Next Halloween, I Swear, I am Going to be a Taco

The first gallery of two "Seductive Hallucination" chapters contained within the image-laced pages of Tex[t]-Mex, harbors the sad-but-true tale of my Taco Wagon days at the University of Connecticut. Then a winsome 26-year old Phd-lad from Laredo with a Candide-like innocence, I was enjoying my first professorship in the bucolic, land-grant miasma that was Storrs, Connecticut, when a budget-crisis inspired parodic memo landed in my in-box informing all of the English professors of their new jobs.

Long story short? I was to be manning the Taco-wagon outside Arjona hall. I can't remember if it was J.D. O'Hara or Richard "Dick" Reynolds who penned that ribald missive--if I had to bet, I would say it was Dick, who is still at it apparently in Connecticut.

Never let it be said that this Chicano does not have a "sense of humor." Next Halloween, I vow to be-robe myself in the humble togs above. Like-minded, demented souls can peruse a plethora of "Mexican" trappings courtesy the fine folks at costume-craze.com. I do not, however, as has been rumored by friends and dastardly enemies, promise to wear this getup if Tex[t]-Mex goes to a 2nd edition!

Not all of UConn was bad, of course. Rufus Blanshard, my mentor, my friend, recently passed--he was the best of the best, a lovely, caring, mentoring old leftie. RIP. Bill Rosen, my first Chair, was a mensch-and-a-half as well!