Gavilan College stages Luis Valdez’s ‘Bandido!’

This story was written by BenitoLink intern Angel Vieira. Lea este artículo en español aquí.

El Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez continues to influence new generations in local communities with the latest Gavilan College production of his play “Bandido! The American Melodrama of Tiburcio Vasquez, Notorious California Bandit,”  opening May 8 at Gavilan College Theater in Gilroy.  

“Bandido!” explores the life and final moments of local legend Vasquez, the 19th-century outlaw and Californio Mexican resistance fighter, in a comedic “anti-melodrama” exploring themes of romanticism, morality and social justice. 

First performed in 1982 at El Teatro’s playhouse in San Juan Bautista, this production, director and Teatro veteran Isabel Cruz said, pays homage to Valdez in celebration of El Teatro Campesino’s 60th anniversary. 

“It felt like the right time to tell this story,” She said. “It’s a form of Chicano theater, and it tells a forgotten part of history.” 

Anthony Gutierrez, a Gavilan alumnus and Teatro veteran, plays the lead role. 

“I’m also a native born Californio like Tiburcio Vasquez,” he said. “So in that sense I could relate.”

Gutierrez said that when it comes to Vasquez’s family losing their land, he faced a similar situation when his family was evicted from their apartment. He said that even though it was a “small fraction” of Vasquez’s experience of being displaced, he tries to “channel that energy, to channel those questions that I had during that time.” 

Gutierrez said that “Bandido!” highlights courage and issues of gentrification. 

“It kind of has a dark undertone,” he said, “but it was a reality that a Mexican-American went through. I’m just glad I’m able to step into the shoes of Tiburcio Vasquez and try to tell his story.” 

Assistant director Baron Santiago, a current Gavilan theater and film student as well as a Teatro veteran, plays the roles of Sheriff Rollins of San Isidro and Pico. As Gavilan is primarily a Hispanic institution, Santiago said, the play means a lot to them.

“Having a Chicano play performed at our school,” Santiago said, “is not only a great honor for us, but also a great opportunity for our Chicano students and our Latino theater constituents to have a production where they can see themselves in it.”

Santiago said “Bandido!” tells a “whole history” centering on Chicanos and their struggles, with many of the issues addressed in the play still relevant to what Chicanos face today. 

“We get to interact with history and modernity at the same time,” Santiago said, “in a creatively productive way. I think death, love, and survival are the main themes of ‘Bandido!’ and we see how they specifically interact with Chicanos, both then and now.” 

Santiago said the play tells the story of an anti-hero who became a folk hero because he was forced to survive in conditions that he did not create or ask for. 

“I think those qualities ring true for a lot of Mexican and Latinos in California today,” they said.

Leonardo Nunez plays the comedic characters Gonzalez and Gabriel. He said he hopes the audience understands how “there is so much more to us than just the Texas Rangers versus the Mexicans.”

“There’s no good people, there’s no bad people; there’s no villains, there’s no heroes,” he said. “These are genuinely just people who were trying to protect and defend their homes because they lived there first.”

Cruz also teaches an El Teatro Campesino course at Gavilan, where students study Valdez’s work and creative process in over a dozen plays. She said she aims for students to feel represented in the course material and that, with Bandido, it’s built in. 

“Before California was a state,” she said, “this was Mexico, and before Spain, it was Indigenous land. I think it’s long overdue to acknowledge all of those layers and really get to the truth of one of the most beautiful places on earth.”

She said that El Teatro Campesino is the first Chicano theater company and one of the longest surviving community theaters in the world. 

“More than ever,” Cruz said, “we have to acknowledge this local treasure, amplify its existence and celebrate its existence. It feels like part of my work and for the members of my community and my fellow artists, it is our honor and our responsibility to carry on that tradition and legacy.”

The Gavilan College Theater Arts Department production of “Bandido!” will be performed on May 8, 9, 15 and 16 at 8 p.m., with a matinee on May 16 at 2 p.m. 

Tickets, which are $25 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors, are available through the college website. Parking for the production is available at Lot A at the Gilroy Gavilan campus. Gavilan College Theater is located at 5055 Santa Teresa Blvd Gilroy.

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