As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, KSBW anchor and reporter Alani Letang has a conversation with a Hollywood writer and director, Luis Valdez, about social change through the arts and theater. Valdez lives on the Central Coast and has brought important stories of his culture to the stage and the silver screen. Valdez was born in Delano, California, in 1940 at a labor camp. Valdez became interested in theater at six years old. "And I told my mom that plays on Friday, she says, I can't help that we were being evicted. So I was never in the play. And that left the hunger," Valdez said. It was a hunger for drama while deeply committed to the United Farm Worker Struggle. In 1965 at 25 years old, he joined Cesar Chavez as a volunteer in the Delano Grap Strike. On the picket lines, Valdez's "El Teatro Campesino," the Farm Workers Theatre, was born. "It was this car caravan that went out in search of scabs in the fields. And then we pulled off by the side of the road whenever we found one. And that's where all of the picketing and the chanting took place. And that is where our first performances took place, right by the side of the road," Valdez said. "What do these performances look like  exactly out of a back of a truck?" Letang asked."Well, Newsweek magazine described this as Buster Keaton on steroids. We used a lot of humor and a lot of physical comedy. And so working off of a flatbed truck requires that you be bold, you be alive you be vital " Valdez answered.Valdez used theater to inspire social change. El Teatro Campesino showcased Americans from all walks of life. The theatre grew over the years. In 1966 members of the theatre marched from Delano to Sacramento California attracting national media attention.Valdez said, "It was something that was inevitable. I consider what we did as a necessity. And so the word got out. All of that led to the evolution of El Teatro Campesino as a theater company. But better yet, it led to the spread of the news that the farmworkers were not just docile idiots. We were alive, and we were fighting for our human rights for everybody ." Valdez experienced violence along the way. One time during a performance he described being beaten then arrested by growers who did not support the UFW. Another time on a picket line, a gun was held to his head. "I thought it was loaded up to my head and he said, OK, act.  And I just stared at him and at that moment, the thought ran through my head like a flash, am I willing to die for what I'm doing? And I decided that it was worth it, that I was willing to die for doing theater," Valdez said.In 1971 El Teatro Campesino rooted itself in San Juan Bautista, California just miles from the Salinas Valley. He brought his family to the theatre, including his son Kinan Valdez. "He brought me into the mix and allowed me to have these opportunities to learn from him and other people," said Kinan Valdez. Valdez went on to write a play about the 1943 Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots. The riots were violent clashes in which U.S. servicemen and off-duty police officers attacked young Latino and Mexican Americans in LA. Valdez's Zoot Suit became the first play written by a Latino on Broadway and went on to become the first Chicano major feature film in 1981. Other successes include his box office hit film La Bamba in 1987. Valdez has won countless awards including a Peabody. His scripts are taught in classrooms and performed on high school and college stages. "He tells very specific stories about very specific communities. And yet people wind up feeling like he's talking about them like he's looking right at them," Michael Chemers, a professor of Dramatic Literature at the University of California Santa Cruz. Staying true to his roots, Valdez is still going strong with theatre and making a difference at his internationally renowned, Obie award-winning theatre in San Juan Bautista. "It's important that our stories be told as honestly as possible and that and that to be authentic voices that are speaking from the heart," Valdez said.