Organized by El Centro Chicano, the first Festival de Flor y Canto (Festival of flower and song), a three day literary festival that brought together dozens of Chicano novelists, poets, and short story writers on November 16-18, 1973 (Town and Gown at the University of Southern California), inspired subsequent events including the 2nd festival in Austin, Texas (Festival Floricanto II), the 3rd in San Antonio, Texas, the 4th in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Flor y Canto IV, 1977), and the 5th in Tempe, Arizona (Flor y Canto V, 1978). Three additional events under the name "Canto al Pueblo" took place later in Wisconsin, south Texas and Colorado.

Most of the 1973 readings were captured on video, and Michael Sedano digitized and donated the 39 DVDs to the Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies in Doheny Library, University of Southern California. Michael Sedano is a USC alumnus and, in 1973, he was a student photographer for the Daily Trojan who photographed the event.

The writers and artists who performed at the Festival Flor y Canto in 1973: Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Teresa Palomo Acosta, Alurista, Jorge Alvarez, Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin, Estevan Arellano, Ronald Arias, Tomás Atencio, Jerónimo Blanco, Olivia Castellano, Juan A. Contreras, Veronica Cunningham, David Gómez, Juan Gómez Quiñones, Jorge González, Barbara Hernández, Juan Felipe Herrera, R.R. Hinojosa Smith, Elias Hruska-Cortez, Enrique Lamadrid, Benjamín Rochín Luna, E.A. "Tony" Mares, José Montoya, Alejandro Murguía, Antonio G. Ortiz, Pedro Ortiz Vásquez, Javier Pacheco, Tomás Rivera, Lynne Romero, Ponce Javier Ruiz, Omar Salinas, raúlrsalinas, Ricardo Sánchez, Frank Sifuentes, Mario Suárez, Marcela Trujillo, Avelardo Valdez, Roberto Vargas, El Teatro de los niños, El Teatro pequeño, El Teatro mestizo