The Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog: 07 April 2013

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Gracias Mexican Cultural Institute of New York for the Cyber Abrazo!

Great news here in the Big Apple--MCINY.ORG, the website for the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York is hyping my Observatory Room gig on the main page of their site!!!! Gracias... Click the facsimile below for the livelinkazo...

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Heading "Home" to the Big Apple | Mextasy and Textmex Lectures in NYC, April 2013 | William Nericcio

UPDATED May 1, 2013--see below for a video of the OBSERVATORY lecture/presentation, Brooklyn, NY!

It's weird to think of a trip to New York City as a "trip home"--but in a way, it's totally true. The "professor" side of my consciousness will always be wandering the snowdrifts of Ithaca, New York, where I went to graduate school. New York City, then, was a playground, a respite, a utopia, a wonderland filled with friends and misadventures and an utterly bizarre space for this son of the Texas borderlands. Needless to say, the big apple left its mark--took a big bite out of me sort of speak.

Which is a long, drawn-out way of saying that this week I am giving three lectures in Manhattan and Brooklyn. First one up is a talk at the utterly rad School of Visual Arts in Manhattan entitled "Bandit, Succubus, Gigolo, Maid, & Fiend: 20th and 21st Century Latina/o Bodies in the Imagination of the Americas"--it is a variation and augmentation of a talk I gave at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 2011. The presentation takes place at SVA on Tuesday, April 9, 2011 at 1pm and is part of their Working Lunch series held at 136 West 21st Street, between 6th and 7nth Avenue. Hit the poster opposite for details.

Next up, on Thursday evening, April 11, 2013 @ 7pm is "Narcheology" a new piece in development for Eyegiene, my next book with UT Press. The full title is "Visual Narcheology: Scarface, Semiotics, and Spectacles of Violence in Northern Mexico and the American Southwest." This talk is at NYU's 20 Cooper Square building, conference room 471 at 7:30pm and is part of Laredo-born Professor Josefina Saldaña's seminar on narcos. Tap the image opposite with your cursor to see the gory details.

Last up is the talk on Friday, April 12, 2013 @ 8pm at the amazing Observatory Room in Brooklyn. There, I will be giving a revised feature presentation I just gave up the coast at the University of Washington, "Confessions of a Mexican American Hoarder or the Caucasian Bestiary: The Existential and Insane Consquences of Collecting Stereotypes." More details on the presentation are on the Facebook invite page and here, opposite.

Please help me spread the word--I would very much like to bring the entire Mextasy exhibition to NYC in the near future! Gracias!

Thanks to Mark Schwartz for playing cinematographer for Mextasy in NYC/Brooklyn!

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Santo Returns!

Monday, April 08, 2013

While in NYC... Equal Opportunity Stereotypical Iconography

I will begin by confessing: I love Rice to Riches. They are the yummy goodness that only rice pudding can be: thick and savory but not overly sweet and mushy. To top it all off, you get to sample flavors, just like you can in FroYo places, or ice-cream joints. When you walk into this shop a customer is greeted with the no-nonsense hip vibe of Virgin Atlantic and Wagamama. It's groovy minimalist design for sure. That's always hard to pull clean and understated as Apple or Braun have shown. So I imagine someone took great care to plan branding and signage for the shop.

My story begins when I first visited to Rice to Riches in 2009. I never really noticed this sign on the wall until I went again sometime later on the same year.

I wondered if Rice to Riches was making a point of saying they don't hire people who wear Sombreros to make their pudding? Or were they stating that the Americans who work there are dressing up as a Mexican cartoon character in solidarity for our sister nation? Or were they inferring that an "American worker" is not the dreaded undocumented worker who happens to be Mexican? Either way, I wanted an answer and to give Rice to Riches the benefit of the doubt. So on December 16, 2009 I emailed Rice to Riches via the site's comment box.

"So I had a question: First of all, I love, love, your store and your flavors. I am a Boston-ite but whenever I am in the big City, I come over to taste your rice pudding. I am never disappointed. My question is: Could you tell me what you're trying to convey with your sign that tells your customers you only hire American workers? I support the sentiment but have a huge problem with the stereo-typical depiction of the non-American work-force being A. Mexican and B. Wearing sombreros. I wonder if there is a more benevolent explanation for your sign and if so, I would love to understand it.

Thanks kindly for your time and serious attention to a matter which is important to me, being the daughter of hard-working Mexican immigrants.

Cheers,

Daphne"

So unfortunately I never heard back. However, the last time we visited Rice to Riches, I saw this new signage:

Seems Rice to Riches decided to spread the stereotyping around.

37 Spring St
(between Mott St & Mulberry St)
New York, NY 10012
Neighborhood: Nolita

(212) 274-0008

http://www.ricetoriches.com

Raza de New York...!!!!

New York raza, share the word and the invite! fb.me/15VwbAA8h
— William Nericcio (@eyegiene) April 9, 2013

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Mextasy and Tex[t]-Mex on the Road @ School of Visual Arts, NY | "Bandit, Succubus, Gigolo, Maid, & Fiend: 20th and 21st Century Latina/o Bodies in the Imagination of the Americas" | William Nericcio

Here's the promo:

Bandit, Succubus, Gigolo, Maid, & Fiend
20th and 21st Century Latina/o Bodies in the Imagination of the Americas

William A. Nericcio
University of Guelph, October 27, 2011 | Thursday

A brief multimedia presentation examining dominant trends in the representation of Latinas and Latinos in American popular culture. From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, specific and damaging visions of Latina/o subjectivity have infected the synapses of Americans, and Mexicans alike--these "ethnic mannequins" (Speedy Gonzales, Charo, the Frito Bandito, etc) come to dominate consciousness, leading to a renaissance on racialized hatred currently en vogue in the U.S. from New York to California, from Arizona to Georgia. If Lou Dobbs says that Mexicans are "diseased" and John McCain contends (with a straight) face the illegal immigrants are starting forest fires, and Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners to tell "Mexicans" to go back to their country, what is the result? Research would seem to suggest these collective efforts have led to a resurgence of anti-Latino hate and hate crimes at the very moment demographically that the lands of Uncle Sam are more decidedly Latino/a.

The presentation will feature excerpts from Tex[t]-Mex, Eyegiene, the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog and art from Mextasy.

an early version of this presentation was delivered at the
University of Guelph a couple of years back...