Ballad Of A Soldier Stereotypes

Ballad of a Soldier by Luis Valdez showed us the criteria of what qualifies as a Chicana/o film by showing the struggles a Chicana/o had to go through such as being deployed to war and how much stress it was involved with the their families and their doubt of him coming back to the barrio. We can also see how the life of Chicano/as were such as having parties, the way they dressed and the way they talked. We can also see how gender roles switched, such as Cecilia fixing the car and how she didn't care how society viewed her.

Stereotyping in the mass media was one of the most important concerns of Chicana/o media activists because they found that any kind of media will be useful in order to have a voice in the United States. For example in

She makes it clear that even if she's not somebody that wants to be labeled, there are still going to be some people who will not be comfortable around her. ***What links the different group names are that they all are groups of people or minorities who have been discriminated against in many ways by this country throughout the years.

Gender and family are represented really different in both Soldado Razo and Ballad of a Soldier. In Soldado Razo we can see that there is more of a male authority and more machismo. While in Ballad of a Soldier we can see that the dad has less authority in the family. The mother has less of a voice in Soldado Razo and every time she speaks her husband always tries to contradict everything she says but in Ballad of a Soldier she speaks out her mind and tells the dad that he's doing wrong by the way he treats the little brother. The little brother is also different, in Soldado Razo he respects more his family especially his dad and sees him as a father figure and doesn't talk back. However, in Ballad of a Soldier, the little brother rebels against his father and doesn't respect him at all. Both of Johnnies

Feeling so disrespected by everybody in the family, he gets tired and reminds them all who he is and he should be respected. In both plays the dad seemed to be the only difference and the biggest change in the role of gender. Also, what is gained is the disrespect and the rebellious way the little brother acts against his dad. In Soldado Razo, we don't see that but we still see how bad the dad treats the little brother. Every time the little brother says something, the dad brings him down and tells him to keep his mouth shut but doesn't respond anything back to his dad. George Mariscal's chapter about "machismo" says that "It contained both negative and positive characteristics, it accounts for many of our brothers not returning from war" (Mariscal, 205) in both plays we can see machismo both in the father and Johnny but mostly in the father. We can see that both fathers from both plays play big roles in leading the family and what needs to be done. For example, in Soldado Razo we can see how the father is drunk and how he doesn't take anything from anybody especially the mom since she's always telling him what to do. In Ballad of a Soldier we can see that part where he whips the little brother and Johnny tells him