Nice Piece from the UK on Ricardo Montalban

Web 2.0 "Mexican" Babe Bombshell Design

Little did I fathom just how much the logic of Tex[t]-Mextian figuration would extend into the 21st century and Web 2.0. Click the image to your right and customize your MySpace page and more!

The Assassination of Sheriff James Barton by the Mexican Juan Flores

Gustavo Arellano, of Ask A Mexican infamy, has authored a long, compelling meditation on the case of "Mexican" Juan Flores and the assassination of James Barton in Orange County; Arellano's exigesis puts him at the head of cultural studies chroniclers re-writing the legacies of Mexicans in America. Check it out!

A Minor Distraction Wherein One Learns of Juan Valdez's Lack of a Sense of Humor

More here. Following up on an earlier posting here.

Another Chapter in the History of Race in America...

Capitalistic Xicanosmosis

Ricardo Montalbán, RIP!

The dean of Tex[t]-Mextian hunks has passed away; Ricardo Montalbán, rest in peace!

David Diego Rodriguez sends in this priceless commercial!

Link:

Xicanosmosis: The Semiotic Visions of Izel Vargas!

Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America introduces the concept of "Xicanosmosis," a mouthful of a word that fuses the ideas of "Chicano" with "osmosis"--sort of a shorthand way of talking about what happens when the cultures and histories of the United States and Latin America combine, clash, fuse, and frolic. Izel Vargas's amazing paintings embody the odd, symbiotic dynamics of xicanosmosis in ways that my book just can't match. Click "Dora" above to go to Vargas's cool art site; one of my favorite pieces? "Estados Jodidos"; Izel Vargas writes into the galleryblog with an anecdote about what happened when he displayed "Estados Jodidos" in public below.

"What was funny was that no one knew what "Estados Jodidos"* meant, except for the occasional Spanish-speaking passerby, which happened to be the Latino workers that were employed near and around the storefront. When I was asked about it, the conversation quickly turned into a one about immigration in NC--some of the surrounding counties had been passing laws that didn't allow workers to hang out in certain areas, limited taco truck vending, and gave cops the power to detain for ICE officials anyone they identified as illegal. Most Latino immigrants didn't understand these laws mainly because of a language barrier, which in turn added more mistrust that had already permeated within the community. This is how 'Estados Jodidos' came to be."

[* A Spanish-language pun on "Estados Unidos" or The United States, "Estados Jodidos" means "The Fucked States"]

Eyegiene: Basil Wolverton's Genius

This is a rip-off of a post from the singularly cool "Hairy Green Eyeball" but I had to post it here to archive it for my ongoing EYEGIENE project; that, and Basil Wolverton warped my synapses when I was a little kid, and I, at the very least, should go out of my way to hype his twisted work!

Salma Hayek at the Golden Globes

I am furiously working here at literature.sdsu.edu central trying to keep our ship afloat amidst California's economic disasters! Only time to post a link to Salma Hayek news stories from the Golden Globes with an image I lifted from egotastic.com.

Olga San Juan, "Puerto Rican Pepperpot," RIP

UK-Style Slurs, Stereotypes, and More From the "Prince"

No doubt the controversy will rage and the apologies will follow, but none of this, unfortunately, is very surprising, when you consider the way stereotypes function. More soon.