1950s Era Comic Book Meditations on Human Smuggling, Mexicans, the Border and More! Headline Comics #63 January-February 1954

Every now and then I get lucky. Meandering the back alleys of the internets can turn up some compelling artifacts--particularly where your interests are focused on all things Mexican.  It had not occurred to me until after finishing Tex[t]-Mex (better price here!) that some of the best materials on "Mexicans" in America would be in pulp fiction from the 1930s-1950s.  And that some of the "best" (most garish, most racist, most provocative) materials would appear in genre books--westerns, crime fiction, etc.

That's the case today with Headline Comics #63 from 1954--I am in debt the Bristol Board Tumblr site, a treasure trove of comic book artifacts, for the find. "Slave Peddlers" is a tale of Mexicans and Americans at the border/on the border--with n'ere-do'-wells, crooks, coyotes, "Mexicans" and more. According to Comic Books Plus, the artist credits for this issue are: "Pencils: Marvin Stein?; Inks: Marvin Stein?; Letters: Ben Oda."

Check out the whole story here--like most images on the Textmex Galleryblog, they get bigger when you hit them with your cursor or your finger.

Ugly, Fat, Corrupt, Mexican Bandits! Another Chapter in the History "Mexican" Stereotypes from Atlas Comics

Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine continues to emerge as the premier treasure trove for stereotypes-seeking cultural studies workers probing the backstory for anti-Mexican loathing--enjoying a Trump-led renaissance these days.  

Turns out the fat, corrupt, racist/rapist (Trump, not the "Spider"), did not have to dig too deep to conjure frightening hallucinations of swarthy, scary ethnic criminality. Below appear some choice page selections--the whole epic tale is available here.

Mexican Mitt Romney on Twitter

Accompanying the "Mitt Romney being Mexican" story, check out this parody Twitter account @MexicanMitt " the Most Mexican Man in the World" and his profile picture revealing Mitt Romney's face superimposed to a picture of a charro.


update: I just found the original picture Mitt Romney's face was photoshopped on. None other that than the real "Most Mexican man in the World" Vicente Fernandez.

Who knew? Mitt Romney is Mexican! Sort of...

NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams” recently aired a full report revealing Mitt Romney’s roots south of the border. Mitt Romney’s father, former Michigan governor George Romney was born in a Mormon colony in the Mexican state Chihuaha. His ancestors fled the United States to avoid prosecution concerning anti-polygamy laws. Then, during the Mexican Revolution, George Romney’s father's family fled Mexico to the United States where Mitt Romney was born years later.

Wait, so does that make the GOP candidate, presidential hopeful, is half-Mexican? Oh the posibilities. This means he could actually apply for dual citizeship, and if he chose to, hold public office. Fortunately for Mexico,  since Romney’s not a natural-born citizen, he wouldn’t be able to run for Presidente. Romney still has relatives living in the Mormon colonies of Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan, but doesn’t acknowledge them or even visited them.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s campaign holds a stance against immigration reform, despite the fact that his family were once immigrants themselves,  Maybe the Democrats should ask Romney for his long form birth certificate…

Speedy Gonzales Recast as a Zapatista!

original posting 6/6/09 | updated/fixed links 09/13/11

source

The bread-and-butter of Tex[t]-Mex is the anchor-chapter on the hijinks of one Speedy Gonzales.  From time to time, I do image searches for Speedy and often run across the one above of Speedy recast as a Zapatista!

You can see/read my back-story on Speedy and Warner Brothers animation wizards here or (updated with more pictures) here.

Morpheus is in the house! (or the planet)...Pedro Parquero resurrected! (well, kinda'): Mestizaje raises its head in current comic books and film

Follow this link here to a report from Newsarama on Africano actor Lawrence Fishburne's upcoming role as the fairly caucasoidal (and double entendre-d) Perry White in director Zack Snyder's forthcoming film release Superman—Man of Steel.

And this link here to an honest Newsarama essay on race, culture, and Marvel Comics' new Spiderman—a half-Ethiopian, half-Mexican teenager by the name of Miles Morales ("my mestizaje sense is tingling").

Harvey Kurtzman, Parody, Satire, and Native Americans: Another Chapter in the History of Racialized Representation in the Americas

I am a huge fan of Harvey Kurtzman's work--especially the work he did on the early Mad comic book with Will Elder. Here, however, is something different. Kurtzman, disguised as "Remuda Charlie Stringer", edited an issue of FAVORITE WESTERNS OF FILMLAND for Warren Publications.... the full post is here.

Most interesting for the purposes on this blog are the Native American representations, send-ups, and gags in the issue; here are three of them:

and, just for Tex[t]-Mex sake, a "Mexican"...

...and, for eyegiene, a camera...

Our Cool Colleagues Over at Sociological Images are Doing Amazing Work...

A Fusillade of "Mexican" Pulchritude

Hit the carcinogenic-generous mujer for the gallery by Supaswag--some of the images are a tad risque.

Mexican Narco Cinema on VBS.com

More on the Texas Education Board Erasure of "Mexicans" from Texas History

Kudos to new West Coast correspondent Sam Wood for zapping me the link! Hit the image for the skinny...

El Chavo del Ocho, My Newest Ersatz "Mexican"

Eduardo Santacruz, regular contributor to the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog, dutiful comparative literature scholar, and near-future resident of Barcelona, España, stopped by to donate a new artifact to my museum of ersatz Mexican facsimiles--none other than Roberto Gómez Bolaños, aka Chespirito, aka, el Chavo del Ocho. However, this one, from Best Buy, features the whitest Chespirito I have ever seen--hit the image above for the details! Yet another chapter in the history of racialized representation en las Americas.

Here's Gómez Bolaños at his finest:

Jeff Dunham and His "Mexican" Jalapeño on a Stick

David O. García writes in to push our eyes onto this "popular" YouTube video featuring ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his "talents"--in this case, a "Mexican" jalapeño. Dunham makes one yearn for the nuance of Bill Dana (see below)!





Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez

"Mexican" Hatwear as Synecdoche for a Prophylactic! Let the Debate Begin!

Updated Post from January 5, 2007 | Holy Mengele! or Cesar Chavez Rolls in His Grave on the Way to the Orthodontist

REPOST (original) "Holy Mengele! or Cesar Chavez Rolls in His Grave on the Way to the Orthodontist"

It is a given that I will be pilloried for posting this, but if we are going to traffic in comments on stereotypes, race, gender, and ethnicity, and if we are to do so with no little particular emphasis on the manifestation of these beasts in popular culture and the humanities, then we also have to come clean as well about Mexican, Latina/o, and Chicana/o figuration when it comes from our be-lab-coated hermanos y hermanas trafficking in the hard sciences.

Hence the following academic delight from The Angle Orthodontist: An International Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics authored by Martha Mejia-Maidl, Carla A. Evans, Grace Viana, Nina K. Anderson, and Donald B. Giddone (html or pdf, pick your flavor), that finds, among other things, that "Mexican Americans...preferred upper or lower lip positions to be less protrusive than the Caucasians, particularly for female computer animation images." Which may mean, among other things, that Edward James Olmos may not be dating Meg Ryan--at least not in the short term, and that Mexican-Americans have discerning taste, when it comes to visually-stimulated, fetishistic attachments to ersatz Botox-injected chicos y chicas--Miranda Martinez fans, notwithstanding.



More seriously, while said article may just be the result of test subjects confronting badly Photoshop™-mangled images, it also shows how the "hard-sciences" continue to traffic in the concretization of race and ethnicity--Eugenics may well be primed for a comeback if these wacky dentists have their way.

FINAL UPDATE

Apparently, Ryan now will soon star in a film that features a "wild" trip to Baja in search of next-wave cosmetics.

LaBloga Hosts Cool Interview with Gustavo Arellano

SoCal's own loco mouthpiece, Gustavo Arellano, holds forth in an interview with daring and dashing Chicano scribe Daniel Olivas at labloga.blogspot.com

Put that mouse to work here for the link!

Stop the Presses! Speedy Gonzales Sighting at Celeb Website

You know a "Mexican" stereotype hall of fame star is ready for his closeup again when he starts making appearances in celebrity blogs more famous for upskirt shots of Britney Spears, Mischa Barton, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton. And so it is that the star of chapter three of Tex[t]-Mex now finds himself on the front page of the unfortunately-named, if not utterly repugnant, Hollywood Tuna posing with Kristin Cavallari.

An Oldie But a Goodie--"Mexican" "Flesh" Bandaids, A Sarcastic Soliloquy

What a load off my mind! Finally, I can relax! For years, dear reader, I have suffered the pain of wearing band-aids that were not my skin color! For decades, tears have riven furrows 'cross my face as I walked through a world where bandages mocked the skin color of my Latina and Latino hermanas y hermanos! Like some vestigial cousin of the "flesh"-colored crayon, Band-Aids continued propagating the charade that when we bled, we did so on pinkish "skin-canvases" that were all the same color!

Now, at long last, we rest--our friends at Johnson and Johnson having followed the progressive souls of Binney and Smith. Click the box for a close-up!


Originally posted January 2, 2007