His stereotypical image is however mainly rooted in his characteristics, and his actions within this scene. He steals the only valuable commodities that exist within the village, slaps a villager around the face several times, and then shoots another for standing up against him, seemingly without conscience, before riding off again. The merciless bandido stereotype is apparent within every significant action he makes in his first five minutes on screen. .
However, from this point onwards throughout the entire film the stereotypical Chicano imagery begins to degrade. This is where The Magnificent Seven differs so dramatically from other films of the same time and genre. The Magnificent Seven, unlike many of its Western predecessors was actually for the most part filmed in Mexico. This realism in landscape and environment led to many other realistic qualities within the film. Many of the background characters and smaller parts within the film are actually played by Mexican born actors, creating an air of reality which was not generated in such films as Viva Zapata, where many the Chicano characters were actually not Mexican, or could even be plausibly perceived as being so. Parallel to this the Mexican government actually had a degree of control over how the Mexican characters were displayed. In fact several script rewrites had to be made so that the Mexican Peasants did not initially run to the North American's asking them to protect them, but instead they actually attempt to buy guns for themselves first. This shows the initial beginnings of the degradation of the subordinate, and subservient Mexican peasantry, as they now start to show signs of wishing to protect themselves. .
Indeed, the film seems to perpetuate the idea that being Mexican is not a thing to be ashamed of, something that was previously displayed through the generic character types of the Greaser and the merciless Bandido.
In the 1550s the Popol Vuh, an elaborate account of the history and mythology of the Quiché people in Mexico, was recorded in Spanish. 2 In the older civilizations, as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China, historical records appear immediately after the appearance of writing, for conquering kings wished to record their triumphs for all posterity. ...
