Man's inhumanity to man: justice and injustice in three Mexican-American playwrights

In 1965, in Delano, California, Chicano Theatre was born in the back of a pick-up truck. Cesar Chdvez instigated a movement that sought basic rights for migrant farmworkers in California. Being one of many movements that would inspire Chicano writers to expose the injustices perpetrated against Mexican-Americans, the strike against the growers became the catalyst for initiating the contemporary era of Chicano Theatre.

Luis Valdez was a writer that offered his moral support in literary form. Using the farmworkers as the first actors, Valdez helped these migrants in their struggle, thus forming El Teatro Campesino (The Farmworker's Theatre), a variant of agit-prop theatre, which attempts to incite the viewers to protest against what they are witnessing. Valdez is also influenced by Bertolt Brecht who attempted to break down the barrier between the actors and the audience.