Luis Valdez's Los Vendidos
"Los Vendidos," directed by Luis Valdez, is a remarkable play that looks into the historical struggles, stereotypes and challenges of Mexican Americans in a unique fashion. Rather than tell the history of Mexican Americans through documentaries and actual footage, the play conveys its message about the true history of Mexican Americans in the United States through both subtle and blatant techniques.
Mexican American struggles in the United States date back to the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492. For over five hundred years, Mexicans have endured social injustices and inequalities at the hands of their superiors. The mistreatment of the native people of this land is constantly overlooked for "…the main goals shaping Spanish colonial policy were to maintain and expand political control and to convert Indians to Christianity." (Vargas p.30) With this mindset, the basic nature of relations between the dominant Anglos and the inferior Mexicans was that of suppression, rejection, ignorance and separation as opposed to establishment of ideals that would foster cultural relations and produce the true definition of a "melting pot" society.
These basic ideals of cruelty and mistreatment toward Mexican Americans, as well as the Anglo view of Spaniards as "unusually cruel, avarious, treacherous, fanatical, superstitious, cowardly, corrupt, decadent, indolent, and authoritarian" (Weber p.336) are visible in "Los Vendidos." The shop owner, Mr. Sancho, introduces himself and explains how he was a former labor worker, but how he has become more successful and now runs the shop. His attire is that of a respectable American; he is dressed in a suit, clean cut, and well kept, yet his skin tone, his acce...
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...cept of model Mexican Americans being traded, bartered, bought and sold for a price, as depicted in the play, is an accurate portrayal of what has taken place in Mexican American history. Mexican Americans have been accustomed to such inhumane acts and they continue to be looked upon as "Mexican" though their rights as citizens just as valid as the rights of any immigrant to this country. "Los Vendidos," or the sell-outs, had to familiarize themselves with the notion of selling short their heritage in order to establish a new heritage in this new land.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Class Notes
2. Valdez, Luis. "Los Vendidos."
3. Vargas, Zaragosa. Major Problems in Mexican American History. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1999.
4. Weber, David. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1992.
5. World Wide Web
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