The movie's plot is the government's fault. First by not building a railroad that would save the village's economy, then by telling it to "tidy up" without telling how or helping in any way, simply out of shame over what foreigners might say when they pass through. Without those foreigners passing, they wouldn't even have bothered to fix the road.
There isn't a character in the army or law enforcement because spoofing either was off limits at the time. It doesn't matter, because Don Luis is the perfect one. He's an ass who has nothing left but his pride on centuries old deeds of his ancestors, and he does nothing but calling out the villagers for trying to seduce the Americans. Yet he has no alternative plan to improve the village, and would prefer that everything stays the same, poor and backwards. It is implied that he always does this, regardless of subject. Yet for some reason, he has a seat at the town council and the other characters feel they must convince him. This makes the final scene all the more powerful, with him helping pay the village's debt by donating a prized sword of his ancestors, despite being the only villager who didn't agree with the plan and didn't ask for a gift.
All dreams of the privileged begin pleasantly (the Priest leads a Holy Week procession; the Nobleman is a conquistador embarking to the New World; and the Mayor is The Sheriff in a Wild West town) before they become nightmarish and they are killed (one is arrested by the Ku Klux Klan, judged by a Kangaroo Court and sentenced to hang; the other is captured by cannibals; and the remaining is shot in a duel by an outlaw played by Manolo). The character representing the common people, Juan the Farmer, dreams first of being miserable, then his fortune improves with the arrival of the Americans (who airdrop a tractor for him); the Deleted Scene with the spinsterStern Teacher had her dreaming of being in a normal class before the children were replaced by tall, blonde, muscular American Football players who tackle her in a transparent metaphor of sex. In other words, for the upper classes, even those who expect to profit, aperturism is a threat and something to be wary of, but for the disenfranchised, it is hope for progress both material and social.
