Luis Valdez's "Los Vendidos" targets many people and groups. Most obviously, he is attacking politicians and the government as a whole as being racist. The whole point of the secretary being there is that they "need a brown face in the crowd" at their luncheon. They do not need a Hispanic for input on social issues from a Hispanic perspective, or for some other legitimate cause. They only need him to show up at to make it look as if they are considering the opinions of minorities. Also the "new farm labor camps our Honorable Governor Reagan has built" are basically slave labor camps in which immigrants work extremely long work days for pennies a day. By mocking the government and the politicians that run it, Valdez is also sending a message to the supporters of the policies and the government as a whole. Furthermore, the secretary that is there to purchase a Mexican is representative of the real "sell outs", which most likely Valdez sees as the part of the Hispanic population that not has only lost touch with its roots but done it deliberately. In the beginning of the play, the secretary tells Sancho that her name is not pronounced as if it were a Spanish name, but pronounced as it would be in common English. She is from Hispanic decent, and obviously understands whenever someone speaks Spanish, yet she is reluctant to accept her heritage. .
Valdez's techniques are effective to an extent. Exaggerating the problem in a fictional story is a great way to express your views and attempt to point the problem out to others. The cultural stereotypes that he used such as the greasy Mexican, thieving Mexican and pot smoking Mexican are ones that tend to make people feel uneasy because they are so negative towards a group. Uneasiness can be powerful, but he runs the risk of offending people by simply acknowledging these things. Expressing such a level of negativity towards Reagan, the government and white culture as a whole would most likely make it much more difficult for many to receive the intended message.
