Baktun 12 Teatro Alisal: The Realities of the School to Prison Pipeline

The Power of Stories is an archive of projects submitted every year to Building Healthy Communities (BHC) Statewide Convening. It showcases work created throughout California highlighting the power of individual and collective efforts to promote health and demonstrates how stories have the power to re-imagine and transform our communities. Produced in partnership with the California Endowment.

Project Submitted by:  Baktun 12

Project Summary: Baktun 12 tells the story of a family that must deal with the realities of the school to prison pipeline.

BHC Site: East Salinas

Baktun 12 is a grass roots teatro company from East Salinas, California. Founded in June of 1997, the group is a collective of different artists with members from all over California who, even though all may not sleep every night in East Salinas, live everyday for their community.

During the BHC Statewide Convening the group will perform a piece about a family that is being directly impacted by the school to prison pipeline.

The name of the group comes from a passage in the book 'The Mayan Factor.' According to the book, the Mayan calendar is broken up into time periods of 400 years, with each period being a Baktun. The 12th Baktun runs from 1612 to 2012, the time we are living in. Baktun 12 is the culmination of all of this collective energy from the previous 11 Baktuns.

Baktun 12 is dedicated to presenting the rawest, realest Chicano-flavored street teatro, poetry and hip-hop productions. Utilizing their main assets, the power of words and the heart, the group has developed a loyal fan base throughout the California underground circuit one fan at a time, mainly through word of mouth. Their productions meld urban politics with rhyme skills and guerrilla theater, attacking themes ranging from illegal immigration and education to struggles of the working class.