I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges! (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Luis Valdez
- First Published: 1986
- Type of Work: Play
- Genres: Satire, Drama
- Subjects: Discrimination, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Acting or actors, Parents and children, Race, Suicide, 1980’s, California, West, U.S., Fame, Mexican Americans, Success or failure, Filmmaking or filmmakers
- Locales: Monterey Park, CA
“I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges!” is Valdez's most complex, ambitious, and satisfying play. Satirical, comic, filled with puns and painful insight, the play explores the search for an authentic Chicano identity against the limiting stereotypes and restricted possibilities afforded Mexican Americans in the 1980's United States.
The play is set in Los Angeles in the home of Connie and Buddy Villa, middle-aged Chicano bit-part actors. The conflict is sparked by the unexpected return of Sonny, their son. Defying his parents’ dreams for him, Sonny quits...
[The entire page is 885 words long]
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