Three Plays by Luis Valdez: Fin del Mundo, Valley of the Heart, Adíos Mamá Carlota

Collecting together Fin del Mundo, Valley of the Heart, and Adíos Mamá Carlota, this book compiles the latest plays of Luis Valdez and explores how they stand to be considered masterpieces by the man who brought the world Zoot Suit and La Bamba.

Luis Valdez has been described as the ＂last of the great American playwrights,＂ referring to a Golden Age of U.S. playwriting that began with Eugene O’Neill and included Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and August Wilson. Like these other playwrights, Valdez’s impact on theatre needs to be measured on a global scale. The plays are psychologically deep, with powerful political messages woven into sophisticated plots and minutely drawn characters, all done with the characteristic rasquachi theatricality that made Valdez a household name. Fin del Mundo follows the protagonist through a maze-like urban afterlife that is by turns hilarious and deeply moving. In Valley of the Heart we witness a fictionalization of the true history of the relationship of Chicanos to Japanese-Americans during the horrific internments of World War II. Finally, in Adíos Mamá Carlota, we share the final moments of the former Empress of Mexico, teetering on the edge of madness, as she relives her extraordinary life and faces crippling guilt over her actions. Together, these plays represent a crowning achievement in the storied life of Luis Valdez. In this collection, each play is preceded by an introductory chapter by Jorge A. Huerta with analysis of the play.

This collection is a vital and indispensable text for practitioners and students, as well as scholars of contemporary theatre, American, and Chicano performance.

Luis Valdez is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and playwriting, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino.

Michael Mark Chemers is Full Professor of Dramatic Literature and Chair of the Department of Performance, Play & Design at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA. He is currently Scholar-In-Residence at El Teatro Campesino.

Jorge A. Huerta is Chancellor’s Associates Professor of Theatre Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, USA. He is a leading authority on contemporary Chicana/o and US Latina/o theatre who has lectured throughout the US, Latin America and Western Europe. He has published many articles, books, and reviews, and has edited three collections of plays.