Indigenous Peoples of Mexico: 2501 Migrants

Eyegiene: Spinrad on Boingboing.net on See-Easy

Lalo Alcaraz on Sammy Sosa: Yet Another Chapter in the History of Race and Latinos in America

source

El Chavo del Ocho, My Newest Ersatz "Mexican"

Eduardo Santacruz, regular contributor to the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog, dutiful comparative literature scholar, and near-future resident of Barcelona, España, stopped by to donate a new artifact to my museum of ersatz Mexican facsimiles--none other than Roberto Gómez Bolaños, aka Chespirito, aka, el Chavo del Ocho. However, this one, from Best Buy, features the whitest Chespirito I have ever seen--hit the image above for the details! Yet another chapter in the history of racialized representation en las Americas.

Here's Gómez Bolaños at his finest:

Latinas/os In and OUT of the American Eye

Chad Ochocinco! Xicanosmosis in the NFL

A Winner is Declared!

Over on my facebook page, I ran a contest for the person who could come up with a pithy, witty caption for the outrageous image opposite! I am happy to announce that Stephanie Wells, a professor of English at Orange Coast College is the winner with her "White boots after Labor Day? Ay dios mio, do you believe that shit?" Wells will receive a free copy of my new book Eyegiene, if I ever get the manuscript to UT Press! Congratulations Dr. Wells!

Here's two snapshots of all the entries!

Deus Ex Optica: Robotic Migra Along the US/MEXICO Border

In a sense, my eyegiene and Tex[t]-Mex obsessions seem to come together in this posting by Xeni Jardin on Boingboing.net; Paul Virilio, Eduardo Galeano, Jean Baudrillard, and Zizek couldn't have invented a more perfect allegory for technologies of war and seeing in the 21st Century! Click the image above for the story and the links. A wikipedia commons image of the "Reaper" appears below:



postscript:

To show that arrays of computer servers can have a sense of irony/humor, look at the captcha box Facebook tossed up to me as I posted this blog entry to my facebook crew.

Cool Invites for your Navidad Fiestas!

Tranny Xicanosmosis! Chico's Angels!

Telegenic Chicana/o Studies Advocate! Eva Longoria

Cutting Edge Cyber Deliciousness! Chile, Allende and More...

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Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions from Greg Borenstein on Vimeo.

YOU TOO CAN SPEAK SPANISH! More Tex[t]-Mexian Nostalgia

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Eyegiene, Madrid Style!

Nuevos Ministerios Station (L6, L8, L10 and Cercanias)
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2007 TEXTMEX Reading at DG WILLS in La Jolla

Guillermo Del Toro, Gael García Bernal, Alfonso Cuarón, Diego Luna, and Alejandro González Iñárritu: Connections Revealed!

From the May 2009 issue of Latina magazine.

Latin American Dictators: Legacies

(image source)
The old Latin Americanist in me is digging these recent archival releases:

Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 16:36:23 -0500
Reply-To: National Security Archive
Sender: The National Security Archive
From: National Security Archive
Subject: Jacobo Timerman Destabilized Argentine Dictatorship
To: NSARCHIVE@HERMES.GWU.EDU

National Security Archive Update, December 3, 2009

Jacobo Timerman Destabilized Argentine Dictatorship

For more information contact:
Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7061
cosorio@gwu.edu

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, DC, December 3, 2009 - 30 years after the release of Jacobo Timerman, the former newspaper editor and Argentina's most famous political prisoner during the military dictatorship, the National Security Archive today posted declassified documents that confirm that his case almost resulted in the fracture of the military regime. One September 1979 document states, "President Videla, the civilian Minister of Justice, and the entire Supreme Court threatened to resign" if the military high command refused to release Jacobo Timerman. U.S. Ambassador Raúl Castro requested that Videla directly call President Jimmy Carter if Timerman was released "so the American President would be the first to know the fate of [a situation] of his high interest."

"The Timerman case reflects the struggle over human rights and freedom of the press in Argentina," said Carlos Osorio, director of the Southern Cone project at the National Security Archive. "For that reason it is imperative that all relevant documents in the U.S. and in Argentina be declassified and made available for public scrutiny."

A selection of 18 U.S. documents illustrates how the military used multiple legal pretexts to break up his newspaper, La Opinión, expropriate his other properties, strip him of his citizenship, and expel him from the country. After he was finally released and expelled from Argentina on September 25, 1979, Timerman recounted his experience in a best-selling book, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, which called international attention to the repression in Argentina.

As part of this collaborative project with the National Security Archive, the Provincial Commission for Memory in Argentina today is publishing a selection of secret documents on the Timerman case from the files of the Directorate of Buenos Aires Police Intelligence. In addition, the College of William and Mary is publishing a chronology of abuses committed against Jacobo Timerman.

For more information, visit the Archive Web site

http://www.nsarchive.org

Chronology

http://www.wm.edu/as/charlescenter/faculty/qep/completed_projects/archive_project/spanish_chronology/index.php

DIPBA

http://www.comisionporlamemoria.org/index.php


_________________________________________________________


Jacobo Timerman hizo Tambalear a la Dictadura Argentina

La Administración de Carter dio prioridad a este caso; la liberación de Timerman estremeció a la Junta Militar en 1979

Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7061
cosorio@gwu.edu

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, DC, 3 de diciembre de 2009 - Treinta años después de la liberación de Jacobo Timerman, editor, periodista, y uno de los presos políticos más conocidos durante la dictadura militar en Argentina, el National Security Archive publica documentos estadounidenses desclasificados que confirman que su caso casi resultó en el colapso del régimen de Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla. En septiembre de 1979, los documentos confirman que "Videla, el civil Ministro de Justicia, y la Corte Suprema en su totalidad amenazaron con renunciar" si el alto mando militar no excarcelaba a Jacobo Timerman. Por su parte, el Embajador de los EEUU en Buenos Aires, pidió a Videla que el Presidente Carter sea "el primero en saber el resultado de una situación de mucho interés para él".

"El caso Timerman refleja la lucha sobre derechos humanos y de la libertad de prensa en Argentina," dijo Carlos Osorio, jefe del proyecto del Cono Sur en el National Security Archive. "Por eso es importante conseguir la desclasificación de todos los documentos relevantes".

Una serie de 18 documentos estadounidenses muestran cómo los militares usaron docenas de pretextos legales para desarticular su diario, La Opinión, quitarle otras propiedades, despojarlo de la ciudadanía argentina, y expulsarlo del país. Finalmente liberado y expulsado de Argentina en 1979, Jacobo Timerman, escribió el testimonio que dio rostro internacional a las miles de víctimas de la dictadura militar. El libro "Preso sin nombre, celda sin número" llegó a ser leído en todo el mundo llamando la atención internacional sobre la represión en Argentina.

Como parte de este proyecto de cooperación con el National Security Archive, la Comisión Provincial por la Memoria en Argentina publica hoy una selección de documentos secretos de la Dirección de Inteligencia de la Policía de Buenos Aires. Por otra parte, la Universidad de William and Mary publica una cronología de los abusos cometidos contra Jacobo Timerman.

National Security Archive

http://www.nsarchive.org

DIPBA

http://www.comisionporlamemoria.org/index.php

Cronología

http://www.wm.edu/as/charlescenter/faculty/qep/completed_projects/archive_project/spanish_chronology/index.php


________________________________________________________

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

_________________________________________________________

PRIVACY NOTICE The National Security Archive does not and will never share the names or e-mail addresses of its subscribers with any other organization. Once a year, we will write you and ask for your financial support. We may also ask you for your ideas for Freedom of Information requests, documentation projects, or other issues that the Archive should take on. We would welcome your input, and any information you care to share with us about your special interests. But we do not sell or rent any information about subscribers to any other party.

Octavio Solis Invades San Antonio!

Salvation, for Some!!!!!

Miley Cyrus! Partying in the USA and PRO-"Mojado" to Boot!

A big tip of the sombrero to Lorenzo Antonio Nericcio for bringing this choice morsel of Tex[t]-Mextian musicality to our eyes and ears.

Bohemian Rhapsody as Anti-Arpaio Mechanism!

source

Cornell University Press Publishes David Spener's CLANDESTINE CROSSINGS

Thanks to former student and future profe, Anna Marin, for bringing this tome to my attention AND for the birthday greetings!

Gringo Mariachi in the Los Angeles Times

More on Video Games and Stereotypes or Why Chicanos Are Not Featured in Pac-Man

This posting is a follow up on this and this post. This NewScientist posting is bracing if not at all surprising.

Palin/Dobbs 2012! A Latina/o Nightmare!!!

Perfect Gifts for the Holidays! Immigration Rights T-Shirts

Post-Thanksgiving Lupe Velez Trailer

iggity ziggy guble blub goyng goo: Another Chapter in the U.S. History of Racialized Representation

source: Pappy's Golden Age Comic Blogzine (an amazing, cool cyber treasure!)

...and he's naturalizing the illegals and all that"--The Physiognomy of Fascism in "Our" 'Merica

Gilbert Hernandez and the Modern Novel

Repost from November 30, 2007

There is not enough to be said of our late 20th Century and early 21st Century Chicano Dickens, the one and only Gilbert Hernandez. Serializing stories that span the Americas from Agoura, Califas to Central America, from Las Vegas to outer space, Hernandez's savvy pen and inks transformed graphic narrative in the United States. He is one of a generation of india ink American seers like Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, and Robert Crumb, with graphic visions that reveal vividand luridtales of America North, South, and Central with a line as sure as Dan DeCarlo's and a narrative savvy like Pynchon channeling García Márquez through Frida Kahlo's paintbrush (with Buñuel capturing it all on his instamatic).

All these plaudits, then, as a prelude to an excellent interview from last April with Gilbert Hernandez at The Daily Cross Hatch.

In Tex[t]-Mex, Hernandez cameos as my avatar of cultural osmosis, the epitome of Xicanosmosis--he is that and more. Check out his wares here.

You'll be glad you did!



update, November 30, 2009

One of Hernandez's all-time hottest short piece is his illustrated biography of Frida Kahlo; I have a chapter on this piece in Tex[t]-Mex that originally appeared as an essay in NYU Press's Latino Studies collection. A stunning nude of Kahlo by Julien Levy has recently been making the rounds online via Tumblr--Kahlo's expression in the image is striking.

Black Friday Consumer Shilling Event or "I don't need no steenkin ugg boots"

Readers! I have no idea why, but a kindly, talented purveyor of UGG boots from Down Under, has got it into her head that Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog readers are clamoring to adorn their feet in what she's got to offer! In her own words:

Just in time for Winter, Whoogaboots are offering readers of the Tex[t]-Mex Gallerblog a $20 gift code toward the purchase of their thermofleece ugg boots! Simply enter: 4TEXTMEX into the gift card section of their shopping cart for $20 credit on any item.

If any sales of these peculiar foot garb actually sell (and I know they are popular here on the SDSU campus), I vow to wear a pair to lecture in during the Spring semester!

[pictured above, Alfonso "no steenkin badges" Bedoya from John Huston's amazing Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), wearing a pair of posh Whoogaboots while menacing Humphrey Bogart--there's a cool blog posting on the movie here that also includes "Mexican" avatar Bedoya's infamous lines.]

Lou Dobbs, Toasted by Mariachis, on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show

The Question of Rita Hayworth | Photography as Allegory

Lalo Alcaraz on Lou Dobbs

NPR on Latinos in Long Island

Gracias to new West Coast agent Paco Barajas for sending me this story.

Eyegiene Sketch

Dystopia, Dystopia! Spring 2010, English 549 @ SDSU

My new Spring 2010 class on Dystopias in film and literature is now live on the internets (Dystopia, Dystopia! From the Erotic Electric to the Anarchy of Technologies on the Verge). See a screenshot of the page opposite or click here to be instantly teleported! No worries, despite the cynical pessimism that is the life's blood of your dystopic webweaver, there is no danger in this process (I hope) and no big brother is watching (I think). The class is perfect for folks interested in interdisciplinary studies (MALAS, are you listening?) and other area and ethnic studies devotees!

Art Laboe in the LA Times

audio slide show

Art LeBoe in the LA Times

Salvador Barajas Writes in With a Xicanosmotic Project

Mexican Superheroes, Working Immigrants, XicanOSMOSIS, and Dulce Pinzón

original posting: 3/5/08

It may be the times (and a facebook query from a regular reader), but I think the present anti-immigrant zeitgeist demands that we rethink the way we see these mostly brave, valiant, documented and undocumented sojourners--no one makes us do that better than Dulce Pinzón.

Xicanosmosis is one of the key concepts that emerges in the closing sections of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in American. A mouthful of a word, XicanOSMOSIS is a name loaded with salacious, reproductive overtones; it describes a peculiar process or phenomena where the high-brow and low-brow miasmal excesses of U.S. pop culture and the equally sordid and delicious emanations of Mexican mass arts fuse, co-mingle, spoon, and "splorf" into and onto each other in a veritable orgy of creative synergy and aesthetic synesthasia. You can see xicanosmotic climaxes and much, much, much more at work in the brilliant art of Dulce Pinzón, especially her Superheroes project.


Pinzon's fabulous gallery of ocular delights imagines an urban metropolitan setting where working Mexican immigrants are re-imagined at their labors clothed in the garb of DC and Marvel comics finest--Spiderman, the Flash, the Thing, Batman, and more. The go-to target of fascist racist pundits, the working poor, the swarthy immigrant, is re-visioned as the epitome of American fantasy, the Superhero.


Gracias, gracias to the BorderLore newsletter, a project out of the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona! More info? Hit this.