Of Lupe Velez, Celebrity as Deity, and More: An Interview with Russell Brand | via Boingboing.net

"Lupe Icon" by Guillermo
Nericcio García
digital source

In "the hardest to read"* chapter in Tex[t]-Mex, the forth chapter on Lupe Vélez entitled, "Lupe Vélez Regurgitated; or, Jesus's Kleenex: Cautionary, Indigestion-Inspiring Ruminations on "Mexicans" in "American" Toilets," I play with the idea of celebrities in the early 20th century as newly minted "saints," with la Lupe a kind of early 20th century martyr--of no little assistance in this vein are the findings of Jeffrey F. Hamburger on the vera ikon or "Veronica" (that scene in the new testament, immortalized in the stations of the cross, "station 6", where Jesus leaves his face on a "Veronica's" handkerchief, aka, the first snapshot).

You can see this idea reappear, with post-modern trappings, in this compelling interview with Russell Brand on boingboing.

*A recent comment by one of my "robotic" undergraduates!

Latinas? Bananas? Buttocks!? Carmen Miranda is Back in the House!

update:



original posting August 6, 2008



Just a quick link to a new DVD collection of a plethora of hits featuring that banana-clad, dancing, one-woman-show Carmen Miranda! You can read a quick riff on Carmen by Myra Mendible in the full-text, online introduction to Bananas to Buttocks on the UTPress website.

Here are two videos as well: the first, an animated classic from Disney with Miranda doing lead vocals; the second, Miranda showing her charms in English in a sequenc from Weekend in Havana (1941).