Ohio State University, Here I Come!

Tomorrow morning I head out for the chilly wonders of Columbus, Ohio for a lecture/reading/signing with Guisela Latorre. They are calling the event, Eyes Wide Open: New Work on Latina/o Visual Culture, an homage to Stanley Kubrick nestled nicely in a catchy moniker. Click here for additional verbiage. The event at OSU is being hosted by their pretty remarkable Latina/o Studies program that includes, among its other hip, mexi-poindexters, the one and only Frederick Aldama--hit the image here to be transported to their main cybercrib.  Below the image, a scene from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut--I trust the parties in Columbus are all like the one depicted.

Up and Coming...

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Yet Another Chapter in the History of Race in America: Post-Travis-the-Chimp Edition!

A kindly tip of the hat to regular correspondent Anabel Lima for her pushing this story under my greedy eyes!

Hand-drawn Final Exam from 2006

In 2006, I designed a class in comparative literature and dedicated it to Elvis Costello--it's name? The Imperial Bedroom: the syllabus for the class is here.  This is the final exam; like most images on this blog, click it to see it "actual size."

When Playboy Magazine Does the Work of Tex[t]-Mex, You Know There's Progress on God's Green Earth

[click image to enlarge; source: Playboy Magazine, 2008]

I will save for a later posting an extended posting that thinks through our American (and now, European) fascination with "Mexican" anal/fecal figuration at a later date; ScholarX, an anonymous exegete now working at a university in the deep, old South, has touched this subject (yikes) at the Old-School Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog.

More Ohio State Hype!

From Bandit to Narco: The Evolution of a Trope

Decimated by layoffs like every other major newspaper, The LA Times is still providing comprehensive coverage of the violence currently churning the zeitgeist of Mexico--for more, hit the graphic below:

Update to My Online Index of Links and What Have You...

Muxtape is Back!

Musica Xicanosmosis!

Making Things Interesting on Montezuma Mesa

A friend of mine tipped me that the Daily Aztec, the daily fishwrap at SDSU archives its stories back to time immemorial. Here's an index of some of the school/pedagogy shenanigans I have been up to here over the years:

Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog Archive

Before I opened shop on blogspot.com, I used to maintain a Tex[t]-Galleryblog on SDSU servers; much of that old site is still alive and well here.

African American Doings!

link to source!

link to foxnews outing.

Mexican Monopolist of the Mass Media "Speaks"

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Margarita Cansino, aka Rita Hayworth

Just time for a quick image drop from a Ritarcheology photo-page I just happened upon:

...a last treat, Rita on "lips" while the "heat is on":

Tejana Chicana Philanthropist Eva Longoria in the New York Post

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Eyegiene: Working Logo for the New Book

Border Bandits by Camilla Fojas

My stable-mate at UT Press, the one and only Camilla Fojas, has come out with a terrific book that spies Hollywood's various and nefarious voyeuristic activities along the Tex[t]-Mex Border; read more about the book below; add a copy to your library here.

Border Bandits: Hollywood on the Southern Frontier

By Camilla Fojas

The southern frontier is one of the most emotionally charged zones in the United States, second only to its historical predecessor and partner, the western frontier. Though they span many genres, border films share common themes, trace the mood swings of public policy, and shape our cultural agenda.

In this examination, Camilla Fojas studies how major Hollywood films exploit the border between Mexico and the United States to tell a story about U.S. dominance in the American hemisphere. She charts the shift from the mythos of the open western frontier to that of the embattled southern frontier by offering in-depth analyses of particular border films, from post-World War II Westerns to drug-trafficking films to contemporary Latino/a cinema, within their historical and political contexts.

Fojas argues that Hollywood border films do important social work by offering a cinematic space through which viewers can manage traumatic and undesirable histories and ultimately reaffirm core "American" values. At the same time, these border narratives delineate opposing values and ideas.

Latino border films offer a critical vantage onto these topics; they challenge the presumptions of U.S. nationalism and subsequent cultural attitudes about immigrants and immigration, and often critically reconstruct their Hollywood kin.

By analyzing films such as Duel in the Sun, The Wild Bunch, El Norte, The Border, Traffic, and Brokeback Mountain, Fojas demands that we reexamine the powerful mythology of the Hollywood borderlands. This detailed scrutiny recognizes that these films are part of a national narrative comprised of many texts and symbols that create the myth of the United States as capital of the Americas.

Camilla Fojas is Associate Professor and Director of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University in Chicago.

Mexican Masuclinity, the Myth of the Luchador,and Gender Studies

If the femininity and licentious sexual potentiality of the Latina bombshell is always already through the roof, the masculinity (largely heterosexual) of the Mexican masked wrestler, or luchador, can't be far behind. Mexican wrestlers got short shrift in Tex[t]-Mex, an unfortunate turn of events that this galleryblog will work to undo.

Go here for more of Mark Zingarelli's fine illustration work.