the racism I would encounter within these pages. Asserting historical facts and portraying the difficulties of a group of people is one thing, but this goes even farther, to remark upon the white race as a whole, as if every white person were evil and hateful towards the "chicano" people. I was unpleasantly surprised at this. I suggest to anyone who is considering purchasing this book: CLICK "Look inside this book" and read the "Excerpt," paragraph 2. If these insulting generalizations of Western theatre don't bother you, you are well-prepared; have at it. I just have difficulty believing that truly inquisitive readers, let alone a brilliant playwright, could really agree with such blatantly racist statements.

This book tells you to never to judge a book by its cover. Also with "The Circle of the Sphere" when the pirest is talking to the people in a circle wre they're all safe. It's a really intresting book Spanish Americans. Luis Valdez "The Neo-Mayonist", believes that you should always keep an open mind. This book relfect his belief.

This is a collection of nine Teatro Campesino actos (Farmworker's Theater skits), avg. 11-13 pgs. in length--shortest, 3 pgs.; longest, 25 pgs. Excepting two actos, the site of first performance is provided as a historical footnote and hints of original audience. EARLY WORKS includes Luis Valdez's metaphysical play "Bernabe" and poem "Pensamiento serpentino" (Serpentine Thought). Knowledge of Mexican/Barrio Spanish is necessary to understand the heavily code-switching dialogue.

In his "Notes on Chicano Theatre" (1970), Valdez praises the people's theater of the Chicanos as a "reaffirmation of LIFE," contrasting this with the decline of relevance of recycled American theater productions. He proposes a Teatro Nacional de Aztlan (National Theater of Aztlan).

Recommended supplement to this book: Photo-filled EL TEATRO CAMPESINO: THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICA'S FIRST CHICANO THEATRE COMPANY, 1965-1985, approx. 50 pgs., limited ed., (c) 1985.

EARLY WORKS actos:

1) "Las dos caras del patroncito" (The Boss's Two Faces): A strike-breaker newly arrived from Mexico is granted an opportunity to be "rancher for a day" and to trade places with his American boss.

2) "Quinta temporada" (Fifth Season): "I'm going to fight for my rights, my lefts, and my liberals," says a farmworker tired of cyclical poverty and Don Coyote's shenanigans.

3) "Los vendidos" (The Sellouts): Farmworkers, pachucos, revolucionarios, and Mexican-Americans are for sale at Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop. Which one will the governor's secretary choose?

4) "La conquista de Mexico" (The Conquest of Mexico puppet show): Mexico gets a new boss. Cortez's interpreter, Malinche, is reviled as a traitor (Adam-blames-Eve replay).

5) "No saco nada de la escuela" (I Don't Get Nuthin' Out of School): Culturally insensitive teachers and their dysfunctional students. The college graduation cap features a white hood.

6) "The Militants": Militant Benjamin (Ben) Dejo is scheduled to speak as part of a Univ. of Calif. lecture series. Two similarly named Chicanos show up. A verbal duel ensues as they try to out-bluster each other.

7) "Huelgistas" (Workers out on strike): A diverse group of farmworkers, including Campesino Filipino and Campesino Tejano, are united in their desire for a union contract.

8) "Vietnam campesino" (Farmworker's Vietnam): Death comes for the Vietnamese from bombs and for the farmworkers from pesticides.

9) "Soldado razo" (Buck Private): Muerte (Death) narrates Johnny's last days at home and in Vietnam.

"Bernabe" play: A simpleton's sexual fantasy with Mother Earth is fulfilled in an unexpected way.

"Pensamiento serpentino: A Chicano Approach to the Theatre of Reality" (Serpentine Thought poem): "Teatro eres el mudo (Theater is the world)," Valdez begins.