Honest Sancho
Sancho is the owner of Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop, a store in California that sells robots or models with stereotypical attributes of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans or Chicanos. He attempts to sell a model robot to “The Secretary” (Miss Jiménez) by enthusiastically describing the specifications of each stereotyped model in hopes of finding her preference.
Miss Jiménez (The Secretary)
She is referred to as “The Secretary” in that she is a secretary from Governor Reagan’s office. Miss Jiménez is described as a Chicana who has assimilated into the American culture even correcting the Mexican pronunciation of her now Anglicized name. She in search of the perfect Mexican model for a political campaign in order to appeal to a low-income populace.
Farm Worker
As the first stereotype model that Honest Sancho presents, the Farm Worker is described as durable, hardworking, compliant and economical. The model characterizes the mid-20th-century Mexican laborers who were new immigrants in America. Jiménez, however, does not buy him because he does not speak English.
Johnny Pachuco
Pachuco is the stereotype Chicano street gangster model during 1960s California. After Jimenez requests a more sophisticated and urban model than the Farm Worker, who also speaks English, Pachuco is recommended. Pachuco is described as economical, streamlined and walks with a Chicano bounce, he is rude, violent, cusses and dances. Sancho suggests him as a perfect scapegoat for criminal activities as young urban Chicanos were stereotyped as thugs brutalized by law enforcers.
Revolucionario
One of the “robots” that can be manipulated by shouting commands, this robot is illustrated as a romantic model who is a glorified idealist of Early California. The Revolucionario is suggested by Sancho after Jimenez requests for a more traditional Mexican. He is described as the ideal Mexican who rides horses and a hero or martyr who leads revolutions. However, she denies him after she realizes he is not American-made but totally Mexican.
Eric Garcia
Garcia is described as the contemporary American Chicano prototype who is bilingual, well-educated, ambitious, and polite. He is also the most expensive “robot”. Though reluctant, Jiménez accepts to purchase him for a sum of $15,000, before the model starts protesting in Spanish. He represents the acculturated Mexican-Americans such as Miss Jimenez who completely assimilate to the culture abandoning their Mexican heritage.
