Roland Barthes in Laredo, Texas

Nostalgia junky that I am, I like to keep tabs on my hometown of Laredo, Texas to see what is going on in that fantabulous and extraordinarily uncanny "gateway to Mexico." Luckily, a very gifted posse of talented macontents with cameras take it upon themselves to document the ironic richness of this singular borderzone. Entitled "La Sanbe," after San Bernardo Avenue, it is a cool site for frontera-loving Tejanos y Tejanas the world over!

You can be instantly teleported to a recent fave posting by hitting the image reproduced here:

I was especially taken with it as it treats with a semiotic subject I am somewhat familiar with--hit this link to see an online version of an unpublished essay on Laredo that will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book edited by Arturo Aldama and as a chapter in my follow-up to Tex[t]-Mex entitled Eyegiene: Salacious and Sundry Semiotic Speculations on Mass Culture en las Americas.

The Streets of Laredo and the Lazy Mex Lounge

I had to leave Laredo, move to California, and go online to "see" for the first time something I probably drove by over a thousand times in my beloved hometown--the Lazy Mex Lounge on the corner of Pierce and San Bernardo. My thanks to the Streets of Laredo Blog, and La Sanbe for the view. The first shot above is a riff-off of a Flickr posting.

This Barthesian rumination (think flaneur but with a laptop in lieu of a sidewalk, cane, etc.) is inspired by the incipient bloggings of the Borderlore diva, Profe Maribel Alvarez de Tucson. I think I will upload some of my unpublished photo-essay of Laredo soon--a taste appears below this google map.


View Larger Map

Mextasy: The MEXTASY Show Opens Today in Laredo!

Mextasy: The MEXTASY Show Opens Today in Laredo!: "Thanks to LA SANBE for the love!"

BordertownBlues Musings on South Texas Beer Runs

As I prepare to revise for publication (finally) my own photographic laced musings on Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, I have been perusing the contemporary Barthes-style writings of borderland flaneurs and semioticians--Bordertown Blues's thoughtful notes on South Texas beer runs, drive-in, drive-thru "ice houses," common in Laredo, are first rate:


La Sanbe, to your left and below, probably, in my "ilk" section, another worthy Laredense son of Roland Barthes, I have written about here before.

Scarface, Narcos, The Border, and Hollywood

update: more images from South Texas here, courtesy of La Sanbe.


I have been dying (metaphor!) to write about the explosion of Scarface movie paraphernalia along the US/Mexico border; much has and will be written about it. A Laredo, Texas blogger and photographer has generously elected to help me visually chronicle it.

More on this soon! I promise...

A Big Thank You to LA SANBE...

Thanks for the posting--direct embed video below...