Analysis of Los Vendidos and Exploitation of Mexican-Americans
The short play Los Vendidos portrayed by el Teatro Campesino shows the history of Mexican-Americans. It shows racist perceptions and actions towards Mexican-Americans. The title itself implies the exploitation of Chicanos. In translation from Spanish "Vendidos" can mean either those who sell-out others, or those who are sold. In the play either meaning can be applied. Those who are sold would be the eleven different characters that Sancho describes. But, the "sell-out" could be Ms. Jimenez, a main character, who is the exemplary "white-washed" Mexican-American.
The Teatro Campesino was a theater group that originated on the picket-lines in Delano in 1965. They were improve actors who cleverly mocked the large business owners that were exploiting the invaluable Mexican-American labor force. In fact, they were such an important factor in the American economy that when the Mexican-American youth were so quickly drafted for the Vietnam War the business owners of the plantations where these youth had been working were resentful, "Local rural youths were being drafted so fast…that…owners of large farms and ranches…voiced stern protests with the local draft boards." ( Vargas, Zaragosa, Major Problems in Mexican American History. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999. P 304)
The play takes into account the major personalities and characters of Mexican-Americans in history. The Mexican peon, farm worker, pachuco, vato, zoo-suiter, boxer, barrio family, militant student, Vietnam veteran, cowboy-type bandit, and the gringo or "white-washed" Mexican-American are major figures in American history. In the play these figures are "items to be sold." The selling of these f...
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...he play has a lot of various symbols that reflect Mexican-American history. It attacks important issues, such as white-washed Mexican-Americans, police brutality, the Vietnam War, poverty, and labor organization. In the end of the play the vendidos are being sold to white-washed Americans, but it is in an attempt to survive. It suggests that there is logic to the Vendidos. There is a master plan that will bring about a positive outcome for Mexican-Americans. They may be pretending to be robots, but in reality they are in control of themselves. Raza, one of the characters at the end says to the rest of the group, "God help us to be humans." He says that it does not matter if the Americans think they are robots for now, as long as they continue to be humans. For the vendidos, being human is reacting to oppression and exploitation in any way you must in order to survive.
‘A Fabricated Mexican’ is a novel by Ricky Rivera in which he chronicles his life as he grows from a child farm worker to a Ph.D. candidate. He takes us through his journey in his search for his personal identity. In the book we find that his journey has not been an easy one. This difficult journey is due to many factors, most importantly the people who have surrounded him during this journey.
Literary magazines were not remotely interested in publishing Gilb’s stories, which focus primarily on the professional and personal struggles of working-class Mexican Americans. But his unapologetic stories about working-class Mexican Americans have made him a voice of his people (Reid130). Gilb’s short stories are set vividly in cites of the desert Southwest and usually feature a Hispanic protagonist who is good-hearted but often irresponsible and is forever one pink slip or automotive breakdown away from disaster (Reid130).
In this short story Sandra uncover the tension between Mexican heritage and demands of the American culture. Cleofilas life consisted of never ending chorus, no good brothers, and a complaining father. She is so excited when the day come for her to become married so she can move away from her town where she grew up, were there isn’t much to do except accompany the aunts and godmothers to the house of one or the other to play cards. She was excited to be far away, all she could think about was to have a lovely house and to wear outfits like the women on the tele. Her picture of the ideal Mexican wife soon became a nightmare when she finally arrived to Texas, where she
The fundamental conflict that led to their arrest and unfair trial was a clash between Mexican-Americans and the dominant White American culture. Acting as a host, El Pachuco is the spirit of the ideal, defiant Pachuco and serves as Henry’s Reyna’s alter ego throughout the play, intermingling past Mexican culture with the current Zoot Suit culture. El Pachuco serves as a corrective to illustrate the heavy biases that the court and media displayed throughout the 1940s against Chicano people. Through his constant interjections during the courtroom scene, and his final confrontation with the reporter at the conclusion of the play, he points out the injustices that Mexican-Americans had to endure. El Pachuco highlights each point in which the court discriminates or treats the Zoot Suiters unfairly.
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
There has been a long standing turf war Between obstetricians and midwives, but this article explains for that might be coming to an end. Britian’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence discovered that it is safer for healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies to give birth at home with the supervision of midwives. Studies have shown that doctors are much more like to use interventions such as forceps, spinal anesthesia and cesarean section, when unnecessary and those procedure carry risks of inaction and surgical accidents. Many studies have shown that midwives provide care just as well or even better than obstetricians, when mothers are expected to deliver a single baby at full term and the babies head is presenting first in the birth canal. “The professional society for obstetricians, however, cites evidence that planned home birth carries an increased risk of neonatal death, compared with planned hospital birth.” Some medical center are trying to have the best of both worlds by allowing midwives to have more a independence within the
A white picket fence surrounds the tangible icons of the American Dreams in the middle 1900's: a mortgage, an automobile, a kitchen appliance paid for on the monthly - installment - plan, and a silver trophy representative of high school football triumph. A pathetic tale examining the consequences of man's harmartias, Arthur Miller's "Death of A Salesman" satisfies many, but not all, of the essential elements of a tragedy. Reality peels away the thin layers of Willy Loman's American Dream; a dream built on a lifetime of poor choices and false values.
The Chicana/o identity has developed through the history of Mexican-Americans living in the United States. Chicana/o identity is multi-layered and self-identified. Although, it does not have a set definition, I will highlight examples of different forms of representations that helped claimed this identity. Through various examples of Denise A. Segura and Beatriz M. Pesquera article “Beyond Indifference and Antipathy”, “Chicana Identity Matters” article by Deena J. Gonzalez, “Chicano Teatro” article by Jorge A. Huerta, “Their Dogs Came With Them” novel by Helena María Viramontes, and Murals by Judith Baca and David Alfaro Siqueiros, they will illuminate the historic struggle that creates and defines Chicana/o identity. The Chicana/o term has been very complex throughout time as a form of identity. However, Mexican-Americans were given this long history of misrepresentation as being dumb, lazy, inferior, servile, sexualized and/or criminal. One example of it would be the creation of Olvera Street in Los Angeles. In I will argue that through numerous forms of representations, Chicana/o identity is multi-dimensional and has developed through Mexican-Americans life experiences and the influence from the larger white U.S society. Lastly, I will demonstrate this by including the representations of gender, race, citizenship, and class to expose the self-identified Chicana/o identity.
Latinos have struggled to discover their place inside of a white America for too many years. Past stereotypes and across racism they have fought to belong. Still America is unwilling to open her arms to them. Instead she demands assimilation. With her pot full of stew she asks, "What flavor will you add to this brew?" Some question, some rebel, and others climb in. I argue that it is not the Latino who willingly agreed to partake in this stew. It is America who forced her ideals upon them through mass media and stale history. However her effort has failed, for they have refused to melt.
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
In essence, Antonio shows that he is unsure if he truly believes in his religion because of his acceptance of other beliefs, the new ideas that he learns, and the deaths of Narciso and Lupito. Antonio’s experiences lead him to believe that he is in charge of his destiny and he has the ability to choose what he wants, not what his parents want. In the end, Antonio determines his religious values based on what he believes in, so he tells himself to “[t]ake the Ilano and the river valley, the moon and the sea, God and the golden carp and make something new” (247). Antonio’s encounters with religion represent those who follow their religion but are not content with it. All in all, the story suggests that sometimes people want to learn other ideas to discover what fits them best.
As the title suggests, a “pushed” birth is one that is unnecessarily induced, and/or managed, with an abundance of unjustifiable intrusions. The title of the book describes the feelings of many American women who feel “pushed” into making drastic decisions – decisions that they may not be emotionally prepared for. Block expresses that the title of her book came long before she even wrote it (Block, 2007, page xiii). Through her many conversations with expectant mothers, she would often hear them express a desire for a non-interventional and natural birth. Unfortunately, many women “felt tremendous pressure from their medical providers to go against instinct and … to induce labor, to schedule a cesarean, to lie back during labor when every cell in their body felt like moving. Women are supposed to push their babies out; instead, they felt they were being pushed around” (Block, 2007, page xiii).
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
The author of this short story, Sandra Cisneros used this myth to make herself different from other American writers. She used ideas from things and stories she heard growing up as a Mexican-American woman, living in a house full of boys that got all of the attention (Mathias). Cisneros also grew up in the 19...
The play “Fences”, written by August Wilson, shows a detailed interpretation about the life of a typical African-American family living in the twentieth century. Troy Maxson, the main character and the man of the house, a strict man with the family, hardworking, and at the same time a pleasure seeker. Jim Bono is Troy’s best friend from thirty odd years, a very friendly fellow who works with Troy and is really close to him. They both enjoy the company of each other every Friday on a bottle of an alcoholic beverage. Both characters are characterized based on being typical African American men living in the twentieth century. Even though Troy and Bono are very close friends, their actions and personalities sometimes conflict each other; this essay will focus on similarities and differences between the two characters to prove that even though they are close friends and acquire similarities, they still have different believes and behaviors.