Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA) culminates its 2012-13 Performing Arts Season with a concert by acclaimed Chicano performer Daniel Valdez. Best known for his work as musical director of the films Zoot Suit and La Bamba, Valdez was an early member of El Teatro Campesino (The Farm Workers Theater), a leading musician of the Chicano Movement, has a 1974 album Mestizo on A&M Records and has been at the forefront of Chicano artistic performance for more than 50 years.

Valdez has been active as a composer, writing scores for numerous feature and documentary films, theater works, as well as for traditional, popular and more recently, classical ensembles. He has toured internationally and performed with such musicians as Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. Daniel Valdez's solo concert at MECA will feature songs that have marked Mexican and Chicano popular culture over many decades.