FOR THE PAST 25 years, Teatro Visión has defined itself in as the leader of Chicano theater in Silicon Valley, mixing nontraditional productions with social justice and providing a forum for community involvement. The company celebrates its quarter-century mark this Saturday with a gala and concert. Founded in 1984 by members of Women in Teatro, the troupe was established to highlight social and political issues in the Hispanic community in San Jose. The most immediate model was Luis Valdez's El Teatro Campesino, one of the first modern Latino theater companies in America.

"We formed to use theater as a way to communicate messages that were impacting the Latino community," says Rose Mendoza, who was one of Teatro's founders and currently serves as a board member for the company. "At the time, it was Cesar Chavez's cause with the Farm Workers union. We moved on to talk about education, immigration and so forth."

Over the years, Teatro Visión became serious about the art of theater itself. Without any formal training, members of the company worked to fill the void of Latino theater in San Jose, according to Mendoza. "We provide diversity to artistic programming in the valley," explains Raul Lozano, who was involved with the theater company for 17 years. "I think it's important to expose the Chicano theater to the broader community, so they can come in and actually see a show that really reflects who we are."

In the beginning, Teatro performed original works that touched upon social issues such as the Brown Berets, single mothers raising children in the barrio and soldiers coping with life post-Vietnam. "We went from improvising topics and putting them onstage," Mendoza recalls, "to performing shows from emerging writers, to where we are today—performing works from playwrights who win awards."

Teatro Visión achieved nonprofit status in 1991 and made the transition from performing in 100-seat theaters to establishing a residence at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, with a theater that seats 500, in 1999. "That really nailed our position in the community," Mendoza says.

Teatro Visión continued to establish itself as an innovative theater company by presenting bilingual productions, staging plays from unknown playwrights and opening the lines of communication between the company and the community.

"They've built this incredible audience that supports and loves their work," says Jorge Huerta, the author of the first book about Chicano theater. "They take risks. They just don't do typical, easy theater. They do theater that challenges the audience, which is extremely important."

The Latino theater community is small, with about 25 theater organizations in the United States dedicated to performing topics about Hispanics. "We don't have a long history of theater in the Mexican-American community," Lozano explains. "It started in the '60s with Luis Valdez, but we don't have a large canon of works to draw from by Latino playwrights."

The goal of Teatro Visión isn't to select plays that are popular, but instead to pick works that are well written and have a strong statement, Mendoza explains. "Our focus, and one of the reasons why we stay so successful today, is that we were very true to our mission, and we never wavered form it. All of our work reflects our mission to demonstrate smart theater that reflects issues in the Latino community throughout California."

For an arts organization to survive 25 years is a feat in itself, according to Lozano. "It's so hard to grow an arts organization. In terms of multiethnic arts, it makes it even harder because we just don't have the same access as mainstream theater."

Even though Teatro Visión is pausing to celebrate its 25th birthday, the theater company already has ambitions for the future. One of its biggest goals is to develop original productions to take on the road. "I think what is exciting about the organization is that it kind of feels like they just started," Rose says. "We've been here 25 years, but we're just getting going."

TEATRO VISIÓN celebrates its 25th birthday on Saturday (May 30), 4–8pm, with a gala featuring musician Flaco Jiménez, activist Dolores Huerta and playwright Jorge Huerta. It takes place at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $25 for concert/$75 for concert and gala. (408.272.9926)

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