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Welcome to the Jorge Huerta collection. I am honoured that you are interested in my records of my areas of research and creative activity. If you've read the brief description provided,

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you know something about me and this collection. Hopefully, this video will serve as context for what you are accessing. As you read and you can see, I have been on this Earth

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a long, long time. I was born in 1942 in Boyle Heights, about a 10-minute drive from Downtown Los Angeles, California.

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I have always loved theatre and all kinds of performances, beginning with school plays and little skits that I and my young family members would perform for our parents, friends, and neighbours.

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Like most Mexicans living in the US, I grew up with Mexican music. But more specifically, my Mexican-born father was a professional musician.

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As a member of the Musicians' union, He had also performed in motion pictures in Hollywood. He was fair skinned, so producers cast him as a Spaniard.

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He was also a mariachi and played a number of stringed instruments. Ironically, I did not want to be Mexican for reasons that you will discover in this introduction.

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What I am sharing with you here is a very brief synopsis of what may become my memoir. In other words, my life in the theatre, the Academy, and US and Latin American theatre history and literature.

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But back to my early years. After raising four daughters, my parents had a fifth daughter in 1939, three years before I was born. My mother was born in northern Mexico in 1904,

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and her family emigrated to Arizona when she was a child. So she was totally bilingual. Against the stereotype, she earned a Licenced Vocational Nurse, LVN, degree while I was in high school.

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My father was born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1895. His family fled the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to '20. Most Mexican Americans in California, especially women, did not attend college.

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But two of my older sisters born in 1920 and 1922 earned undergraduate and graduate degrees. Thus, unlike most Mexican American students of the period, I was not the first in my family to graduate from college.

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Education, music, and the arts were a very crucial part of our family's identity. As the only boy and the last, I was surrounded by women from my birth.

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Three of my sisters bore daughters in 1942 and '43, so I was born an uncle. Most importantly, unlike the majority of Mexican Americans, my family was not Roman Catholic.

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My mother's father was a Presbyterian pastor ministering to the miners and their families in Arizona. I say this because I had to learn a great deal about Catholicism if I was to interpret plays about Mexicans

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in the US and people throughout the Americas. We attended Spanish language churches full of people who had left the Roman Catholic faith. So they had nothing good to say about Catholicism, so much

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so that they made me afraid to even walk into the local Catholic parish, afraid that God would strike me down with lightning. Many of the playwrights you will find

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in these papers who self-identify as Chicana or Chicano were raised in Roman Catholic homes. And although most were or are not practicing Catholics, churches, both Catholic and Protestant,

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inform their writing. Faith is very important in Mexican homes. I graduated from high school in June of 1960 and began my studies in Los Angeles State College,

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majoring in drama. Like all first year college students who believe they were the star in high school, I quickly learned that I would not be cast in any productions.

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But I didn't want to be working backstage rather than on the stage. Didn't they they know who I was? So I changed my major a couple of times but eventually returned

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to my first love, theatre. The faculty were incredible teaching me about every aspect of theatre history and practise. They taught me so much and confirmed my love of theatre.

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I learned about all things technical, from stage management to construction, lighting, makeup, and technology that has not been used in decades. Anyone who aspires to become a director in the theatre should

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study all aspects of the process. Most importantly, I realised as I was doing research for my MA thesis that I loved research. Actually, I believe that none of us

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would be doing what you are doing as a student or professor if we had not been inspired by a teacher or teachers. I came to realise that I would be happy teaching theatre at a university or a college like my professors and directing

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plays during the summers. I completed my BA in drama in 1965 and stayed at Cal State to pursue a master's degree in drama. I married my wife, Virginia Ginger Demerjian, in 1966

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and completed my master's degree in 1967. I couldn't find a job teaching at a college or a university with only a master's degree, so I started teaching drama at Rubidoux High, an hour's drive east of Los Angeles.

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In 1967, our first son, Ronald Demerjian Huerta, was born, followed by his younger brother, Gregory Demerjian Huerta, born in 1969. We gave both of our sons their mother's maiden name,

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lest they forget their mother's Armenian heritage. My in-laws had fled the Armenian Genocide by the Turks. I remember being told by my elders, eat all your food. Think of the starving Armenians.

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As much as I loved teaching high school students, my life was transformed in 1968 when I saw El Teatro Campesino, the farmworkers' theatre, perform at the University of California, Riverside.

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The founder of the Teatro, Luis Valdez, read a poem titled "I Am Joaquin" as slides of the Chicanos' history appeared on a screen behind him.

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Musicians underscored the words of the poet as Valdez read in his deep baritone voice. It was mesmerising. I knew then that I wanted to research and write about

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something that I had never heard of nor read, theatre by, for, and about the struggles of farmworkers attempting to form a union under the leadership of the late, great Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta--

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no relation. In 1970, I entered the doctoral programme in Dramatic Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ginger, the boys, and I moved into married student housing

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and began our next adventure. The university library became my second home. However, when I searched the subject catalogue for Theatre Chicano, there was not a category

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other than Theatre: Mexican American. I emphasise Mexican American because there were very few materials in the subject catalogue on Chicanos at that time.

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As you will find, the very term "Chicano" was an act of resistance, exclaiming to the dominant society, we didn't cross the border. The border crossed us.

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It is important to note that the area that includes the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of Wyoming belonged to Mexico, and before them, to the Spanish colonisers,

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and before them, the Indigenous peoples. After the Mexican-American War, those lands were ceded to the US in 1848. That was when the Spanish, Mexican, and Indigenous peoples

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became strangers in their own lands. As Luis Valdez proclaimed, we were tired of living on the hyphen. Euro-Americans did not accept us as American,

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and Mexicans in Mexico did not really accept us as Mexican, especially if we did not speak Spanish well. The Euro-Americans called us wetbacks, and the Mexicans called us porcos,

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an equally derogatory term. Further, knowledge of the history of Mexicans in the US was minimal at best in those days. Understand that Mexicans were treated as inferior,

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whether we were citizens or not. The word "Mexican" was usually preceded by "dirty," "lazy," or "stupid." Therefore, there were and still are, people of Mexican descent

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that insist that they are Spanish. People like this are called vendidos or sellouts. And this character has been the butt of jokes forever in literature, song, and in the Chicanos'

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theatrical expressions. Going back to the library-- my generation and anybody born before the advent of the personal computer, internet, cell phone,

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and the multiple technologies that have made research so much more accessible-- like this website-- these were science fiction back then. As you will note, while you review various documents

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and materials in this collection, communication was by mail, telegram, or landline phones. Copies were carbon copies or mimeographs. Scholars and students spent hours

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in the library researching materials, often on microfiche. Thus, by fortune or by chance, I was entering a brand new field of research and a relatively new form of theatre for social change, El Teatro Campesino.

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The 1960s and '70s were a time of great turmoil in the world and in the US. The Vietnam War was televised nightly, as were protests against that war.

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Students were at the forefront, especially on college and university campus, and even high schools across the country. The government was drafting young, working-class men,

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especially poor White, Black, Indigenous, and Chicanos for a war that nobody understood or wanted. Before we arrived in Santa Barbara, the students had burned the Bank of America to the ground

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at the edge of the UC, Santa Barbara, campus to protest the so-called "conflict." Ginger and I learned right away the urgency of these protests when we joined students, faculty, and staff

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who drove to East LA, the barrio, to march in the Chicano moratorium on the war in Vietnam. That date is a crucial turning point in the Chicanos' history--

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August 29, 1970. Thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds from across the country marched. The event was full of pride and conviction

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that the war was wrong. Singers, folkloric dance troupes, and teatros were scheduled to perform. Sadly, the day came to an abrupt end

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when busloads of LA County sheriffs in full riot gear were getting off the buses, ready for battle. When my wife and I saw the buses pulling up, we got into a stranger's car and were taken to safety.

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The sheriffs basically forced the crowd into a corner of the park, beating people like mad dogs. A Mexican American reporter, Ruben Salazar, was suspiciously killed in a nearby bar,

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and many people were hospitalised. I tell you all of this to explain how and why this middle-class Mexican American got involved in the political movements that were slowly changing

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the country for the better. This site allows you to search and filter the documents by theme or type of document. You can also search by language.

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The Spanish speaker will be able to read my correspondence with Mexican and Latin American theatre artists, directors, playwrights, as well as theatre festivals and conference organisers.

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If you are researching people that were active during the years I've kept records, you can search by name, of course. You will find that there is a great deal of cross-listing

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between the documents. Scholars and students in related disciplines, such as political science, sociology, history or Spanish literature, who are researching

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the cultural arms of the Chicano movement will find articles, reviews, and even my handwritten notes in prompt books, which show how I worked with my production teams.

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As you will see, I have been both a director and a scholar. And my papers reflect that trajectory. My materials are a record of how I managed to teach, write, direct plays, and helped to create a national coalition

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of Chicana/Chicano theatres. As you will see, a prompt book is the director and stage manager's record of rehearsals as we prepare to cast designers and crew to bring

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a play to life on stage. Notations on blocking a play will show you how I pictured characters on a set, creating a visual, oral, and sensory impression

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for the audience. My handwritten notes will let you see what I was thinking in rehearsals. At the end of my first year at UC,

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Santa Barbara, Ginger, six students and I formed El Teatro de La Esperanza, the Theatre of Hope. Ginger became the business manager and musical director. We took residence in a newly established cultural Centre,

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La Casa de La Raza, the People's House, in the Santa Barbara barrio. You will find records of El Teatro de La Esperanza as we created actos, or skits, modelled after the Teatro

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Campesino's farmworker actos. We met Luis Valdez when the Teatro Campesino performed at UCSB in 1971. I introduced myself and I told Valdez

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that I was working on my doctorate, focusing on the historical evolution of what he and the troupe were doing. He said, "good, we need scholars."

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"How do I start?" I asked him. And he replied, "study the Aztecs. Study the Maya."

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So I did. I knew little or nothing about the indigenous cultures that have been around for centuries. In my research, I found articles and master's theses

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on the Spanish religious folk theatre that the Spanish priests used to educate and convert the Indigenous about Christian faith. I found a play about the appearances of the Virgin

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of Guadalupe in 1531. I showed it to Valdez, and he immediately made a copy and directed the play in the San Juan Bautista Mission in San Juan Bautista, California.

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That's how a scholar can inform theatre artists and performers, through their research. For the scholar who is interested in political and aesthetic development of Chicana and Chicano

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teatros' theatre troupes in the 1970s and into the '80s, the materials about TENAZ, El Teatro Nacional de Aztlan, the National Theatre of Aztlan, are vital.

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The term "tenaz" means tenacity in English. And "aztlan" is a Nahuatl or Aztec term for the land to the north. The Chicanas and Chicanos who adopted this term

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were basically rejecting the colonisers' appropriation of their ancestral lands. TENAZ became a national coalition of teatros that was formed in 1971 and grew into a major force

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within the broader Chicano movement. As the artistic coordinator of TENAZ, my records of meetings, festivals, workshops, and correspondence are here.

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This coalition promoted the dissemination of plays, newsletters, workshops, and festivals for more than 20 years. Further, I edited a newsletter for TENAZ

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from 1978 to 1982 called Tenaz Talks Teatro. I solicited news from the teatros. And you will find information about the state of Chicana and Chicano theatre in these newsletters.

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Although TENAZ does not exist as it did back then, many active theatre artists and teatros first became involved in theatre through that important organisation. In 1975, Ginger and I left the Teatro de La Esperanza,

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confident that they would continue and thrive, which they did. I joined the faculty in the Department of theatre at the UC, San Diego campus eager to teach courses on Chicano theatre

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as well as world theatre history. I also looked forward to directing plays that reflected the growing field of Chicano theatre. I say Chicano because there were few Chicanas, female,

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writing plays. I had met a young journalist and aspiring playwright named Carlos Morton, born in Chicago in 1947, at the third TENAZ Chicano Theatre Festival in San

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Jose, California, in 1973. Morton showed me a copy of a play he had published titled El Garden, which I liked, and I invited him to apply to our MFA playwriting programme.

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He did and came to the La Jolla campus in 1976. For my first directing project on campus, I chose to direct El Garden because it was written in the early style of Chicano theatre,

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a critique of the biblical Garden of Eden, with characters talking like contemporary Chicanas and Chicanos. I directed this play in English, with some Spanish for flavour,

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with students in 1976. You can find notes and other materials related to that first production, as well as information about the undergraduate student group I founded,

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El Teatro Ensemble de UCSD. The teatro ensemble performed on campus, in the community, and on tours as far away as New York City, and even Spain, France, and then West Germany in the 1980s.

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Records of those tours, as well as correspondence and grant proposals, are in these papers. As the first and only scholar teaching and writing about Chicano theatre in a theatre department,

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I soon began to get requests from chairs of other theatre departments looking for the names of other scholars I could recommend for a position in their departments. I became a one-man employment agency.

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In the early days, the joke was, who didn't study with Jorge Huerta? My students went on to professional careers in theatre, film, television, as well as in the Academy.

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Now it's, who didn't study with someone who studied with Jorge Huerta? As you will see, these papers show correspondence and other records about the many international and

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national conferences I attended over the years. In 1988, when the late Miriam Colon, founding artistic and producing director of the Puerto Rican Travelling Theatre, asked me if I would like to go to New York

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and direct a play for their annual summer tour. I was thrilled. The play would be performed by a bilingual professional cast. Ms. Colon was looking for a four-character play

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to be performed in both Spanish and English by the same actors. When she told me that I would have four professional actors and four microphones, I didn't know which to be happiest about, the mics or the actors.

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Having directed outdoor performances, I knew how important it was to have microphones. I proposed Carlos Morton's El Garden, El Jardin with his translation into Spanish,

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and Miss Colon was delighted. This information is for the very serious student or scholar interested in how a play can be translated and produced with actors who are fluent in both languages.

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This experience is only one of several plays I have directed throughout the US in both languages, as you will discover. This collection will be of interest

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to anyone researching a particular playwright because you will find early drafts of plays which offer an insight as to how a play evolves from a typescript to a production.

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As you might imagine, I received many plays from aspiring playwrights. And those typescripts are in this collection. For example, if you want to research and write

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about Cherríe Moraga, born 1952, Los Angeles, you will find early drafts of some of her plays, as well as articles about her and reviews of her plays that might not be readily available anywhere else.

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In conclusion, there is no conclusion because the work continues. The future is in your hands and I hope these papers provide you with the information you seek.

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Hopefully others too, will keep the flame of theatre for social change alive.