Speedy Gonzales Bank

If you are not a regular reader of the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog, you may be clueless about my fascination with the lived history of the fastest mouse in all Mexico, Speedy Gonzales! The eBay sighting glossed in the picture above makes me tremble with desire but I must put my object acquisition fetish to rest awhile till I get bigger digs for all my "Mexican" paraphernalia! However, if anyone wants to know what I want for Christmas, follow this link (it should stay live till around February) and break out with the early Santa cheer.

Following up on my profound Speedy fetish, and, as a Sunday treat, here's Pancho's Hideaway, from 1964--one of DePatie-Freleng's first "features" in association with Warner Brothers. It's not a bad cartoon as cartoon goes, though the cheapo limited animation is a real let-down once you've been raised on golden era of WB animated shorts from the 40s and 50s. Warners had closed their own animation shop and DePatie-Freleng stepped in to outsource it for the WB. The best part of the 'Hideaway is seeing Yosemite Sam as cross-dressed as "Mexican" Pancho Vanilla ("Pancho Villa"), replete with Mel Blanc's Mexicanizing-up of Sam's famous drawl. As stereotype-festering vehicle of Tex[t]-Mextian malfeasance, this short feature is rather tame on the horrendous scale of anti-Mexican loathing and worth a pre-Super Bowl peek or two.