Thursday, November 29, 2007

Gustavo Arellano and Mexicans and Little Folks

Gustavo Arellano spoke yesterday at SDSU for our Living Writers program. It was amazing; among the revelations, various and diverse bon mots concerning Mexican predilections for little folks. In Arellano's honor, I provide the following synaptic semiotic tickling:

Tex[t]-Mex for Japanese Shoppers!


What pleasure it brings me to know that throngs of shoppers from Kyoto to Tokyo can give into impulse Chicano Studies urges, to odd, unexpected film theory desires and purchase their brand spanking new copy of Tex[t]-Mex online! My own secret fetishes for Godzilla and erotic anime is redeemed with some cross-Pacific shared love!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Gracias to CHOICE--Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

I don't know J.E. Garza, but if I could, I would send her or him a bouquet of roses, a bottle of champagne, and a huge abrazo for the review of Tex[t]-Mex they wrote for Choice: Current Review for Academic Libraries--they are located on the web here. The review, blushingly he writes, appears there to your right. -->

Susan Sontag


Without Susan Sontag's On Photography, I never would have learned to write about pictures. I came across this photo of her in the New York Review of Books by Dominique Nabokov and post it here as homage.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Latina "Bombshell" or Scab!? Eva Longoria Versus the WGA Barricades

The ghosts of United Farmworkers and shades of MEChistas howled and weeped a couple of weeks back as Tex-Mex, Chicana uberstar Eva Longoria crossed Writers Guild of America picket lines in Hollywood in order shoot scenes for ABC's Desperate Housewives. The Tejana vixen, previously profiled in these pages (1/12/07), and renowned in Ethnic Studies circles for her candid, native-informant outing of Texas-style Mexican on Mexican racism (viz, the "la prieta fea" disclosures), tried to buy the love of her colleagues with pizza but fell short and, in some reports, was brought to tears by the chants of lefty agitators including Julia Louis-Dreyfus--"Elaine," of Seinfeld fame.

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