Los Vendidos free essay sample

The majority of people have experienced the feeling of being named or put into a category that they do not belong. These assumptions and accusations are made by people just because of a person’s appearance physically, or where one may live. This is a problem that society has not addressed or given enough attention to being solved. In the play â€Å"Los Vendidos,† written by Luis Valdez in 1967, Luis attempts to send a message to our society that stereotyping has gone out of line and has made individuals feel dehumanized in most cases. In the short play â€Å"Los Vendidos,† Luis Valdez does a great job specifying details with the costumes and gestures the characters use in the play to give us a better understanding of the message he is trying to send. This short play is constructed in an exaggerated and humorous tone to make the play more satire and obvious. We will write a custom essay sample on Los Vendidos or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This play specifies stereotyping toward Mexicans and the negative effects that are far-fetched and that they hurt the victims as well as the oppressors. In this short play, Luis Valdez uses four models that play as Mexicans which can be said are the most common stereotype of Mexicans; the Farm Worker, Revolucionario, Johnny â€Å"Pachuco,† and the Mexican-American. These four Mexicans are heavily criticized by a woman who works for the government, the secretary. The secretary walks into a shop that sells â€Å"Mexicans† by a man named Honest Sancho. In the play this woman is known to be a â€Å"White washed Mexican† by simply denying her Mexican roots and pretending to be Anglo. She denies her background when Honest Sancho, the owner of the four Mexican models, pronounces her name as Jimenez instead of â€Å"JIM-enez. † She responded with, â€Å"My name is Miss JIM-enez. Don you speak English? What’s wrong with you? †(Page 1336). The secretary is basically looking for a Mexican for her administration, but she is looking for a Mexican that looks and acts like an American. Honest Sancho presents his four models as hard workers and each model with different unique traits but nothing seems to please the secretary enough to buy one. Miss Jimenez uses very cruel ways to describe every model Honest Sancho presents to her. She seemed to like little traits from each Mexican model but at the end they were not going good enough for the simple fact that they were Mexicans. This is a stereotype that has the perspective of looking at Mexicans as just hard workers, but can be easily manipulated by those with more money or power. This is one of the points Luis Valdez tries to point out, the author is basically saying that many Mexicans and other cultures in the United States feel dehumanized and feel offended by how they are all viewed as one. The author Valdez portrays Honest Sancho as a usual stereotyped Mexican business man by fooling the secretary at the end of the play. Honest Sancho shop is in a Mexicans car lot and likens Mexicans to objects, as people to be fetched whenever needed. The ridiculous qualities of the models also help emphasize how unfair it is to stereotype. Honest Sancho throughout the play mixes from speaking English to Spanish in many occasions. This would be considered speaking â€Å"Spanglish† to many people. One scenario where he speaks â€Å"Spanglish† is when he is welcoming the secretary by saying, â€Å"Ah, una chicana! Welcome, welcome Senorita Jimenez. † (page 1336). Many Chicano’s are criticized because they cannot speak either English or Spanish fluently or get questioned many times why they cannot master at least one of the two. For this reason, many people set low standards toward Mexicans assuming they are all in the same educational level. For example in this play, there is many scenes where the secretary relishes and repeatedly brings all of Sancho’s models and himself self-esteem down because their lack of English dialogue and comprehension.