With support from the California Arts Council, El Teatro Campesino will continue producing its longest running multidisciplinary performance, “La Virgen del Tepeyac” in San Juan Bautista. Funding will support artistic staff, technical aspects of the production, as well as a support for free theater workshops in San Benito County to recruit performers of all ages to participate in the production.
Founded by Luis Valdez in 1965 as the cultural arm of the UFW movement, El Teatro Campesino (ETC) functions as a multi-generational theatre company. For fifty-nine years now, ETC has been at the forefront of using theatre as an artistic generator of social change and continues to empower artists and communities from its home in San Juan Bautista. The spheres of ETC’s work can be summarized into three core areas: professional arts, arts education and community arts. Within these areas, ETC runs an annual theatre season, a developmental lab to create new work, regional/statewide tours, cultural festivals for Latino holidays, community based art making and arts education programming within schools.

