In the play, Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez, it is evident that the purpose of the play is to illustrate how Americans treat Mexicans in the United States in order to show the audience how Mexicans feel about their treatment from Americans. The Mexican-American playwright, Luis Valdez, brilliantly utilized satirical and absurdist elements in this play in order to emphasize the ideas that Mexicans are treated as objects and that few Mexicans, such as Miss Jimenez from the play, try to conform with American society in order to avoid this treatment while others are seemingly fine with this mindset. With this in mind, Los Vendidos is used to communicate the ideas of how mostly everyone is fine about the way Mexicans are treated in the United States
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For example, in page 1, when Miss Jimenez was introduced in the play, she was shown correcting Sancho to pronounce her last name in English, “JIM-enez”, rather than the pronunciation in Spanish. As a result of this, it is evident that Luis Valdez cleverly illustrated a Chicana who attempts to hide her culture in order to assimilate in a different culture so that she can attempt to avoid racial discrimination. Furthermore, Miss Jimenez perplexingly inquiried Sancho that “Don’t you speak English? What’s wrong with you?” (1) which unquestionably illustrates Miss Jimenez as a Chicana that is essentially blinded with the assimilation from American society. With this in mind, Luis Valdez purposely utilized Miss Jimenez as the point of view of Mexican-Americans who fundamentally try to conceal their original identity in order to conform with societal norms. Another example that portrays a Mexican-American that attempts to conform to American society in order to evade discriminatory treatment from Americans is the portrayal of the Mexican-American character Eric García. One reason why Eric García illustrates a Mexican-American that attempts to conform to American society in order to evade discriminatory treatment from Americans is due to him obeying Miss Jimenez orders and how he is seemingly referred to as “patriotic” (9). However, it is later shown that Eric García no longer attempts to conform with American society, thus leading him to defy Miss Jimenez’s orders and stating various hate statements towards white people such as “¡Raza queria, vamos levantado arms para liberarnos de estos desgraciados gabachos que nos explotan! Vamos…”
For example, in page 1, when Miss Jimenez was introduced in the play, she was shown correcting Sancho to pronounce her last name in English, “JIM-enez”, rather than the pronunciation in Spanish. As a result of this, it is evident that Luis Valdez cleverly illustrated a Chicana who attempts to hide her culture in order to assimilate in a different culture so that she can attempt to avoid racial discrimination. Furthermore, Miss Jimenez perplexingly inquiried Sancho that “Don’t you speak English? What’s wrong with you?” (1) which unquestionably illustrates Miss Jimenez as a Chicana that is essentially blinded with the assimilation from American society. With this in mind, Luis Valdez purposely utilized Miss Jimenez as the point of view of Mexican-Americans who fundamentally try to conceal their original identity in order to conform with societal norms. Another example that portrays a Mexican-American that attempts to conform to American society in order to evade discriminatory treatment from Americans is the portrayal of the Mexican-American character Eric García. One reason why Eric García illustrates a Mexican-American that attempts to conform to American society in order to evade discriminatory treatment from Americans is due to him obeying Miss Jimenez orders and how he is seemingly referred to as “patriotic” (9). However, it is later shown that Eric García no longer attempts to conform with American society, thus leading him to defy Miss Jimenez’s orders and stating various hate statements towards white people such as “¡Raza queria, vamos levantado arms para liberarnos de estos desgraciados gabachos que nos explotan! Vamos…”