Luis Valdez's Los Vendidos: themes and cultural significance

Luis Valdez/Los Vendidos

How does Luis Valdez construct the stereotypes in Los Vendidos? What are they made of? Describe the components of three of the stereotypes.

Stereotypes are mental 'shorthands' for people, places and things we do not know well. We make generalizations based upon our past experiences, and the less experience we have with a person, place, or thing, the broader and shakier our ideas are likely to be. To overcome stereotypes, the person who is at the receiving end of the stereotype has two basic defenses: He or she can desperately show that he or she is nothing like the stereotype or by using humor he or she can embrace the stereotype and mock its absurdity.

It is this second strategy that the playwright Luis Valdez employs in Los Vendidos. The characters are not simply stereotypes: they assault the audience with their over-the-top bravado. For example, Johnny, a character from the 'hood' is hyper-sexualized, hyper-masculine, sings, is constantly getting into knife fights, and is easily angered. He drinks heavily and eats fast food. This might be called the modern-day version of the West Side Story stereotype: the hot-blooded Latino who must be 'saved' from himself, from his gang lifestyle and unhealthy habits by whites (and also fact that whites must be saved from his desires). A more positive version of the Mexican-American character may be seen in the buttoned-down 'Young Republican,' who is always saying how much he loves America. But this character is another white fantasy, and is clearly not 'real' because it suggests that the only good Latino is one who completely assimilates.

Like Johnny, the 'good' Mexican-American is another example of how Mexicans are portrayed in the media as white projections -- as projections of their fears like Johnny, or as fantasies of those who totally assimilate and confirm white prejudices about the negative and inferior nature of Mexican culture. Another fantasy is that of the migrant worker, who is submissive to the whites, loves to eat chili, always goes back to Mexico when he is told and cannot speak English. The servile quality of this white-influenced stereotype is further reinforced by the idea of Mexicans being 'sold' like used car models -- this shows how dehumanized Mexican-Americans are in white society, as they are treated like laborers, not as individuated human beings, and how the concept of a type of Mexican is indeed a 'model' -- another word for a stereotype.

Johnny embodies the fears of white society -- that Latino men are more sexualized than white men, and more violent. The Mexican-American is a Republican fantasy, a man who can eat Mexican food at a political meeting for show, but prefers sipping martinis. And the migrant is another fantasy, a man who does not mind his submissive lot in life and is glad for what he is given by whites. The constructed nature of these types is shown by the plot of the play, as a Hispanic secretary from Governor Reagan's office tries to hide her Mexican identity when she is 'shopping' for a Mexican to include in the administration, presumably to divert bad publicity. This demonstrates political tokenism at its worst, and the hypocrisy of people who claim to be 'friends' of Mexicans but do not really seek to understand them as culture, or as people.