Luis Valdez’in Seçilmiş Oyunlarında Chicano Kültürü Yansımaları
Reflections of Chicano Culture in Selected Plays of Luis Valdez

Summary/Abstract: Luis Valdez established his theater consisting of farm workers on a trivet, taking Chicano culture as a reference: actos improvised short play with more political content, mitos reflecting Maya and Aztec mythology and legends, and corridos bringing music, song, and dance interpretation in play. Creating a Chicano identity and internalizing their mother culture and present lives is one of the outstanding themes in Valdez’s plays. This paper discusses three of Valdes’s selected plays, Zoot Suit, Bandido!, and I Don’t Have To Show You No Stinking Badges!. The reason why these plays are analyzed is that each of them helps to shape the Chicano identity, while satirizing the Chicano bias in society. For this purpose, in almost all of Valdez’s plays, the process of transforming the “idea” of being Chicano, which is indicated at least as much as the protagonist’s presence on the stage, into “action” of becoming Chicano is scrutinized. In the case of introducing the already-existing Chicano identity and community to those who deny its existence, “being” turns from being a phenomenon into an “action”. In this regard, it is observed that it is tried to exhibit Chicano Theater’s place in the American Theater especially with sociocultural and political messages.

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