Teatro Campesino Poster

Object Details

Description

The Teatro Campesino was founded by Luis Valdez in 1965 to energize the political message of the United Farmer Workers of America using song, music, and drama. Modern, bicultural, and socially aware, the street theater of the Teatro Campesino is a touchstone of Chicano art. At first taking their performances to the fields, Teatro Campesino actors and writers used the language and stories of working men and women to advance the civil rights of Mexican Americans and to celebrate and reengage with their history and popular traditions. Like many Chicano art forms, the Teatro Campesino uses imagery that bends time to combine critiques of contemporary life with visual references to modern, colonial, and pre-Hispanic Mexican symbols. This poster for the Teatro Campesino appropriates the artwork of Mexico's most famous printmaker, José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), who is best known for his humorous depictions of skeletons engaged in the love and conflict of daily life.

Description (Spanish)

El Teatro Campesino, fundado por Luis Valdez en 1965, se servía del canto, la música y el drama, para dar energía al mensaje político del Sindicato de Trabajadores Agrícolas de América. Moderno, bicultural y de consciencia social, el callejero Teatro Campesino constituye un hito del arte chicano. Como se iniciaron representando sus obras en los campos, los actores y escritores utilizaban lenguaje e historias apropiados a los trabajadores, a fin de fomentar los derechos civiles de los mexicoamericanos, celebrar sus tradiciones históricas y populares y reconectarse con las mismas. Al igual que muchas formas de arte chicano, el Teatro Campesino utiliza una imaginería que manipula el tiempo para combinar críticas a la vida contemporánea con referencias visuales a símbolos modernos, coloniales y prehispanos mexicanos. Este póster del Teatro Campesino se apropia de una obra de arte del grabador más famoso de México, José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), más conocido por sus graciosas representaciones de esqueletos ocupados en asuntos amorosos y conflictos de la vida cotidiana.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Luis Miguel Valdez

ID Number

2007.3011.03

nonaccession number

2007.3011

catalog number

2007.3011.03

Object Name

poster

Physical Description

paper (overall material)

ink (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 89 cm x 59 cm; 35 1/16 in x 23 1/4 in

See more items in

Culture and the Arts: Entertainment

Mexican America

Art

Title (Spanish)

Póster del Teatro Campesino

National Museum of American History

subject

Labor Unions

Migrant Workers

Latino

Theater

Record ID

nmah_1320091

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b4-7699-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa