Acculturation
The overarching motif of Los Vendidos is cultural assimilation and the tension between Mexican-Americans who embrace their culture and those that assimilate to the dominant American culture. In the play, this notion is explored through the stereotypes of Mexican who still hold on their heritage and also those who acculturate. Miss Jiménez is depicted as an archetypal Chicana who acculturates to escape the stereotypes linked to embracing the Mexican roots. She even assumes an Anglo pronunciation of her name while criticizing the Spanish pronunciation. She has assimilated into a typical American, an expectation required for Mexicans to get career opportunities or positive outlooks in America.
Furthermore, Jimenez seeks an acculturated model that possesses American values to appeal to the low-income electorate. Valdez uses the characters to highlight the drawback the expected image of an acculturated Mexican has on the image of Mexicans who remain loyal to their culture.
Stereotyping
The basis of the play is stereotyping. Through four different stereotypical Mexican “robot” models Valdez highlights the attributes superimposed on Mexicans in the American society. The entirety of the play is a pending transaction between Jimenez and Sancho as he points out the pigeon-holed specifics of each model. Due to trouble understanding a different culture, the dominant racial groups characteristically assign stereotypes to the aspects of a minority group. Thus, Los Vendidos shows the native identities, to constructed and assimilated identities which fall under stereotypes over time.
The Farm Worker and Revolucionario represent the stereotypes of first immigrants as laborers and revolutionaries of “Early California” period. Subsequently, Johnny Pachuco and Eric Garcia characters represent the stereotypes placed on young Mexican-Americans who embraced new identities or acculturated. Valdez aims to describe the stereotypes that follow Mexicans in America which cultivate social exclusion and repression.
Sense of Belonging
Valdez highlights the stereotypes of Mexicans in the American society that foster social exclusion of this marginalized racial group. In turn, this marginalization brings forth identity crises among Mexican-Americans thus a lack of a true sense of belonging. Subsequently, some try to escape the stereotypes by embracing new identities or assimilate into American cultures. Accordingly, Valdez utilizes the models such as Johnny Pachuco and Eric Garcia to demonstrate the different identities young people of Mexican descent in the 1960s embraced to attain a sense of belonging.
