Mistreatment of Mexicans in America, in Addition,

¶ … mistreatment of Mexicans in America, in addition, it portrays the treatment of Mexican women by their own society as mirroring the very discrimination and disrespect that they are treated with as a race. There were three sources used to complete this paper.

LITERATURE SHOWS SOCIETY'S DEFECTS

Throughout history the authors of literature have used their works to educate readers about a serious societal problem as they foresee it. The treatment of Mexicans in this country is not always understood or brought to public light. There are three plays which do in fact depict the treatment of Mexican immigrants here in America and on a side note the plays display the discrimination shown to Mexican women by their own race. It is interesting to compare the plays and discover the very treatment they try and change they subject their women to.

When one initially reads the plays: "Simply Maria" by Josefina Lopez, "Actos" by Luis Valdez, and "Real Women have Curves" also by Josefina Lopez, one could easily mistake the plays as simple entertainment about several people and their lives. However once one peels off the top coat and examines the underpinnings of the works one easily sees the undertone that is woven throughout the stories and their character. Each of the examined plays reveals much more than a look at the daily life of those in the work. The plays also show the reader how down trodden we have forced the Mexican immigrant to become. We have forced them into situations in which they find themselves grateful to be treated almost as well as we treat pet dogs in this country (Valdez, Actos).

In Simply Maria the reader is given a foundational understanding of the way Mexican women are often viewed and treated even by their own race. The play opens with an understanding of what it takes for a family to immigrate to America. Often times the father has to travel ahead and it may be years before he can send for his family (Lopez, Simply). Once they arrive they are expected to live as if they are still in Mexico and all the traditions that go with it. This leaves a mixed message for young ladies who grow up in a country, which embraces female independence, yet parents who feel it is sinful and wrong are raising them.

The strength of tradition is emphasized when the female voices recite the duties of a woman including clean, cook, submit and many other tasks. This play is a wonderful example of the irony within the race itself when the immigrants migrate to America. The participants of the old school of though do not realize they treat females in the same manner that they are treated by Americans. It makes them feel sad and angry and trodden upon, yet they do the same thing to the women they bring across the border (Lopez, Simply).

Simply Maria she is made to feel she let her parents down by doing so well in school but not doing well in the female chore area of life. We are given subtle hints that her father cannot read, but instead of being proud of Maria he is angry that she has seemingly stepped over her womanly duties and competed with the men in the world (Lopez, Simply). There is a constant belittling of her ambitions and an insistenace that she is to perform womanly duties and not have aspirations. There are several references in the play that her dad believes girls are stupid.

In Actos the reader is given a close up view of the attitudes with which many Mexicans are treated with here. The boss talks to the farm worker as if he is stupid because he is a laborer and spends much of the play trying to convince the farmhand he is the lucky one. He is reminded of the "free room and truck use." Anytime the farmhand explains the substandard living conditions he is forced to endure he is hushed by the boss who has the guts to ask the farmhand if he knows how much trouble it is to own a house and a Lincoln Continental. The overall assumption is ignorance on the farmhand's part. There is also the underlying attitude that he, as well as others should be grateful for their meager existence and a union would only wreck it. The way the boss speaks to the farm worker is in such a manner that he most likely treats his pet dog better than he treats the workers. It allows the reader t experience and understands the shoddy way immigrants are often viewed and treated.

In the final example we are given the opportunity to discover how immigrants feared being deported. The play provides insight as to the years of fear they experience and the lengths they are willing to go to avoid deportation including unsafe working conditions and sexual assaults. The females in the play are two fold lessons for the reader. We experience firstly the way women view they. They are afraid of their spouses and they believe they belong in menial work. In addition we are shown the fear they have of INS and the lengths they are willing to go to avoid it (Lopez, Real).

Each of the three plays tells a different story but each of them has an important commonality. Each play displays the imagined righting of the wrongs. In Simply Maria, she sees in a dream that she can stand up and no one can stop her. She is given control after almost losing it and she is shown her own ability to be empowered. It is what gives her the courage to leave and follow her dreams of college and life after college. In Actos the boss is suddenly in the position of the worker and he quickly understands the horrors he asked the works to endure with a straight face. In the third play we see the man who was abusive taken down and the women become empowered to quit the orders for those who treat them badly.