Drama Reflection on
"Los Vendidos" by Luis Valdez
"Los Vendidos" is a wonderful light-hearted play by Luis Valdez, which he creates using, satire, irony, and comedy Valdez uses
many of these elements to portray how Mexican Amencans have struggled to find their identity in America He uses satire to
demonstrate how the Amencan govemment needs the support of Mexican Americans, but does not retum that support. He uses irony
by using Mexican Amencan characters throughout the play to create vanous stereotypes of Amencans attempting to obtain what they
want Throughout the play Valdez uses a comedic air to portray the stereotypes of Mexican Amencans that have been created by
Amencans and are In some ways expected in our Amencan society The comedy, satire, and irony all combine to create a wonderful
drama about how Mexican Amencans have struggled to find their identity
The play begins With Ms JIM-emez, who has denied her hentage and pretends to be ignorant to the Chicano ways while at the
same time is unable to escape her own culture Ms Jimenez, a secretary from GovemorReagan's office, has come to Honest
Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Cuno Shop to search for a token brown-skinned person who can fill a token position in the
govemors office She wants someone who Will not stand out too much but Will show the Govemor has a brown-skinned person on his
staff She is looking for someone who is dar*, but not too dark, and suave Valdez wrote Ms Jimenez was looking for someone who
was "Beige, just the tone" This implied that this token brown-skinned staff member would be beige in politics, too, and a "yes" man
to all the politicians who want him around just to make them look goodl As Ms Jimenez continued her search for a Mexican Amencan
for Govemor Reagan's staff, each character sold-out both their races and their way of life
The characters in "Los Vendidos", which means the sell-outs, sold themselves out on both the Mexican Amencan and Amencan
way of life In fact the Mexican Amencan character showed great disrespect for his Mexican hentage when he said, "The problems
of the Mexicans stem from one thing alone he's stupid, he is under-educated, he needs to stay in school. He needs to be ambitious
and be forward looking, most important he needs to think Amencan " With this statement, he showed some of the imperfections, flaws,
and weaknesses of Mexican Amencans, which I believe showed great disrespect for his hentage He definitely cannot decide if he
wants to live as a Mexican Amencan or as an Amencan. He is not only selling his hentage out, he is selling himself out
This was a very enjoyable play that I would love to see portrayed on stage In fact, having actual Mexican Amencan characters
would make it even funnier Reading it in class With the Mexican accents and Mexican/Amencan accents was hilarious and a
wonderful technique It really made an impression on me It is just amazing to me how we all stereotype people Without even realizing
essaypedia.com