LOS VENDIDOS

The Themes Analysis of Los Vendidos
Introduction
Los Vendidos which means “the sell outs” is a drama made by Luis Valdes in 1967 and it was first performed at the Brown Beret junta in Elysian Park, East Lo Angeles. This play brings the prejudices faced by Mexican in America. There is misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexicans. The play is a form of resistance for Chicanos and it is a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. He adapts the motifs and character traits that conform to relevant aspects of Mexican folk culture. Valdez’s success in Los Vendidos is based on getting Americans to understand the ridiculousness of their views on the Mexican people. Moreover, this drama introduces the speech of chicanos, including code switching between Spanish and English.
Luis Valdez was born in Delano on 26th June 1940. He grew up in California as the son of farm workers. His interest in drama began early when he was six years old. He watched a teacher used part of a paper bag to make paper-mâché masks for a theater production. This experience led him to the theater. He received his Bachelor Arts in English from the San Jose State University, where he produced his first play. Later, his college awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Arts degree. He joined the United Farm workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) led by César Chávez in Delano, California and created Teatro Campesino under the UFWOC. However, when Valdez made Los Vendidos, the Teatro Campesino separated from the UFWOC and moved to a new location in Del Rey, California.
Luis Valdez wrote about Chicano issues in his drama, Los Vendidos. It showed the discrimination and exploitation of Chicanos in the United States and how they were treated by society. Valdez also examined the stereotypes of Mexican through all the characters and their characterization in that drama. Since the drama presented a sensitive theme such as racism between Mexican and American, Valdez used humour as the effective way in conveying his message, to avoid offending races mentioned in the play besides to entertain the audience with a comedy play.
The writer chooses Los Vendidos to be analyzed because it presents an interesting play to convey messages about race issues among Mexican in America through a comedy play. Therefore, the play which contains a heavy, broad and sensitive theme like racism can be lighten and entertain the audience. The writer attempts to analyze the themes in the drama so that we know how Luis Valdez described the misconceptions of Mexican race in American society by giving the description of Mexican stereotypes in Los Vendidos. Moreover, the writer will analyze the themes through all the characters and the characterizations in the play.

Analysis
Theme is one of the intrinsic elements in a drama. There are six themes that will be analyzed in this play, they are racism, stereotype, marxism, social injustice, hispanophobia, and social identity. Those themes are related to the race discrimination between Mexican and American and the misconception of the Chicano (Mexican-American) who live in America.
Racism
Luis Valdez attempted to highlight Mexican stereotypes in his drama, Los Vendidos. The play which sets in Honest Sancho’s Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop tells about a shopkeeper named Honest Sancho who sells various "models" (robots) of stereotypical Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that buyers can manipulate by simply snapping their fingers and calling out commands. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. It is proven in the play when a secretary named Miss Jimenez who comes from the Governor’s office to buy a “brown–skinned” robot for the administration because it will look good to have a “Mexican Type” on the staff. Then, Honest Sancho promotes all his models by explaining the characteristics of each model. However, the secretary refuses all the models since they are not fit with her need. Although the secretary is looking for “a Mexican type”, she wants a type that has characteristics of American, such as the ability to speak English.
The secretary's refusal of each model for the weaknesses she finds is the reflection of how unreasonable prejudice when people quickly judge something. The secretary gives Sancho a list of characteristics she wants in a "Mexican type for the administration," such as being "debonair," "hard-working," "sophisticated," and "American-made,". However, after looking at the models for only a short time, she easily decides that they are not suitable for the administration need. All the models that are introduced by Sancho are Mexican types. Therefore, Miss Jimenez easily refuses them because there is a popular issue about misconception of Mexican or Mexican-American in United States. The Mexican’s characteristics are known as stupid, lazy, and uneducated so that the secretary rejects them to be used in her company.
The race discrimination and the pressure of American’s culture cause some Mexican-Americans choose to ignore their race and they attempt to separate themselves from their ethnic group. In Los Vendidos, it is shown by the beginning of the story when the secretary introduces her name to Honest Sancho. She prefers to use Anglo pronunciation to pronounce her name, JIM-enez, although her name shows that it is a Mexican name. Miss Jimenez is a Mexican-American who has lived and worked in America so that she influenced by the American culture. When Sancho says her name with Spanish pronunciation, she rejects it. It proves that she wants to be more American, including for her name’s pronunciation. She has known that Mexican race has low and bad image in society. Moreover, after knowing the flaws, weaknesses and imperfections of Mexican, she tries to separate herself from her ethnic group because she will be proud of being American than Mexican.

Stereotype
All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos.
The first character in Los Vendidos is the farmworker who describes the stereotypes of Mexican farmworker. This type of Mexican seems to be the most common and representative of the Mexican culture and it is found more frequently in lower classes. This farmworker is shown to only speak Spanish due to the fact that farmworkers in Mexico don’t speak English. “Pennies a day is all it takes” describes that he is a cheap worker. Sancho says “Every year at the end end of the season, this model goes back to Mexico and doesn’t return, automatically, until next spring.” That is the traditional work ethic of farmworkers in Mexico. They are known as the migrant workers because they come to the United States once a year during the planting season. "One plate of beans and tortillas will keep him going all day" refers to the traditional foods of Chicanos. The farmworkers eat traditional foods such as beans, tortillas and chiles.
The second character is Johnny Pachuco. Pachuco is the stereotypical Mexican gangster. He is the type that uses weapons and steals from people. He has trouble with the law so that he gets arrested. He is also a drug user who smoke marijuana. In the play, most Pachuco’s attitudes described by Sancho are against the law so that Miss Jimenez rejects him. In fact, Americans become fear because of this stereotype. Since the Mexicans who live in America are discriminated and became the second-class citizens, most of them do crime. They think that Pachuco is the one that cause them harm. That is what causes the most prejudices of Mexican in American society.
The third is the stereotype of Revolucionario. He is the older Hollywood image of a Mexican. As Sancho describes “He ride horse, stays in the mountains, crosses deserts, plains, rivers, leads revolutions, follows revolutions, kills, can be killedserves as a martyr, hero, movie star.....”. Revolucionario is the guy in the western movies that is always seen with his big sombrero and drinking tequila. He is the one that is exploited by companies as a marketing tool such as the Frito bandito. He is suave with women since he is seen as a romanticized man that women lust over. He is one of the images that Chicanos want to remove from American popular culture because these are more often than not outdated and incorrect racial descriptions as well as unacceptable for unsolicited consumption (McFadden, 2006).
The last character is the Mexican-American, Eric Garcia. He is the ideal stereotype that Americans want him to be. He acts just like a white person but with darker skin. Valdez addresses the “vendido” or the sell-out of the Chicano culture and the Mexican-American has acculturated himself to American society (McFadden, 2006). In the play, when Mexican-American gives his speech, he tells the weaknesses of Mexican, ”The problem of the Mexican stem from one thing and one thing alone: He’s stupid, he’s uneducated. He needs to stay in school. He needs to be ambitious, forward looking, harder-working. He needs to think American!”. While facing the pressure from Americans, Mexican-Americans should decide whether they are going to be Mexicans or Americans. They speak both Spanish and English. It shows that they still have the Chicano identity, but they don’t have to disrespect their heritage or ignore the ethnicity. The Mexican-American is what Americans expect them to be, educated, well-mannered, and hard working. As what happens in the play when Eric Garcia has made himself chosen by Miss Jimenez because he can be as an American. The secretary doesn’t need to think twice to spend a lot of money for this model. It shows that these characteristics are expected in American society.

Marxism
Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist and the laborer. The capitalist represents the high level of social status. In Los Vendidos, the characters who included in the high level are the Honest Sancho and Miss Jimenez. While the laborer or the worker has low level of social status. The race workers of Mexican are used as commodities in United States. The characters which represent the laborers are farmworker, Johnny Pachuco, Revolucionario, and the Mexican-American. Mexicans like the Farmworker and the Pachuco are commonly sold for purposes on cultivating crops and training of rookie cops. As what is described by Sancho, “the farmworker can cut grapes and pick cotton” and “Pachuco models are bought by L.A.P.D to train their rookie cops”. The other descriptions of the Revolucionario as an “International Harvester of Mexicans” and the Mexican-American as a “political machine” show that the Chicano is a commodity in United States. Although the Mexican-American has different stereotype from others; he is intelligent, educated and well-mannered, he is included in the laborer since he will be used as employee in American office.

Social Injustice
The social injustice refers to the oppression of Chicanos in the late 20th Century in America. The play's setting is located in the East side of Los Angeles, California. The East Los Angeles setting fits historically, as many Chicanos inhabited that area in the late 20th Century. The oppression of Chicanos included racial prejudice and inequality they faced while making a life in America. As shown by the play, the social injustice happens when Miss Jimenez is looking for a Mexican type for the administration. She doesn’t choose the model through the ability, but decides through the race. Since the secretary uses racial prejudice, she refuses the three models that are promoted by Sancho to be used for administration in Reagan’s office. That refusal is because they can not be American. Therefore, Mexicans don’t have equal chance to get a job as what Americans have. The inequality in getting a job is influenced by the bad image such as lazy and unintelligent. The Mexican-Americans will not have a good job position, unless they try to be like Americans. In the drama, Eric Garcia is the only Mexican-American who has criterias to work for administration in Reagan’s office. Some considerations that makes Miss Jimenez accepts Eric Garcia are his ability to speak English and make political speeches. In his speech, he also tells the weaknesses of the Mexican so that Miss Jimenez believes that Eric Garcia has a mindset as what Americans have.

Hispanophobia
For many people there was a belief that the darkness of a person's skin had a direct correlation with their intelligence as well as their level of ability and intelligence. This special kind of racism is known as Hispanophobia. Mexicans are included in people who have darker skin so that they are assumed to be lazy and unintelligent. In the play, we can find the dialogues between Miss Jimenez and Sancho when the secretary wants to buy a Mexican type, the first thing that she is looking for is the skin color of the model. She says, “Dark. But of course not too dark. Perhaps, beige.” Her statements show that she is looking for a lighter shade of Mexican and it represents the process of Americanization.
However, until the three models which are promoted by Sancho, no model is chosen by the secretary because all models do not seem “American-made”. Miss Jimenez underestimates the three Mexican models because they are Hispanics. She thinks that they can not fulfill the requirement to work for administration in Governor Reagan’s office since they can not speak English. She chooses the Mexican-American due to the fact that he can be American and can speak English although he also belongs to Mexican race.

Social Identity
Miss Jimenez represents a Mexican-American who separates herself from the racial people, the Mexicans. She feels strange to her own culture since her culture is assimilated into the United States’ culture. While Sancho is still socially and culturally indistinguishable from other Chicanos. Both figures, however, demonstrate their complicity, Miss Jimenez as an agent of the out-group and Sancho as an in-group member that is Mexican race. Sancho and Miss Jimenez are deviant figures who may be considered as role models for Chicanos in the eyes of Anglo-American society. The sociocultural conflict that is faced by Mexicans who live in the United States is maintaining the loyalty toward their own group from the external pressures to turn against their own. Miss Jimenez is the one who can not maintain her own culture so that she loses her ethnical identity as Mexican since she decides to be American. It is shown in the play that Miss Jimenez tries to make a new social identity as an American.

Conclusion
Los Vendidos is a drama made by Luis Valdez which brings themes about racism and stereotypes of Mexican-American. The point of doing all this stereotyping in the play Los Vendidos is to explain the misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexican people. This drama shows how Mexicans are treated by society through the secretary's rejection of each model. Valdez lightens the heavy and sensitive theme such as racism by using humour in this play. The images of different races are important because it can lead to a misinterpretation of people that can be harmful in our relationships with each other. Therefore, comedy is used in order not to offend the races. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos. The other theme is marxism where Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist as the high level of social status and the laborer as the low level. In conclusion, the themes about racism, stereotype and marxism are describe through the characters and the characterization in the play. Luis Valdez tries to reveal the misconceptions of Mexican in American society. They are known as lazy and unintelligent. Therefore, Chicanos are looked at as second-class citizens and they are discriminated by the American society. Los Vendidos give a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. The other themes such as social injustice, Hispanophobia and social identity are arose in Los Vendidos.

REFFERENCES
1. McFadden, Ryan. 2006. Stealthily Satirizing Americans. Retrieved from.................... at 17/12/2010
2. www.chicano.ucla.edu, Retrieved at 17/12/2010
3. Latinadramaturg.blogspot.com Retrieved at 17/12/2010