Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Of Mexicans, Mota (Marijuana), Witchcraft, the Dark Arts and More! Cavalcade Magazine, 1951 #nomextasy #textmex




Self-imprisoned with my family, doing my small part to slow the spread of our global pandemic friend, the Coronavirus, I chanced upon yet another example of another virus, familiar to readers of the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog! Stereotypicus Mexicanus-19!

In this case, the year is 1951, the nation/continent? Australia (of all places). The genocide of their autochthonous aborigines not enough to quench their thirsts, Australians and Australian pulp fiction readers turned to Cavalcade Magazine for lurid sustenance:
"[Cavalcade was a] Australian men's magazine that began in the early 1940s during WWII. The book started out with some fairly serious subject matter as much of the features had to to do with the war. The early cartoons and gags were also benign at first. As time went on the magazine became more risque both in cartoons and in the lurid/sensational text stories. Some issues featured the well done comic stories with art by Phil Belbin. By the end of the book's run it was more akin to Playboy."


The confluence of stereotypes here in this "Marihuana Madness" piece is noteworthy--druggy shiftless Mexicans, voodooed out Cubans, etc.   The mind reels! 


As with most pictures on the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog, click them to make them mas grande!




Of course in magazines of this species, it's not enough to malign swarthy folks--you also have to throw in some "cheesecake."



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