Latino Theater Company marks 55 years since the Chicano Moratorium with ‘August 29’ play

August 29th marks the 55th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium's largest protest — the day in 1970 when tens of thousands of people marched through East Los Angeles to protest the disproportionate number of Latinos dying in the Vietnam War.

It’s also the day that Ruben Salazar was killed while covering the protests. Salazar was a prominent Mexican-American journalist who rose to prominence covering the Chicano community for a number of publications, including the L.A. Times and KMEX. An L.A. Sheriff’s Department deputy fired a tear gas canister at him, killing him.

That history is the subject of a play, August 29, being put on by the Latino Theater Company tonight at East Los Angeles College in conjunction with students.

A spotlight on “August 29”

José Luis Valenzuela, the Latino Theater Company’s artistic director, said it was important for him to bring Salazar’s story to present-day stages.

“We're in the middle of the Vietnam War and he's the only journalist killed during that year from the United States — in Los Angeles,” Valenzuela said.

Ruben Salazar interviewing Robert F. Kennedy (left). Yes, that's Frank Sinatra in the background.

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Courtesy USC Libraries

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Ruben Salazar Papers Collection

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The play is set in 1990, 20 years after the Chicano Moratorium. Without giving anything away, the production’s director Ramiro Segovia told LAist about what audience members can expect.

“ The spirit of Ruben Salazar visits a professor, Lucero, who's wrestling with her identity, which reminds us that the history is not locked in the past,” Segovia said. “It continues to visit us as it challenges us.”

Though the play’s events took place decades ago, Segovia said the themes resonate strongly in a time of heightened fear around immigration raids and law enforcement actions.

“The production reaches back across decades to honor the fight for social justice and defines what Los Angeles is about,” Segovia said. “ Standing up and working on this production is a beautiful way for [the actors] to really speak up and use their voice through the arts.”

Behind the production

The play is part of the Latino Theater Company’s Impact Initiative, which brings professional-level theater productions to local community colleges and gives students the opportunity to work on — and star — in them.

Valenzuela said he was compelled to get that initiative going at East Los Angeles College because of how many Latino students the institution serves.

“I did a play with them and I directed them and took them around the city, and some of the young student actors would bring food for the others,” he said.

Once Valenzuela found out that the student actors were extending that kindness because many were struggling with food and housing insecurity, he felt compelled to act as a theater professional.

“ If you have those issues, how can you be a responsible citizen when all you're trying to do is to survive?” he said. “What is your intellectual engagement with your city? What's going on with your community, with your culture?”

To that end, the Latino Theater Company started collaborating with local community colleges, with August 29 being the most recent production.

“ If you go to a community college, we give you free tickets for you and another person to come to see all the work. We have panels and conversations with the students. We give you pizza if you come to the special events,” Valenzuela said. “And we go and direct plays with the students and then tour them around the county and give them the opportunity to perform on these stages for two weeks.”

The Latino Theater Company’s leaders hope that this can help young people — most audiences are from 18 to 55, Valenzuela said — become more intellectually engaged with the world around them.

“Sometimes, like right now, the fear in the community is so huge that they don't find a place where they can gather and talk about what's going on,” Valenzuela said. “So we try to offer that space here for many different issues — not just immigration.”

About the Latino Theater Company

The Latino Theater Company is historic in its own right — this year marks its 40th year in operation. It was founded in 1985 to bring new voices, plays and methods of expression to the American theater.

The Latino Theater Company currently operates out of Los Angeles Theatre Center, a massive building downtown with lots of different performance spaces from traditional theaters to smaller black boxes. Los Angeles recently extended their lease on the building until 2056.

And, as in the case of August 29, the company often takes their productions around the city. They also stage a yearly play at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles, for example.

Valenzuela said that bringing these performances to where people are is central to the Latino Theater Company’s mission.

“ Who we are as Chicanos or Latinos in the United States, our history is not recorded. It's not written. We don't have enough PhDs to go around writing about us. The media, you know, we don't exist. We're kind of invisible,” Valenzuela said. “So theater became our living document of the recording of history.”

How to see the play

Viewers can catch the play at 8 p.m. Friday at East Los Angeles College. It will also have a run at Mt. San Antonio College on Sept. 18 and 19.

You can reserve tickets for both shows on the Latino Theater Company’s website. Tickets are free with a suggested $10 donation at the door.

You can see the Latino Theater Company’s full programming schedule here.

Gillian Morán Pérez contributed reporting.