NEA National Heritage Fellow and co-founder of El Teatro Campesino Agustín Lira and Artist Patricia Wells speak about their work as artists and activists. Lira traces his beginnings, how, where, and why he decided to join the United Farm Worker’s Union Grape Strike in Delano CA in 1965, and how he and Luis Valdez began El Teatro Campesino shortly thereafter. Lira speaks of how he later started Teatro de la Tierra (www.teatrotierraonline.org) in East Los Angeles in 1971 and how he developed his music and theatrical style through the following years, after relocating to the Fresno area. Patricia Wells speaks of her work first as a volunteer and student in Teatro de la Tierra in 1979 studying music and teatro with Lira and becoming a side musician with Lira, putting together cross-country tours, recording original music, and teaching in the community. Both speak of the importance of using art, all kinds of art, to create a more humane and caring society by exposing the injustices and disparities experienced in disenfranchised communities of color, through music and theater.
