Agustín Lira is a founding figure in Chicano cultural activism and a long-standing contributor to music and performance in California’s Central Valley. Born in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, and raised partly in Ciudad Juárez and later in the U.S., His early life was marked by hardship, migration, and the injustices of racism. These formative experiences laid the groundwork for his artistic path—one deeply rooted in social change. In 1965, he joined the United Farm Workers movement and, alongside Luis Valdez, co-founded El Teatro Campesino, a troupe that used performance to amplify the voices of striking farmworkers and energize a broader movement.

Agustín’s commitment to cultural work as activism traces back to his own struggle for dignity. After settling in California’s Central Valley, he pursued music and theater in high school while working in the fields with his family. The death of his mother shortly after graduation left him unmoored, but joining the UFW gave him direction and a sense of purpose. Through Teatro Campesino, Agustín helped create simple, yet powerful performances that dramatized labor injustice, using original music, masks, and skits. The group quickly gained national visibility and sparked a wave of grassroots cultural organizing.

Even after Teatro Campesino separated from the UFW, Agustín continued developing politically conscious music and theater. His work has always centered communities often overlooked in dominant narratives—immigrant laborers, working-class families, and people of color. Over the years, he has taught music and theater in numerous communities, emphasizing art as a tool for participation, reflection, and empowerment. His songs, such as “La Peregrinación,” written for the 1966 farmworker march from Delano to Sacramento, remain touchstones in the Chicano movement’s cultural memory.

Agustín’s recent work includes an ongoing collaboration with longtime partner Patricia Wells in a musical ensemble that took shape more intentionally during the pandemic, when theater productions paused and music offered a more accessible platform for continued expression. Agustín developed new repertoire, responding to urgent global and local crises—from war and climate change to displacement and economic injustice. Grounded in personal testimony and collective memory, their music blends traditional and original compositions, often performed bilingually in ways that resonate across generations.

Agustín’s decades-long collaboration with Patricia Wells has shaped much of this work, underscoring a commitment to using art not simply for performance, but as a platform for social connection, memory, and political imagination. Their presence in the Central Valley continues to serve as a cultural beacon—linking generations through art that bears witness and inspires action.

In June 2025, Agustín Lira and Friends performed at the Canciones del San Joaquín concert in Fresno, where they debuted his commissioned piece, The Cage. While the song’s subject matter warrants its own exploration, its inclusion in the concert affirms Agustín enduring role as a truth-teller and cultural catalyst. His life and work continue to demonstrate that music can both honor memory and inspire change. Through every lyric, performance, and teaching moment, Agustín reaffirms the power of art as resistance—and as a call to community.