Los Vendidos
Los Vendidos
Los Vendidos 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 “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 “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. 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 “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 “Mexicans” by a man named Honest Sancho. In the play this woman is known to be a “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 “JIM-enez.” She responded with, “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
Los Vendidos 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 “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 “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. 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 “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 “Mexicans” by a man named Honest Sancho. In the play this woman is known to be a “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 “JIM-enez.” She responded with, “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