F. John Sierra’s El Teatro Campesino De Aztlán offset print was made in 1972 and reflects Sierra’s involvement in the Chicano Movement.
Sierra’s piece was used for Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino de Aztlán pamphlets as a logo. Luis Valdez is a Chicano writer and playwright whose work played an integral role in the Chicano Movement. One of his contributions to the movement includes El Teatro Campesino de Aztlán, a Chicano theatre company that made performance accessible and provided political education to farmworkers. To this day, Sierra’s piece serves as the logo for Valdez’s company, reminding us of the long and rich history of identity and art in the Central Valley.
Sierra’s piece is a bold, graphic artwork that showcases Chicano identity and culture. It features two prominent skulls full of emotion, with mustaches wrapped in a flowing banner that displays Valdez’s company name. The skeletal imagery acts as a cultural take on the comedy and tragedy masks often associated with theater, reflecting and centering the humor and despair experienced by Mexican American communities. Surrounding the central image are red-and-white geometric borders and corner scenes depicting skeletons in motion—dancing, fighting, and mourning—symbolizing the cycles of joy, resistance, and death. The limited color palette and stylized linework mirror the grassroots spirit of El Teatro Campesino de Aztlán. There is beauty in the simplicity of this piece, reminding the audience that large amounts of money, the best equipment, or fame are not needed to create an everlasting impact on our communities—a sentiment echoed by Sierra’s work.
Sierra saw and understood the impacts of a lack of representation of his communities by people from them, especially in artistic spaces. El Teatro Campesino De Aztlán honors the relationship between theater and the Central Valley, where memory, resistance, and cultural pride intersect.
In the F. John Sierra Retrospective at Arte Américas, you can find Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino de Aztlán pamphlets, showcasing the El Teatro Campesino de Aztlán logo on the cover.
Written by Arte América’s Cultural Arts Fellow (2025) Angelina Flores.