Stereotypes In the play Los Vendidos, Luis Valdez portrays four different stereotypes of Mexican's. There is the farm worker, Johnny, the revolucionario, and the Mexican-American. Some people would consider this play to be offensive, but Valdez is not necessarily making Mexican's look bad, he is simply giving each Mexican a different personality. These personalities just happen to be Mexican stereotypes. In this essay, I will explain the different stereotypes represented, why people should not take offense to this play, and provide some examples of other stereotypes that could have been used in place of the Mexican's.
The first Mexican Valdez describes is the farm worker. He is hard working in the fields. He pick's grapes, cotton, and melon's. He is also economical. The farm worker runs off of one plate of beans and tortillas. He does not speak English at all. The Mexican farm worker is of the lower class.
Publicity photo of the comedy team Cheech & Chong.
Cheech & Chong at the Tabernacle in Atlanta from t...
George Ballentine Mexican-American warWe see many of them in fields, especially in the South. They do not have very much money, and usually make below minimum wage. And many of them are not American citizens.
The next Mexican stereotype portrayed in the play is Johnny. He is a fast, low riding, city life, urban model. He is also bilingual; fluent in both Spanish and English. Johnny is very economical, living off of hamburgers, Taco Bell tacos, Lucky Lager beer, cheap wine, and marijuana. Johnny is a thief also. Johnny represents the lower middle class urban Mexican's. They are known for riding around in fast, low riding cars, with dark tinted windows, and loud stereo systems. They also smoke a lot of marijuana, but do not usually do many other drugs because they do not have enough money. The majority of them are also thought to be thieves.
The revolucionario is the...