¡bienvenidos and welcome!

Our Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog is seeing a 50% spike in its daily traffic owing to the generosity of Gustavo Arellano. For our new visitors, here's the skinny: this blog is a sort of cyberwarehouse of materials for the second edition of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in America, a 2007 book published by the University of Texas Press. More information on that volume is available here, from UTPRESS, here, courtesy of Amazon, and here, an archive of materials related to the book--a blow up of the cover designed by UTPRESS's semiotic whiz/diva, Lisa Tremaine, is clickable here to your right.

The book includes pieces on Rita Hayworth, Speedy Gonzales, the Border (through the eyes of Orson Welles), Frida Kahlo (through the eyes of Chicano "Picasso," Gilbert Hernandez), Richard "Self-Loathing-but-improving" Rodriguez, Salma Hayek, Lupe Vélez, systemic sadism and the Mexican immigrant body, Latina bombshells, Mexican Lotharios, and a host of other treats--the book features a full-color section and over 250 illustrations.

The premise of this quirky opus is quite simple: stereotypes are serious and stereotypes are funny--in the book's nosy, prolix, meandering investigation of the dialectic between cultural history and laughter emerges surprising and defining revelations about the culture and, if I am right, the destiny of Americans, estadounidenses, of all colors, sexes, faiths, and biases.

I hope you find the book and this blog useful.


Peace, Ink, and Love,


Bill Nericcio
bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu

ps to lit & cultural studies profs, lecturers, grad studs, and undergrads presently using the book--write in and let me know what works and what's coming up short!

Here's a cool short sequence from Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai: