Solidarity por vida (2001)

This video documents El Teatro Campesino's piece Solidarity por Vida. Like Power to the People, this piece takes after the original ETC tradition of performing "actos" in the fields of Delano, California during the farmworkers' strikes during the 1960s. It represents ETC's newer generation's interpretation of the acto style and was created through the structured writing of Kinan Valdez and Luis Juarez in addition to improvisational methods involving the cast. Solidarity por Vida deals with issues of migration, border crossing and the militarization of the Mexican-American border (particularly in Arizona) during the beginning of 2001. The play's theme would prove to be prophetic, having been written before the issue garnered major media attention in 2006. This production was performed outdoors in San Isidro, Mexico on the border of San Diego, California in April 2001, in the context of a day-long program of political performance that brought together multiple performance groups including ETC.