Jose Guadalupe Saucedo; Associate Artist at Mark Taper Forum

Jose Guadalupe Saucedo, 42, the first Latino associate artist at the Mark Taper Forum. Saucedo was named to the influential post, as one of seven associate artists at the regional theater, in 1991. Born in Compton, he began his theatrical career while enrolled in UC Santa Barbara’s Latin studies program. Encouraged by faculty member Jorge Huerta, Saucedo and others developed the Teatro Mecha and then took it beyond the campus to create Teatro de la Esperanza. The theater group flourished in Santa Barbara and then moved to San Francisco, performing as far away as Poland, Yugoslavia and Sweden in Europe, and in Cuba, Mexico and other countries in Latin America. On Oct. 3 in Los Angeles from complications of AIDS.