The Chicana grassroots theater troupe that fought the patriarchy during the farmworker movement

One of the many tools of the farmworker movement in the 1960s was Teatro Campesino, a traveling theater troupe that told the plight of the farmworkers through “actos,” or short skits.

It was a mostly male-dominated space until a group of Chicanas came together to tell the stories of women who were also part of the civil rights and farmworker movement.

Teatro Chicana was the product of Felicitas Nuñez, Delia Ravelo, Laura Garcia and dozens of other first generation college students attending San Diego State College, now known as San Diego State University, in the early 1970s. Their work is documented in the memoir Teatro Chicana.

“We protested the action and behavior of the males in MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) because we didn’t agree with their disrespect, abuse and a lot of that was coming from the older Chicanos like people that were already professors, counselors and in administration,” Nuñez said.

One of their first performances was a seminar that the women put together for their mothers who visited them on campus called Chicana Goes to College.

“We just wanted to present how a young woman wanted to get out of a traditional home, very religious kind of atmosphere,” Nuñez said. “But towards the end, you know, the Chicana struggles through getting out of the house, struggles in college, and then struggles within the movimiento Chicano. She makes up her mind that she's gonna get educated regardless of being put down.”

Teatro Chicana performed at a UFW convention, in fields, anti-war demonstrations, high schools and anywhere they could. Their plays like Bronca challenged men to see women as more than notetakers, cooks and childcare.

Of course, it’s hard to talk about the farmworker movement without mentioning the late César Chávez, who was recently accused of sexually assaulting girls and women. Nunez and Garcia said the news was devastating but not that surprising.

“ If you look at the women in the teatro, out of the 17 women that wrote their memoir about 80% had been sexually molested, or abused within their families or a neighbor,” said Garcia. “ We need to talk about it in order to stop it.”