El Teatro Campesino

It is El Teatro Campesino's mission to make teatro a creator of vibrant community. 

Founded by Luis Valdez in 1965 as the cultural arm of the United Farmworker movement, El Teatro Campesino (ETC) functions as a multi-generational theater company.  For fifty-five 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 base in San Juan Bautista. 

The spheres of ETC’s work can be summarized into three core areas: professional theater, arts education and community arts. Within these areas, ETC runs an annual theater season, a developmental lab to support the creation of new work, regional/statewide tours, cultural festivals for Latino holidays, and arts education programming. ETC sits at the crossroads, serving multiple communities – the Latino/a/x artistic community, the educational community, the business community of San Juan Bautista, and the overall underserved rural community of San Benito County and beyond.

The events of the past few months have been very unsettling for us all. Our operations have been radically modified to ensure the health and safety of our staff and we remain attuned to the ever-evolving developments of the COVID-19 virus pandemic and the fight for social justice - BLACK LIVES MATTER.

We miss our community dearly. We wish we could “stomp it out” in our Teatro Circle and send each other off with loving abrazos like we always do – but alas, our world has vastly changed. We want to assure you that El Teatro Campesino is committed to creating art and engaging community by any means necessary. Yes, it will look different, but the outcome is and always has been the same, to uplift spirits, fight for social justice, empower the next generations, and create spaces to share our stories. 

Stay tuned as this October, we bring you a series of FREE virtual workshops to keep our Dia de los Muertos traditions alive. If you are in a position to donate something towards this free programming, it would greatly be appreciated. Your donations will support more programming like this in the near future as we remain closed to the public at this time.

We wish you all well being, safety, and peace. Hasta pronto.