This packing shed was built by Greek immigrant Sam Regas in 1945 to house his business S. Regas and Sons, growers, packers, and shippers of the “Delicia” Spinach Brand.  The shed was originally planned as an 80′ x 100′ structure with a foundation poured for that size, but the lack of building materials following World War II made it necessary to reduce the structure by half. The company was able to utilize the full size of the concrete foundation the following year, with 8,000 square feet of floor space and a new freezing plant was added on by May,1946.

As the company grew, so did the need for employee housing; five homes on Regas’s property near Fourth Street near the packing shed and five additional homes in the San Juan valley were built to house Japanese field workers. Sam Regas was one of the local businessmen who helped the once interned Japanese-Americans rebuild their lives after the war.

Frank Nishita purchased the property in 1955 and continued its use as a packing and shipping shed for spinach, leaf lettuce and other produce. Ownership changed again in 1969 when the building was purchased by Berwick Industries, “the world’s leading manufacturer of beautiful ribbon”. The San Juan plant was sometimes referred to Berwick’s “West Coast Plant” and was in business in town until 1972.

The next owner was Al Tillery, who operated a machine shop in the building from 1972 to 1979. In 1978, El Teatro Campesino “the farmworkers’ theater” rented the rear half of the building. Luis and Lupe Valdez purchased the entire building from Tillery in 1979 with the proceeds from their sold-out run of “Zoot Suit” in Hollywood. Shortly after acquiring the property, they converted the shed into a suitable venue for a theater by enlarging the bathroom, adding a porch, patio and stage.

In 1981, the packing shed became the new home of El Teatro Campesino (ETC) – arguably the nation’s most influential Latino theater troupe — which Luis Valdez founded in 1965 on the Delano grape strike picket lines of Cesar Chavez’s United Farmworkers Union (UFW).

El Teatro refers to its early years, 1965-1970, as the ‘flatbed truck years” when the theatrical troupe created and performed “actos” or short skits on flatbed trucks and in union halls. The ensemble company moved to San Juan Bautista in the summer of 1971, where their first workshop took place in the historic downtown at La Calavera Playhouse on Washington Street.

El Teatro Campesino and its founder have received not only national but also international acclaim for their work in film and live theater, having performed in Europe and throughout America. In 2015, on the 50th anniversary of El Teatro Campesino, President Barrack Obama awarded ETC’s Director and Founder, Luis Valdez, the National Medal of Arts.