Satire and Irony in Valdezs Los Vendidos: Fighting for the Civil Rights of Mexican Americans - Research Paper Example

14 July Satire and Irony in Valdez’s Los Vendidos: Fighting for the Civil Rights of Mexican Americans Mexican American journalist Ruben Navarrette Jr., an Editorial Board Member of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a regular contributor to USA Today and CNN.com, explains that vendido is one of the harshest labels that Hispanics can call one another. Luis Valdez’s 1967 play, Los Vendidos, which means “The Sellouts,” uses the emotional impact of the word vendido to strike the hearts of Chicanos and to awaken their minds about the social issues that affect them during this time. Los Vendidos is a one-act play, where Honest Sancho helps the secretary of Governor Ronald Reagan in finding the “perfect” Mexican American for the American government. The paper explores the meaning and implications of Los Vendidos to Chicanos in specific and American society in general through illustrating the themes of Chicano identity and struggles in the context of racial discrimination and civil rights movement. The play is a political satire that explores the use of language, conflicts, symbols, characterization, and irony in demonstrating the life of Chicanos who fight for civil rights and freedoms by dismantling Chicano stereotypes, challenging government tokenism, and exposing the illusion of the American Dream. Los Vendidos is a political satire on the role of Chicanos or Mexican Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. The play is one of the several actos or acts that Valdez uses to evoke the social awareness of what he calls la plebe or La Raza or the Chicano people (Brennan et al. 3). Valdez has written in the genre of political satires because 1960s was the climax of the Civil Rights Movement. These comic acts serve to challenge the system that produces and reinforces poverty among Chicanos, whether the poverty is economic and cultural/social (Patell 365). Los Vendidos reproduces the lessons of the 1965 Delano Grape Strike. Barbara J. Davis, the author of The National Grape Boycott: A Victory for Farmworkers, describes the causes and actions of the national grape boycott, which included the Delano Grape Strike. The Grape strikes and boycotts were conducted by Filipino and Chicano farm worker because they were being paid less than guest workers from Mexico (Davis 57). These farm workers demanded equal wages, particularly the right to the federal minimum wage. Los Vendidos is produced after these strikes and boycotts, where Valdez seeks to sustain awareness on this issue, so that Chicanos will continuously fight for positive social changes. The Mexican American’s shouts at the end of the play emphasize the context of workers’ strikes: “?VIVA LA CAUSA! VIVA LA HUELGA!” Valdez 75). Despite being chosen by the secretary, he remains a Chicano inside who fights for Chicano rights. Los Vendidos is a satire that argues for political action toward widespread social changes. Another source explores the connection between Valdez’s play and the civil rights movement. Brennan and colleagues wrote a biography on Luiz Valdez. They stress that Valdez’s plays talk about his people, the pueblo or La Raza. Valdez argues that the actos “must be popular, subject to no other critics except the pueblo itself, but it must also educate the pueblo toward an appreciation of social change, on and off the stage” (qtd. in Brennan et al. 3). He implies that Los Vendidos attacks the socio-economic and political system that produces the social issues of the Chicanos. When the secretary complains about the strike-rallying Mexican American, Sancho reminds her that he is a product of American society. He indicates that Chicano struggles are the effects of American society’s inequalities. However, the play underlines that Chicanos must also be aware of their plight and fight for better conditions through lobbying for equal civil rights in the workplace and society, which occurred through the nationwide farm worker strikes during the 1960s. Their fight contributed to the Civil Rights Movement because the distinct issues and problems of Chicanos were highlighted. In the end, the Mexican American mobilizes other robots for the strike. Their action illustrates the civil rights action from the side of the Chicanos. Like other political satires, Los Vendidos criticizes American society and the people, so that the people can change society to better fit their interests. One of the mechanisms that Valdez uses to effectively connect to Chicanos is the use of bilingualism and Chicano cultural elements. Bilingualism is one of the facets of Chicano reality, which Los Vendidos exemplifies. Honest Sancho is a Chicano who uses English and Spanish in his everyday language. His first lines are a mixture of Spanish and English. He says: “Bueno, bueno, mis monos, vamos a ver a quien vendemos ahora, ?no?...I’m Honest Sancho and this is my shop” (Valdez line 1). By speaking in English and Spanish, Valdez appeals to his main target audience, the Chicanos. He tells them that his play discusses Chicano issues, which creates an intimate relationship with the latter. Furthermore, bilingualism underscores the cultural characteristics and practices of Chicanos. Sancho mentions Chicano food. He tells the secretary that the Farm Worker eats a “plate of beans and tortillas [which] will keep him going all day” (Valdez 34). By mentioning Latino food, Valdez reinforces his connection with the audience. Their food is cultural, and so is the play. Bilingualism and food are some of the elements that describe Chicano life, thereby emphasizing the importance of Chicano experience to the satirical aim of the play. The next element of the play that is crucial to the themes of racial discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement are internal and external conflicts. Honest Sancho demonstrates the inner conflict between his American and Chicano identities. As an American, he shows that assimilation is critical to success in America. Business is his means toward the American Dream that immigrants aim for (Valdez 1). He sells several types of Chicanos to the secretary, so that he can make a sale. As a Chicano, on the contrary, he is described as the sellout, or the vendido, because he sells his fellow Chicanos to assimilated Chicanos and Americans who do not value Chicano identity and do not respond to their concerns and interests. When the secretary rejects the farm worker because he does not speak in English, Sancho immediately offers the Johnny Pachuco model (Valdez 56). The secretary refuses him too later on, as well as the Revolucionario, until she accepts the Mexican American model. The selling process indicates that Sancho is not so honest after all. His name is a sarcastic labeling for Chicanos who cannot balance their Mexican and American values and interests. Several sources present their analysis of the vendidos and their role in contemporary American society. Maria-Tania Bandes-Becerra wrote a dissertation that analyzes several Hispanic scripts. She asserts that Los Vendidos represents Chicano frustrations with the division within their La Raza. She says: “Los Vendidos illustrates…the frustration the community felt when people sharing the same heritage would go against the cause for better working conditions for farm workers” (Bandes-Becerra 125-126). Instead of supporting the causes of his people, Sancho makes money out of their marginalized status. Another exploiter is the secretary. She has sold out her people because she has fully assimilated to the American culture. For instance, she corrects Sancho’s pronunciation of her name and tells him: “My name is Miss JIM-enez. Don’t you speak English? What’s wrong with you?” (Valdez 6). By saying this, she condemns Sancho for his Chicano accent. College English teacher Julie Bolt calls Sancho and the secretary “exploiters of their own” (72). They are selling their Chicano identity so that they can be perceived as the right kind of Americans, such as Americans without any Chicano accent or concern for the Chicano poor. These inner conflicts underscore the problem with assimilation that results to racial discrimination even among Chicanos, and assimilation which promotes the Chicano’s fight for equal civil rights. Aside from inner conflict, the play describes individual-versus-society conflict, especially between marginalized minority groups and the government. Los Vendidos criticizes the American government for its token approach to Chicanos. The secretary is looking for a Chicano figure for an American event and for the American government. She wants a Mexican, but one who looks, acts, and talks like an American. He must be “not too dark” (Valdez 6), “hardworking” (Valdez 7), “more sophisticated” (Valdez 53), fluent in English, and skilled in politics. However, he must not participate in or lead strikes. In short, she wants someone who is the best puppet for the government, not the best representative for the Chicano people. Navarrette notes the use of “token Hispanic” in the American government during these times (15). Token Hispanics are not thinking and proactive Hispanic American politicians because they only follow what assimilation-centered Americans wanted. Valdez emphasizes American government’s goal of assimilation for minorities, when the Mexican American delivers a sample speech: “The problems of the Mexican stem from one thing and one thing alone: He’s stupid. He’s uneducated. He needs to stay in school…He needs to think American, American, American, AMERICAN…” (Valdez 149). His speech underscores that assimilation pertains to changing everything Hispanic, from language to thinking to actions. The Mexican American represents the conflict between Chicanos who want to be Chicano despite being American and the society that condemns ethnic loyalty and identity. Along with conflicts, characterization and symbolism emphasize the determination of the play in undermining Chicano stereotypes. One of the points of the play is that the American dream is a sham because Chicanos, whether poor or middle-class are treated as inferior to Americans, and so Chicanos have to undermine these stereotypes to survive and to fight for their civil rights. Los Vendidos satirizes Chicano stereotypes with racist and class status exaggerations. Sancho, for example, sells a farmworker who can work on any task and all day long, costs only “pennies a day” (Valdez 36), and can be put in tens in a shack with no worries (Valdez 38). The robotic nature of the farmworker and the rest of the robots symbolize the inhumane treatment of these Chicanos. Furthermore, the play underscores the downsides of assimilation in a society that has prejudice against minorities. When Johnny says bad words to the secretary, Sancho reminds her that he learned it from the American public school system (Valdez 71). The statement criticizes the low-quality education that public schools provide, where the education system educates Chicanos only enough for them to speak enough English and to learn enough knowledge that will keep them at low-skilled jobs. One more interesting character is the Mexican American. Sancho describes him as the “apex of American engineering” (Valdez 135). He means that the Mexican American has assimilated and conforms to American expectations of what a Mexican American should be. The Mexican American is so American that he cannot even eat Hispanic food continuously (Valdez 149). He has been changed inside out- a symbol of what assimilation does to minorities. Moreover, the low regard for Mexicans appears in the secretary’s reaction on the Mexican American’s price: “Fifteen thousand DOLLARS? For a MEXICAN?” (Valdez 158). Racial prejudice and discrimination are clear because she is saying that a Mexican does not deserve a high value because he/she is a Mexican. These stereotyped characterizations of workers, city people, revolutionaries, and assimilated Mexican Americans underscore the prejudice against Chicanos. To attain improvements in civil rights and freedoms, the play further shows the ironies that call Chicanos to action. The first irony is situational irony that happens when the Mexican American turns on the secretary. He is supposed to be like her, someone who is willing to be a slave to American interests and act like nothing is wrong. However, he becomes violent and incites the other Hispanic robots to aggression. The irony demonstrates that whites should not undermine the capacity of Hispanics for critical social analysis and collective action. The second irony is dramatic irony. Dramatic irony happens when the play reveals that it is Sancho who is the robot, not the robots. The Revolucionario calls Sancho “the best model” they got (Valdez 195). The ending represents the intelligence and social collectiveness of the Chicanos. Bolt underscores that the ending asserts that Chicanos can subvert the stereotypes that malign them (72). Cyrus R.K. Patell asserts that Valdez writes plays to educate and to organize farm workers in particular. She notes that Los Vendidos is one of the comic acto plays that Valdez wrote to stimulate interest in and support for the organizations of farm workers who were then fighting for their right to the federal minimum wage. She states that the play aims to popularize and to dramatize the plight of farm workers, so that they are persuaded to take action on their social, political, and economic problems (Patell 365). Los Vendidos is not only a satire that criticizes Chicanos who sold out and people who denigrate Chicanos, but a call for mobilization toward social action. The play aims to produce widespread changes in how people see and interact with Chicanos by showing that Chicanos are aware of these stereotypes and they will fight to change it. It shows that Chicano stereotypes are false and demeaning. It argues that Chicano workers are abused and discriminated upon. The play has an ultimate end which it effectively attains: to persuade Chicanos to fight for equal rights and freedoms and to make society aware of their struggles. Los Vendidos does not sell out the true Chicanos. It builds up their fight and sustains it- toward the rebuilding of Chicano identity and the establishment of Chicano future. Works Cited Bandes-Becerra, Maria-Tania. Becoming American: A Discovery of the Process of Immigrant Acclimatization as Seen in Hispanic/Latino Scripts. Dissertation. Wayne State University, 2008. Web. 9 July 2013. Bolt, Julie. “Teaching Los Actos of Luis Valdez.” Radical Teacher 91 (2011): 71-73. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 July 2013. Brennan, Timothy, Taylor, Thomas J., McClenaghan, Robert, and Anne Fletcher. “Luis Miguel Valdez.” Critical Survey of Drama, 2nd ed: 1-5. Literary Reference Center. Web. 9 July 2013. Davis, Barbara J. The National Grape Boycott: A Victory for Farmworkers. Minnesota: Compass Point, 2008. Print. Patell, Cyrus R.K. “Emergent Ethnic Literatures: Native American, Hispanic, Asian American.” Concise Companion to Postwar American Literature and Culture. Ed. Josephine G. Hendin. Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2004. 351-382. Print. Navarrette Jr., Ruben. “Vendido.” Hispanic 20.1 (2007): 14-15. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 July 2013. Valdez, Luis. Los Vendidos. 1967. Web. 9 July 2013. Screen Shots of Secondary Sources Used Brennan et al. 3 Davis 57 Patell 365 Bandes-Becerra 125-126 Bolt 72 Navarrette 15 Read More