Response to Electricidad - Essay Example

Full The Cholo Culture in Electricidad Electricidad is a play that the producer claims to portray facts that havebeen observed many centuries ago until this point in time. One of the themes depicted in the story is cholo culture. Gangs are not modern concepts of brotherhood. They have existed long before the development of civilizations. They have been organized in order for the members to survive the harsh realities of their environments. In the play, it has been explained that the cholo started as a homeboy who was neglected by his own mother.

He is the product of ‘racismo’ which is undeniably a fight many people have struggled for years. The modern world still features this identity of cholos, with the same reasons for their existence to this day. Mexicans are ‘pushed out by la cultura’ as the play explains, Blacks are despised and prejudiced, some are chased out of the neighborhood and kicked out of their own tribes. These are the grievances of the people who eventually become cholos. They are people, human beings who have feelings and needs to be accepted and loved.

In their desire to assert themselves, they form gangs not only to protect themselves but to show the people that they can be dangerous. Therefore, the concept of cholo culture is made clear through their actions. That, when they are left alone, they will leave other people alone but when they are hurt, they retaliate to those who have hurt them. In Electricidad, the cholo concept is very obvious. The protagonist whose name is the same as the title of the story, was raised in a cholo family and she adored her father who was the head of the organization.

When her mother killed her own husband, Electricidad was deeply hurt and she made it her goal to kill her father’s murderer. Although the killer was her own mother, the woman who raised her, Electricidad was greatly scarred that she did not think about that fact. Revenge was her only consolation. This is evident in all gangs. This, according to the author, has been observed during the reign of the Greeks to this day. Luis Alfaro proves this by citing his encounter with a teen felon who killed her own mother for revenge and juxtaposes it with the Greek story of Electra who had a similar situation.

The author/screenwriter then stirs the thoughts and emotions of his viewers by putting in the modern setting the story that is based from Greek literature. From this experience, he also concludes that cholo culture existed from generation to generation and therefore, he sees the importance of looking deeper into this culture. He attempts to pose questions that he wants his audience to answer for themselves and consider how they would not be different to a savage if they act likewise, even if they are in the modern age.

One of the interesting comments of the Alfaro is his comparison of Electra to rock stars. He acknowledges that many teenagers now adore rock stars and he tried to reach out to suc an audience through his protagonist. He explains that when Electricidad stole her father’s cadaver and watched over it day and night to protect it, she exemplified a rock star’s characteristics. Her display of her father’s cadaver is her own ritual, one that could have been practiced a long time ago. It is her history.

It is her cholo culture’s history. As the author syas, “she is chained to ritual and history.”