“Well, we’ll just write that down. Yes, senorita, this model represents the apex of American engineering! He is bilingual, college educated, ambitious! Say the word “acculturate” and he accelerates. He is intelligent, well-mannered, clean– did I say clean?”
In reference to one of his robot models, Eric Garcia, Sancho highlights its specifications parallel to the attributes of Mexican-Americans who completely assimilate into the American culture. Serving to the theme of acculturation and Mexican stereotypes in 1960s America, Valdez uses the model to illustrate the cultural issues facing immigrants and first-generation American–born Mexicans. Similarly, to Miss Jimenez, the prototype represents those who seek to forgo their Mexican heritage and acquire an ideal American identity in order to fit in.
“My name is Miss JIM-enez. Don’t you speak English? What’s wrong with you?”
A response by the Secretary, Miss Jiménez, correcting the traditional pronunciation of her name during a dialogue with Sancho in the initial pleasantries. As a Mexican-American, Miss Jiménez has completely acculturated for career opportunities and a sense of belonging in the American Culture. She prefers the Anglo pronunciation of her name negating the Mexican elocution to separate her identity from the other immigrants. This further accentuates how the American-born descendants of the immigrants made every effort not to be associated with their native culture to escape the negative stereotypes.
“Over here in this corner of the shop is exactly what you’re looking for. Introducing our new 1969 JOHNNY PACHUCO model! This is our fast-back model. Streamlined. Built for speed, low-riding, city life. Take a look at some of these features. Mag shoes, dual exhausts, green chartreuse paint-job, dark-tint windshield, a little poof on top.”
Sancho describes to Miss Jiménez one of the other stereotypical models in his shop, a representation of the Mexican descent street hooligan. The clash between cultures that the immigrants and their subsequent descendants faced fostered most to embrace different identities to escape prejudice. However, these identities further became stereotypes with imposed negative connotations through the lenses of American society. This model Sancho describes in the assertion represents the societal view held of young Mexican-American adopting the urban lifestyle.
“They think we’re machines”
In the conclusion of the play, it revealed that the robots are actually real and are assuming the stereotypical guises to manipulate buyers or “sell-outs”. Sancho as the actual machine and Miss Jiménez as a sell-out represent the Mexicans who sell out their culture to appeal or acclimate to the American culture. Accentuating the overarching motif that this pattern painted those who actually embraced their Mexican culture in a bad light.
