Target targets demographics with Hispanic Sweets

Attention all US Spanish speakers, these Valentine's classics are not for you, just for Hispanics. When I picked up my bag of "El Dulce Oficial del Amor" the tag on shelf of the Target Valentine's Shop read: "Hispanic Sweet."



Blame Target for the this: But for the labeling? No. The culprit was in Boston's backyard! The venerable Necco Factory came up with the Hispanic golosinas category.



Lovingly create candy Haikus for any Hispanic love interest and string hearts imprinted in Castellano: Te Amo (in two yummy sabores). Hola. Amiga. Dulce and Beso.

Daphne Strassmann's Ritualistic Chicano Totemic Cannibalism or El Chavo Del Ocho is Yummy

Regular East Coast scribe and now, apparently, culinary cultural studies maven, Daphne Strassmann writes in to report:

From: daphne strassmann
Subject: Fue sin querer queriendo
I ate El Chavo.

From Fiesta Grocers in Houston Texas and one of my
Chavo-inspired x-mas regalos.

I don't mind saying these pops estaban reque-deliciosas.

Pero,

Don Ramon tasted bitter
Doña Florinda tasted like permanents
Quique tasted ambivalent
and Chavo tasted like hope

Memory Lane: The Hot Tamale Kid

When I was not scarfing down Milky Ways, reading comics, and pasting Wacky Packages to the good furniture in our house, I was probably at the candy aisle at Barrera's Stop & Shop in Laredo, Texas on Corpus Christi Street, buying more processed sugar and looking for more tasty morsels of inked gold! (more comics!). Occasionally, I would buy these "Mexican" laced goodies, "Hot Tamales" immortalized on Jason Liebig's flickr site. Little did I know that decades later I would be adding another chapter to my growing list of collectable "Mexicans." "Maria" meet "The Hot Tamale Kid"--a marriage made in heaven (at least a sort of Francis Galton meets Westworld heaven).

Speaking of Wacky Packages, here's one that had me rolling on the floor back in the day...


... and one that makes me cringe now...