Thank God the Golden Age of Mexican Stereotypes is Over

All right. All right. I will cop to it: I am begin facetious!

But this casting call for a movie, set in of all places, Laredo, Texas, caught this self-exiled Laredense's roving, internet-weary eye.

What follows is a "real" advertisement that went out on The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) hotwire.

CASTING: "TALK TO HIM" SAG SHORT FILM

PRODUCERS: ALEX CASTILLO, NICK OCEANO
DIRECTOR/WRITER: NICK OCEANO
Casting Director: NICK OCEANO
Shoot/Call Date: 3/31 and/or 4/2
Location: LOS ANGELES, CA

CASTING BACKGROUND ACTORS

A coming of age-story about Mark Garcia, a troubled teen whose parents are going through a divorce. During a family visit, Mark hangs out with his cousin, Luis, from the 'other side of the tracks,' and the two venture across the Texas-Mexico border for one fateful night.

MEXICAN BAR PATRONS - (MALE & FEMALE, 18 - 65) Seeking to find authentic Mexican or Hispanic-looking patrons for two different scenes: (1) A Mexican brothel bar and (2) A Texas lounge bar in Laredo, Texas. MEXICAN-LOOKING actors ideal.

MEXICAN FEMALE PROSTITUTES - (FEMALE, 18 - 65) Seeking to find authentic Mexican or Hispanic-looking prostitutes for scene in Mexican brothel bar. MEXICAN-LOOKING or dark-skinned (non-Anglo, non-African-American) actors ideal.

Actors of all types welcome.

TO APPLY: please submit a link to your picture and resume to Steve Mann, Associate Producer, at stevemann716@yahoo.com

Mann may want to do some more research.

Rio Rene Yañez, the Andy Warhol of Tortillas, Photography, and more

Rio Yañez, aka "El Rio," is a San Francisco artist with a sharp eye, lurid range, and a clever sense of humor that sets his work apart. The last part of Tex[t]-Mex chronicles the workings of something I call Xicanosmosis, the seeping, sharing, breathing, bleeding exchange that typifies the cultural intercourse of Latin American and the United States. Yañez's work, like that of Gilbert Hernandez, (especially his tortilla-as-canvas initiative), is a provocative example of our next-wave post movimiento Chicana/o arts renaissance.

For a quick take on Gilbert Hernandez, click on the Amazon.com page here, and click on the second thumbnailed image under the Tex[t]-Mex book cover--Amazon now allows contributors to annotate images, an amazing tool for art historians and cultural studies geeks alike! After you click on the tiny image, roll your cursor over Hernandez's depiction of Frida Kahlo's head for an embedded cyber caption. Annotations of images of Rita Hayworth and Lupe Vélez appear there as well.

WKXW, Mexicans, and "Entertainment"

Our University of California, Santa Barbara doctoral degree correspondent has checked into the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog with more shreds of infamy!

Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:21:57 -0700
From: MARC GARCIA-MARTINEZ
Subject: Tex[t]-Mex's raison d'etre
To: memo@sdsu.edu

Bill,

Here we go again, amigo. from the site:

Two weeks ago, Mr. Carton and Mr. Rossi started “Operation Rat a Rat/La Cucha Gotcha,” a listener-participation game that encourages people to turn in friends, neighbors and “anyone suspicious” to immigration authorities. They introduced the segment with mariachi music and set the campaign to end on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), a well-known Mexican holiday. At the risk of stating the obvious, the phrase “La Cucha Gotcha” is meant to evoke the Spanish word for cockroach.

Mel Gibson and the Maya

Looks like beleaguered Jewish folk are not the only harassed group that needs worry the wrath of anger-management-poster-child Mel Gibson! Now Central American academics and all sorts of Latinos will need to learn the nuances of duck and cover. God forbid anyone ask a question of Mad Max when it comes to his representation of Latinos in Apocalypto. Glosses on this tale of Catholic Australian Drunks gone loco are here, here, and here.

Cool Story in City Beat about some of my union activist work