Luis Valdez; born in 1940, is still recalled for his hard work he did for theater. He is the founder of El Tetra Campesino. He is also honored as the father of American theater. In terms of theater and its history, Valdez’s thoughts are considered of high importance. By using the story telling methods and staying in the matrix of aesthetic as well as political concepts he is an expert in delineating the evolution of the theater farm workers in America.
Zoot Suit is the first Chicano play on the Broadway that incorporates bilingual and alienated Mexican Americans. The play use songs, dances and unified narratives based on the traditional values of Mexican era. The play defines the zuit-suiter’s killing until it was stopped by the United States.
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The imprisoned marine and navy are presented in contrast with yellow journalism and with an entirely different face of reality by taking help of dancing and singing that is interrupted by the police violence, massive arresting and extreme police interrogation.
According to one of the characters of the play; the actions are scattering illusions and showing the realities along with provision of flashback that is adjoint with the protagonist like Henry Reyna. He is the one who is criticized in the white media as a hero. This insolent and existential actor always remains covered with the shades of Testati-Poka; the God of education. Rayna is a patriotic American who was about to step out of the war in the pacific region and become a culprit of Los Angeles Police. But the very moment, he got interrupted, while he was celebrating with his girlfriend. And the story goes on with a struggle and fight… while on the other hand, the Los Vendido is also a production of Chicano theater written and directed by Luis Valdez. This play is based on the examination of the Latin and Californian stereotypes and reflecting a light on how they were treated by the federal government and other local authorities. This short play is basically shot in the Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop. This shop is a fictional store that sells a variety of models of Mexican and Mexican American, they can be operated by
retorting their fingers or by using certain commands. The play revolves around a secretary who converse with the owner of the store. She chastises the owner for bad spoken English. She also explained how the courteous Honest Sancho administration is looking for purchasing a Mexican type to drag a massive voting authority. The secretary is a Chicana, but seems a lot like an ignorant to the cultural stereotypes that are displayed in all four buyable characters. Sancho showed her a number of items but she kept on rejecting them until they reached to the final model. This final model was a -contemporary Mexican-American model with the name Eric Garcia; this model was well dressed and a fluent public speaker, well educated, Bilingual, polite as well as ambitious. She (Miss Jimenez) unwillingly agrees to buy this model. Suddenly the model starts acting like a vocal protest in Spanish. Within no time the model provokes the other models around and they joined him in protest. This reveals that they are human being rather than robots and they distribute the money equally between them and leave, the shop leaving the owner crying who is in need of an oil job; as he is the one who was the robot. The affinity of Valdez in terms of social actions is long known. Far back at the age of 25, when he founded the El Teatro Campesino to present the pain of migrants from the agricultural background in the region of California, he made the theater a powerful and impactful force to present the situation and the relations between the Mexicans and US in a dramatic manner. In a number of dramatic lectures at college and university level literature, Valdez is the only Latino artist. Thus plays like “Los Vendidos” are often presented to show concerns of the Mexican community. Valdez’s projects have snagged the notice for his that was probably his direction and was in authorship of “La Bema”. On the other hand Zoot Suit was made as a film, but Valdez explained that the budget was not enough and also that it has remained a constant battle to save the sufficient distribution. Many other works of Valdez are languished in their development. In the Zoot Suit he made some of the social progress in the Mexican and American relationship (Valdez). The Valdez partner of depicting the situations and the cultural differences is highly appreciated since the beginning of Chicano theater. It has a great influence on the audience. Hence Valdez is highly successful in delivering his message by using stage and related effects. Though the plays faced a huge sum of criticism but it is highly appreciated by the people at the same time. Thus, in short words Valdez is successful in merging the two plays as well as presenting the actual scenarios in a better way.
Throughout the play there are underlying theme that suggest different ideas. The themes I will discuss is how Mexican American men are portrayed in relation to women and the general public in the United States, the role the press played for the soul purpose of making money, and the struggle of young Mexican Americans to find a place, a style, or a chance to belong and be accepted without a negative stereotype. Pachuco seems to be the nagging conscience of Henry who is on trial for the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. The Pachuco character in his Zoot Suit has a fierce presence, which is seen by the Americans of this time as rebellious and gangster like. When describing the Zoot Suit Pachuco states, "PUT ON A ZOOT SUIT, MAKES YOU FEEL REAL ROOT LOOK LIKE A DIAMOND, SPARKLING, SHINING READY FOR DANCING READY FOR THE BOOGIE TONIGHT THE HEPCATS UP IN HARLEM WEAR THAT DRAPE SHAPE COMO LOS PACHUCONES DOWN IN L.A. WHERE HUISAS IN THEIR PRMPADOURS LOOK REAL KEEN ON THE DANCE FLOOR OF THE BALLROOMS DONDE BAILAN SWING. YOU BETTER GET HEP TONIGHT AND PUT ON THAT ZOOT SUIT!" (p. 26)
100). In social movements, the counterstances can be seen as the violent retaliations of an oppressed group of people, such as the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the Ferguson lootings which occurred recently. These riots are not a spontaneous act of rebellion, but instead are developed from concentrated amounts of stress and inability to create a strong enough voice with political merit. Estrella is a character that develops around the stress of social inequality. Her lifestyle is not standard of “normal American” children where education takes precedents over childhood labor. Viramontes creates Estrella’s background to allow the character to grow through constant stress. Estrella is conscious of her social standing; the experience she had at the baseball game when the “sheets of high-powered lights beamed on the playing field” (pg. 59) induced fear and stress that made Estrella want to retaliate against “La Migra”. Melina Pinales elaborated in class that when Estrella’s mother, Petra, says “you tell them the birth certificates are under the feet of Jesus,” the mother is saying that everyone is a child under God and a child of the earth therefore Estrella should have nothing to fear. Adding to this, Estrella has legitimate paperwork proving her citizenship in the United States. However, due to the nature of Estrella’s work, her
Vendidos or the sold out ones by Luis Valdez is an enlightening film about the Mexican struggle for survival in the United States. It is thought provoking and challenges the viewer to question some of the history and values that American education has engrained into our lifestyle. Although, the film is only about twenty-five minutes long, it is packed with symbolism and information about the Mexican history in the US. In particular, the film explores the Mexican identity issue.
Luis Valdez and August Wilson transformed the reflecting of multicultural in two plays through characters. Fences is the picture of the conflict culture for African-American in USA in 1957 and Zoot Suit is the picture of Mexican-American in USA in 1942. Different culture, Different people in the time period. That is affected by the racism and discrimination. The picture of the poor life and poor colors from characters on the stage in Fences. The poor languages, and the biggest fear come from by Troy Maxson. That is the lowest stream in American society. The Zoot Suit is the conflict reflecting between Mexican and American. They do not accept in the America society in 1942. El Pachuco is standing for the justice revolution and the equally rights
The author highlights the Latino stereotypes and their effects on those stereotyped and on society. By carrying out a satirical tone, the author is able to manifest how Mexicans are treated; thus, achieving this through the secretary’s rejection of each character represented. The satirical tone elucidates on how people may acknowledge their own prejudices and comprehend how Mexicans feel. Through the Mexican-American character, the author makes it clearly evident of an attempt to end prejudice in itself. The author illuminates the ludicrous hypocrisy behind labeling; this play serves to help society see the injustice of their opinions and to meet their
Rodriguez views California as a reconciliation between comedy and tragedy. It is both the place where many Mexicans immigrated to and the place where Americans move to escape the constraints of society. Mexicans hoped to experience the comedy of California-where it is possible to change your sex, divorce, and become famous. Even Rodriguez’s parents moved to California, and live in a house with many telephones and televisions.
She explains how Mexican and Chicano literature, music, and film is alienated; their culture is considered shameful by Americans. They are forced to internalize their pride in their culture. This conflict creates an issue in a dual culture society. They can neither identify with North American culture or with the Mexican culture.
Los Vendidos means the sell-outs. All the characters in the play sold-out at some point during the play. The characters sold out both their races and their way of life. I would say that the person who sold out the most was the Mexican-American because he sold-out both his Mexican, his American heritage and way of life. He wanted to be perfect, so when he found that the Americans and the Mexicans had their flaws he sold them out. He now has to search for a new and perfect race to identify with.
In Michelle's paper she recaps the history of Mexicans in the United States that was not completely dealt with in either the website or the movie. Michelle points out that the Latin@s history is essential to understanding the Mexicans experience. She also wrote of the Mexican's el movemiento and how the website and movie brought about different accounts of this momentous event.
The zoot suit symbolized several different things for the Mexican American population in the Los Angeles community. Not only was it a symbol of pride in their Mexican heritage, but also a form of rebellion from the norms emplaced upon the Mexican teenagers by their parents. These suits were also a symbol of unity, these young men wanted to look different and feel as if they’re culture could be something they could display and be proud of. This whole image was seen by the modern culture of Los Angeles to be “gang” related or distasteful. These “Pachuco” or punks often spoke a hybrid of English and Spanish, this was known as “calo.” However, many of the Mexican American teenagers at the time, spoke only English. The outfit often included pants wide at the knee often 40 inches or more, a broad shouldered jacket, hat, chain wallet and shined shoes called “calcos.”
"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.
Valle-Inclán and Lorca have both been very influential and important figures of the twentieth century Spanish theatre. During their time, the theatre was mainly made up of bourgeois theatregoers who did not enjoy thought provoking plays, but preferred a theatre that was conventional and contemporary. Both Valle and Lorca departed from convention and showed freedom in their style of writing, therefore earning their reputation of dramatists of utmost importance, respect and originality, who not only brought new trends to the Spanish theatre, but also embodied the signs of change and hope for the Spanish stage.
Here he presents use with some of the main characters who are Nayeli, Tacho, Vampi, Yolo, Matt, and Atomiko. The girls have been affected by the absence of the town’s men who have left the small town to seek work in the United States. The purpose in presenting us with the information of why these men have left the town is to present the fact, of why so many others in small towns like this one have left their towns, in search for work. He also provides a personal account of the everyday life of the people of Tres Camarones in a way that the reader can get a better idea of life in a small Mexican town. One of the main characters Nayeli is a dreamer, who fantasizes about living in a U.S. city and whose father that has left the town to the new world to seek work. The father was the town police man and someone who Nayeli looked up to. Nayeli and her friends take on a task to bring back seven men from the United States, for the purpose of helping to deal with the narcols that have threaten the daily life of the town’s people. But also feel that it is there duty to repopulate the town and prevent it from dying out. At this point the story takes on a different meaning and a new direction of heroism to save the town from the bad men. But the journey has many borders that the girls and one guy have to encounter in order to be successful. There are many different social and
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.
Theatre as we know it now was born more than two thousand years ago and has gone through many streams until it reached the current modernity. Among these streams is the avant-garde theatre. This theatre achieved a break in the traditional theatre and became the forefront of a new experimental theatre. Therefore it is necessary to ask how this theatre started, what impact it had on society and if this type of theatre is still common in our modern era.