Agustín Lira was born in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico in 1945 and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California after his family migrated north. Deeply shaped by the experiences of farm labor, poverty, and social injustice, Lira became a key cultural worker during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

He was a co-founder of El Teatro Campesino in 1965, alongside Luis Valdez, under the leadership of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers. El Teatro Campesino used music, satire, and bilingual theater to educate, mobilize, and inspire farmworkers during the grape strikes and broader labor movement. Lira composed many of the movement’s most enduring songs, using traditional Mexican and American folk forms to craft politically charged and emotionally resonant pieces.

Beyond his early work, Lira continued to create music and theater that reflected the struggles, hopes, and resilience of Chicano and working-class communities. His later work has focused on issues of migration, Indigenous identity, cultural survival, and healing. In recognition of his lifelong contributions to American arts and culture, Agustín Lira was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007, one of the United States’ highest honors for folk and traditional artists.

Today, he remains a respected figure in California's cultural and artistic landscape, particularly within Central Valley communities, where his performances and teachings continue to affirm music and art as tools for dignity, resistance, and transformation.

Patricia Wells, a singer, musician, and cultural advocate, has been a longtime collaborator with Lira. Together, they co-founded Alma, an ensemble dedicated to preserving and reimagining musical traditions rooted in Mexican, Chicano, Indigenous, and working-class histories. Originally from Los Angeles, Wells became deeply involved in Central Valley cultural movements, using her powerful vocals and guitar work to explore themes of migration, labor, identity, and resilience. Her musical style draws from Mexican folk, American folk, and nueva canción traditions, weaving stories that affirm community memory and collective survival. Through performance, education, and cultural organizing, Wells continues to emphasize music as a living practice of social healing and historical remembrance.