El teatro como instrumento de lucia social: una comparación entre el teatro chicano y teatro gallego

The Chicano and the Galician communities are similar in many aspects: social situation, cultural status, problems of discrimination, etc. Both must deal with a bicultural context and struggle with a dominant culture. In order to express their aspirations, their culture, and their problems. Chicanes and Galicians use art and literature. One of the more important among these instruments is theater: both groups. Chicanes and Galicians, employ theater as a weapon in their fight for a better and fairer life.

Galician theater and Chicano theater share many elements, but this dissertation focuses on the social aspects that both theaters present. The dissertation shows through the analysis of the history of both movements, as well as of some important playwrights and selected samples of their major plays-how the social aspect is present in those theaters and how its use is similar in both of them.

After the introduction-Chapter-I the study provides in Chapters II and III the history of both theaters; the fourth chapter offers a general comparison between these theaters, identifying many aspects found in both movements, concentrating upon and discussing more extensively the social factors. Chapters V and VI concentrate on analysis of the social elements in Chicano and Galician theaters. Chapter V examines Chicano plays: Luis Valdez's La Quinta Temporada and Soldado Razo; and El Teatro de la Esperanza's Guadalupe. Chapter VI focuses on Roberto Vidal Bolafio's Laudamuco, senor de ningures and Ledainas pola morte do Meco; and Eduardo Bianco-Amor's Proceso en Jacobusland: fantasia xudicial en Ningures-both authors from Galicia, whose works employ the Gallego language. The social themes and techniques that both theaters present are analyzed in the respective chapters, showing that Chicano and Galician dramatists make effective use of their theater as an instrument for social protest and to demand from the Establishment a better life and improved conditions for their communities. Chapter VII, summary and conclusions, provides the final observations and results of the dissertation, reassessing and confirming the initial hypothesis: Chicano and Galician theaters are similar and constitute one of multiple shared elements between the Chicano and Galician communities.