Maria, The Porcelain Mexican or Tales of Ersatz, Collectible "Mexicans"

update
(original posting December 12, 2007)

There, floating to your right, your very own porcelain "Mexican," the fabled "Maria," from the Danbury Mint, that famed ceramic purveyor of "collectible" figurines like lil' Miss Patriot (left). One of the more curious "Mexican" artifacts and collectibles in the history of American mass culture, "Maria" appears in one of the "Seductive Hallucination" gallery-chapters in Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America (2007)--two image-heavy, quick-hit, bloggish subsection respites from the super-sized, theory-doused chapters in the rest of the book.

Since the book appeared, a wonderful graduate student/mentee of mine, Farhang Pernoon (dig his IMDB credits) went to the trouble of reading and deciphering my gnarled/gnarly footnotes in the University of Texas volume and actually ordering and shipping me one these "Mexican" facsimiles--a fetching ersatz somatic wonder that allows me to play Latino Pygmalion on cold winter nights. Think Lars and the Real Doll 'gone Mexico way.' Yikes.

Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah shoppers can squire their own "Maria" by pointing their mouse here; Maria's "African," "Asian," and "Native," "brothers" and "sisters" can be found here.

Festivus observers will be sure to give this a pass!

I am utterly in debt to Pernoon for outing my burgeoning fetish for counterfeited "Mexicans." Holy Geppetto, Batman, I am out of here....

postscript

If anyone even thinks twice of getting me "Anna," I will eat this blog!