"I DON'T HAVE TO SHOW YOU NO STINKING BADGES" (LUIS VALDEZ).
Term Paper ID:24969
|
Get This Paper Free! or
|
|
Essay Subject:
Examines comic play's social criticism & depiction of Chicano family assimilated into suburbia.... More...
|
6 Pages / 1350 Words
4 sources, 12 Citations,
MLA Format
$24.00
More Papers on This Topic
|
Paper Abstract:
Examines comic play's social criticism & depiction of Chicano family assimilated into suburbia.
Paper Introduction:
In his play I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, Luis Valdez makes use of certain stereotypical images in order to delve into questions of the relationship between the actor and the role he or she plays and between those roles and the reality of similar roles in society. He does this in a comic format which turns certain American entertainment conventions upside down for satiric effect. The familiarity of the television situation comedy is recreated on stage with a very different kind of family and with a different purpose.
Luis Valdez is the founder and artistic director of the internationally-known El Teatro Campesino, the theatrical troupe he created during the Great Delano Grape Strike of 1965. The productions of this group have been acclaimed throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe and have received an
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Chicanosare in fact largely excluded from the world of the situation comedy ontelevision, and Valdez draws attention to that fact by seeming to placethis family on a television set. Luis Valdez responds in this play to the realities of Hollywood as heperceives them. Buddy turns on thetelevision with the statement, "I gotta turn on the tube for sanity's sake"(Valdez 186). Houston, Texas: Arte Publico Press, 1992.http://www.invsn.com/fotpl/valley4e.htmSession 4Luis Valdez (194 - )Biographical Notes:Luis Valdez was born in Delano, the son of a farm worker. . Second, though, Valdez undercuts all the assumptions one might makeabout this scene with his next direction: The entire set sits within the confines of a TV studio. "Interview: Luis Valdez." American Theatre (January 1988), 15-21, 56-57.Valdez, Luis. Sonny decides to go back to school, though he has noidea what he will study or what he will become, only that he will make hisparents proud: You see, we're only as real as we believe ourselves to be. It received much criticism. The entire scene has a comfortable, lived-in quality, particularly the den which is certainly the most lived-in room in the house (Valdez 156).Such a scene places the family in a well-to-do context while at the sametime removing them from the kinds of settings usually associated withChicanos in media depictions, the poorer, lower-class neighborhoods ofgangs and poverty. Among them are "Vietnam Campesino","Soldado Razo", and "The Dark Roots of a Scream". Valdez makes this clear in thedirections at the front of the play, but even in those directions there isa duality which suggests how the audience will view the play and howmembers of the audience are to understand that meaning. Buddy villasits in front of the television set, drifting off to sleep as he watchesthe movie. At least we'd be working steady" (Valdez 186). First, Valdezdescribes the world of the Villas as if that world were entirely real andentirely reflective of the southern California middle-class world: The scene is a comfortable, middle-class, suburban tract home in Southern California. Immediately, the audience may question how this familyachieved this level of comfort, a level associated with Anglo society to amuch greater degree. After the film version of "Zoot Suit",Valdez resumed his stage work with El Teatro Campesino. This Project is made possible in part by agrant from the California Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate ofthe National Endowment for the Humanities.Your Comments are Welcome!----------------------- 9 David Savran describes the play as taking on "the political andexistential implications of acting, both in theatre and society" (Savran17). . Sonny says he wants to write, direct, and produce tomake himself the Latino Woody Allen, something which horrifies his parents. The father and mother in this sitcom family work in themovies, performing bit parts as maids and gardeners, for the most part,precisely the sort of roles Chicanos are relegated to in the media. His most popular workfor the 7 s was "Zoot Suit". In addition, he wants to point out "the way Chicanos(particularly Chicano actors) have been misused and degraded by films andTV" (Lochte 44). The use of music in this play approximates the sort of underscoring found in television and on film (Valdez 157).This media-referential set immediately causes the viewer to question thereality of what is presented on stage, and the play as a whole thus toyswith various levels of reality, with the meaning of reality itself, andwith the role of the media in shaping our view of what is real and what isillusion. The scenery flats and their supports are entirely visible, as they might be to a live studio audience at a taping. The play has the aura of a situation comedy. As Newsweek's Lubenow noted, "He has succeeded by shaping theexperience of Chicanos into drama that speaks to all Americans." Amongawards Valdez has received are Los Angeles Drama Critics, 1969 and 1972,special Emmy Award for directing from KNBC-TV in 1973, award from LosAngeles Drama Critics Circle in 1978 for "Zoot Suit", grant fromRockefeller Foundation in 1978, Golden Globe in 1981, and award for bestmusical from San Francisco Bay Critics Circle in 1983 for "Corridos".Recent projects include Turner Network Television's "The Cisco Kid" and afilm on the life of Cesar Chavez for Warner Brothers.Source: Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Volume 32, pages 442-444Books by Luis Valdez in Stanislaus County Public Library:TitleYearCall Number Actos1971862 Val Aztlan, an anthology19723 1.451 Val Luis Valdez - early works199 812.54 ValWeb Sites Related to Luis Valdez: Biographies: Luis Valdez Background information on the people featured in Chicano! The audience does its part, reacting to Valdez's humor as automatically as would a TV laugh track (Lochte 44).The sitcom premise lives way in the course of the play to a more violentimage as the son becomes more and more out of control, terrorizing theother three with a gun and delivering "a diatribe about the self-delusionsof Chicanos who think they're actually achieving some progress in theperforming arts while, in fact, they are still in the same cinema ghetto"(Lochte 44). The parents are presented with a typical sitcom premise as their son,tired of being the token Chicano at Harvard, leaves school, and returnshome with his Japanese girlfriend, intent on becoming a dancer in themovies: This is, of course, very close to a typical sitcom premise. It later broke away from the United Farm Workers, becoming ablue-collar performing group and performed throughout the United States,Mexico and Europe.During the 197 s Valdez wrote and produced works about the Chicanoinvolvement in the Vietnam War. "On Stage." Los Angeles Magazine (April 1986), 44.Savran, David. Newsweek's Gerald Lubenow said "Valdez has cometriumphantly into his own" and added the play "has been cheered in LosAngeles and San Diego."Valdez returned to films again in 1987 with his production of "La Bamba",the story of Chicano pop musician Ritchie Valens. in 1964.Valdez began his writing career in 1961 and had already staged a play, "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa", while still a student at San Jose State.After graduation he worked with a mime troupe, then joined the United FarmWorkers, and as a member of that union staged improvisations thataddressed problems and issues of the group.During the Great Delano Grape Strike of 1965, Valdez founded El TeatroCampesino. The use of the television set with Treasure of theSierra Madre playing creates a multiple point of reference. The play depicts a Chicano family that has been fully assimilatedinto the suburban world of southern California. "I Don't Have toShow You No Stinking Badges" was produced in the 198 s and receivedcritical acclaim. The image that comes tomind is of the stereotypical Mexican bandido, an image that may have somegrounding in truth but that is often the only image Americans have of aMexican. Sonny displays much of the shame a young person might feel for hisparents, but his shame also includes the way all Chicanos are treated inthis society: I grew up in this low-rated situation comedy! Thefamily has achieved the house in the suburbs because of this work. In addition, the prevalence of such roles does not give youngpeople a sense of what they can do in their own lives. We see mom overlooking life's harsh realities to admire the rainbow at storm's end. The productions of thisgroup have been acclaimed throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europeand have received an Off-Broadway Obie Award and numerous Drama CriticsCircle Awards in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Valdez notes at the outset that there is little in thisscene that evokes the Latin culture of the family, and the one cited ischeap and unreal: Perhaps the only sign of the family's ancestral heritage is the familiar, round Aztec calendar stone, cast in plaster and painted gold, hanging above the fireplace (Valdez 156).Indeed, this sign of a heritage is matched on the other wall by a movieposter for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and an electric beer sign,evoking stereotypes about Chicanos to counter the ethnic pride that mightderive from the calendar. The sitcom reference is essential to understanding the multiplelevels of meaning in this play, meaning which derives from the multiplepoints of view inherent in the stage setting itself. Performance in this playtherefore exists as a duality and is self-referential. . In the use of thesitcom as setting, Valdez also has a dual intent. . The familiarity of thetelevision situation comedy is recreated on stage with a very differentkind of family and with a different purpose. . The play ends on an inconclusive note even though the action tries totie everything up by evoking the happy endings of the sitcom and othertelevision staples. He attended SanJose State University where he received a B.A. spirit and infectious freshness" and "aglorious, drug-free shot in the arm for romantics".Although Valdez is primarily preoccupied with Chicano concerns, it has been noted that his best works transcend ethnic considerations of race ornationality. "Session 4." Friends of the Turlock Library (April 21, 1997), http://www.invsn.com/fotpl/valley4e.htm.Lochte, Dick. sitting, watching, waiting to laugh at this cheap imitation of Anglo life (Valdez 199).Indeed, this statement shows how the older generation has sought to be asAmerican as possible, while the younger generation is beginning to questionthe value of this and instead is considering the importance of his or herethnic culture. On theone hand, the set thus serves as a constant reminder of how the familylives and survives on the work of the parents, and at the same time the setevokes an image of the play as a sitcom. Chicanos have a real life, but they are made to feel that theirlife is as unreal as television makes it out to be. History ofthe Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, a PBS series Guide to the NEA Luis Valdez (San Juan Bautista, CA) : National Endowment for the Arts Web Site, National Council on the Arts Members: Biography of Luis Valdez Photograph of Luis Valdez RETURN TO HIGHWAY 99 MAIN PAGEResearch by Virginia Andleman 4/21/97Sponsored by Friends of the Turlock Public Library, supported by theTurlock City Arts Commission. They might choose asitcom over a drama because at least that has a happy ending for them. We see dad forgetting himself and displaying an anti-Japanese bias. The son in thisplay reflects this fact--he is the representative of the outside world, theone who has gone to Harvard and found that little is expected of him exceptto show up and be the token Chicano. The setting andthe action in the opening sequence creates a mixture of situation comedyreality and illusion. The title comes from the 1948 movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre inwhich the leader of the bandits delivers this line after claiming to be afederal officer and being asked for his badge. In addition, the play suggests thattelevision has become a form of secondary life presenting pleasing imagesto those whose lives are too difficult to face. His play "I Don't Have to Showyou No Stinking Badges" was first produced at the Los Angeles TheaterCenter. Zoot Suit and Other Plays. The Villas are middle-class and aspire after the same sorts of consumer goods as others in thissociety. Buddy asserts what many people might wish--that their livescould be just like those of the people they see on TV: "I wish our lifewas a situation comedy. The name of the Villa family is evocative of Pancho Villa,another image that speaks to Americans in a certain way. You can almost imagine a studio audience out there. Minorities often complain that they are relegated tosubservient roles on television and in movies, and as a result, peoplebelieve that these are the only roles these minorities have in the realworld. As such, its worldwould not be seen as "real" in either the Anglo world or the Chicano worldby any objective observer, though millions of people accept thiscomfortable middle-class home as the norm for America because it is on somany situation comedies, while at the same time they do not associate sucha home with the Chicano culture as depicted by the same media. . On the one hand, he usesthe set "to show that actors often live out their days in so operatic amanner that their lives begin to take on the aspects of performed works"(Lochte 44). He doesthis in a comic format which turns certain American entertainmentconventions upside down for satiric effect. In 1977, Valdez wrote theplay Zoot Suit, which became one of the most successful plays to originatein Los Angeles and which would later become the first play by aChicano to be produced on Broadway (Andelmanhttp://www.invsn.com/fotpl/valley4e.htm). . The critics responded bysaying it had "energetic . In 1982 Valdez wrote a film version of "ZootSuit". Of course, this middle-class existence is seen from the first asif it were not quite real, and this is emphasized by the fact that theliving room is actually depicted as a television set, with the trappings ofa television studio surrounding it. In show-biz terms, I'm asking you to suspend your disbelief in me and to believe me when I tell you I'm mentally, physically and spiritually okay (Valdez 212).Sonny and his girl friend are taken away aboard a flying saucer, and theparents seek a traditional Hollywood happy ending by pretending they areBritish. The play suggests that the situation comedy may not be good enoughfor the younger generation, which wants to be in control rather than serveas the butt of jokes. Works CitedAndelman, Virginia. We see mom and dad, fresh from work, in servant's rags, meeting son's girl. Luis Valdez is the founder and artistic director of theinternationally-known El Teatro Campesino, the theatrical troupe he createdduring the Great Delano Grape Strike of 1965. In his play I Don't Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, Luis Valdezmakes use of certain stereotypical images in order to delve into questionsof the relationship between the actor and the role he or she plays andbetween those roles and the reality of similar roles in society.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
|
|
| 
