Elements of Comedy in Luis Valdez's Acto Los Vendidos as Techniques for Communication and Mobilisation

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Stuttgart (Institut für Literaturwissenschaft: Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Literary Studies: Seminar: 'Essay Writing and Interpretation of Literary Texts', language: English, abstract: 'The emphasis [of Luis Valdez's Teatro Campesino lies on] (...) communication to the oppressed, not about them' (Bagby, Valdez 70). This statement of Bagby's underpins the necessity for literary scholars to pay special analytical attention to the comedic elements in Valdez's dramas. Indeed, it is the relationship between the playwright and his audience of Chicano workers that especially takes its effectiveness from the techniques and elements of comedy, especially satire. Many critics underline Valdez's importance both because he denounces the discrimination and exploitation of Chicanos in the United States and his direct address to oppressed Mexican-Americans, e.g., striking campesinos. The communication to his fellow-countrymen has always been essential for Valdez as a political writer. It has been this successful and mass-mobilising (for example in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike) as his actos (short plays dramatizing the oppression of the fieldworkers) are based on comedic and satiric elements. These techniques have been used since archaic or Plato's times by critical authors to mobilise the hearts and minds of human beings against a political system or to remedy an abuse. The thesis that Valdez's play Los Vendidos consists of various comedic patterns to enable a thrilling, entertaining and effective communication between the author and his Chicano audience to sustainably deliver Valdez's political messages can be seen when analyzing his probably most famous acto and the types of comedy he uses. Los Vendidos can be assigned to classifications like low, realistic or satiric comedy. This, indeed, shows how strongly Valdez relies on comedic-satiric techniques to politically communicate with and mobilise his Chicano fellow countrymen.