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.

The Official Party Line on Speedy Gonzales!

Far be it for this cartoon-loving academic to eschew official sources of information on the fastest mouse in all Mexico and best-known Mexican stereotype in American mass culture! So it is that I point you to Warner Bros. official, online site for Speedy Gonzales. The archival research here is decent, even heralding the contributions of one Hawley Pratt (he of Texas Toads infamy) in the revision of Speedy's character from the "rattier," swarthy, be-goldtoothéd, "mean[ ]" mouse he was to the Veracruz-be-toggéd imp/Lothario we know and love! I must have been asleep in the library the days I did research to miss out on Pratt's hand in morphing this very special "Mexican" rat.


Speaking of research, Warner Brothers publicity people out themselves as average undergraduates when it comes to hitting the archives--most of their "official" site is cribbed from Wikipedia! Lookout Britannica, your days are numbered!

To complete the Borges-touched essence of this circular ruin, I have added a Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog link to the Wikipedia site.

Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale!

And, of course!, America's First Thanksgiving Was.... Spanish?

American studies maven, Michael Wyatt Harper has written in to inquire as to my Thanksgiving doings and to remind me that there is a Tex[t]-Mex angle to this day of Pilgrims, turkeys, football, and indigestion. Click here for the skinny!

Mexican Swimmers! The Elite!

Oy Gevalt!

Julie Myers, Blackface-lovin', Immigration-shillin', and Stupidity-bein' Diva!

This is an old story, but seems worth archiving here at the Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog, a site that seeks to chronicle the evolution of American stereotypes of all stripes and flavors. Julie Myers, Bush-designated immigration go-to gal and Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement head, has peculiar taste when it comes to judging Halloween party costumes! As such, she has earned the right to join our growing panoply of portraits in something I am calling the Pantheon of American Stereotypes!

Congratulations Julie! And please, pretty please, invite me to your next Halloween party--I've got the perfect costume.

¡Sas!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, Alfonso Bedoya, Mexicano extraordinaire from Treasure of the Sierra Madre and, right below, Jewish-American comic genius, Mel Brooks's riff off the same from Blazing Saddles--here, curiously, Brooks anticipates Dave Chappelle's vision by three decades.





I have written about Chappelle's work here (January 19, 2007), and designed a class around some of his choice antics here.

Salma Hayek: Pondering 21st Century Latina Bombshells

I am in debt to reader and correspondent David O. García for the embedded video below from Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn featuring the acting and dancing talents of Salma Hayek. I will add a comment to it shortly, but will note here briefly in the interim that the director Rodriguez's warped syncretism, blending indigenous Mexica/Aztec semiotic elements with a down-home 'Merican strip club is curious to say the least!

High Tech Aztec, er, Rodent or Next-Gen Speedy Gonzaleses

A quick link to a story about genetic engineering with a cameo headline featuring the "fastest mouse in all Mexico." Andale, andale, arriba, arriba!

To your left? Speedy's new nemesis! Sorry Sylvester.

Watching Frida Kahlo Through Nickolas Muray's Camera

A traveling gallery of Nickolas Muray photographs of Frida Kahlo, her posse, and some of her paintings is making the rounds these days. Muray's evocative photos match Gilbert Hernandez's pen and india ink when it comes to revealing the inner life of oil painting's 20th century Mexican diva.

Meanwhile, Kahlo-loving gossip mongers may want to peruse the sassy palabras of Diego Rivera's daughter--the behemoth Lothario's female issue holds no punches.

The fifth chapter of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in America studies the way Kahlo's biography shaped the eccentric eye of Chicano comic book genius Hernandez.

Ask-A-Mexican Agitprop Hijinks!

Just a quick link to my cool, Mexican, cultural studies partner-in-crime, Gustavo Arellano, caught recently, here on the elementary school lecture trails!

Órale!

Arellano visits and reads at SDSU 2pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 in the Love Library (LA 2203), or, as I call it, the Library of Love owing to all the voyeurs wankers that used to hang out there. Arellano appears courtesy of the Hugh C. Hyde Living Writers Series and, of course, the mothership, literature.sdsu.edu.

Breaking News!

More on Arellano here--replete with huge, Norma Desmond style close-up picture!

Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino!

While spelunking the internet I stumbled upon this low-resolution print of a period 8 x 10 publicity glossy, post-electrolysis!, of the one and only Rita Hayworth--aka Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino. I ran it through the alchemy of photoshop and was able, via filters and philtres, to render this decent print archived here for research and presentation purposes.

Michelle Serros is Back in the House!

Just a quick nod to Diva escritora Michelle Serros, who is out with a hot new tome! Read it and weep--and laugh and freak out!

Narcissism Rears Its Less-than-pretty Head!

....'tis true! 'tis true! That poor schmuck stuck by the side of the river peering at himself se queda pobre next to the herculean promotion bandwagon that is Tex[t]-Mex.

Still and all, I would be remiss if I did not remind dear readers and innocent internet spelunkers today that the traveling Tex[t]-Mex experience, with its crack team of hangers-ons and posse of Tejano vaqueros, is rolling into the magnificent City of Angels, Los Angeles, with readings tonight in Los Feliz's ultra cool Skylight Books (poster) and tomorrow, Thursday, November 8, 2007 at USC where I will be sure to be sporting my quarterback-Mark-Sanchez-inspired "Mexico" mouthpiece.

Go Trojans!


Órale!

Shilling Grandmothers!!!

I am on tour in San Antonio--only a second to tip you to an AdAge story on abuelitas and advertising. More soon!

Tumescent Dueling Phallic Flags in Laredo, Texas USA and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

...a quick newsbreak from Laredo, Texas where I am hiding out from my job as Chair of literature.sdsu.edu and touring in support of Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America.

There are Freudian flags dueling here in Laredo--a massive Peter North-esque American flag on the Laredo side; and an even more, um, tumescent John Holmes-esque flag towering over los dos laredos on the Mexican side of the border in Nuevo Laredo. More here as well.

When I get back to San Diego next week I will try to post pictures and a little film of this semiotic, warring crossing of the swords, here deep in the penumbra, or, the pudenda, of South Texas.

Holy nationalist erection, batsman!

"Next Stop Cucamonga": A Texas & California Odyssey!

Every now and then someone slips up and leaves the cell-door open and a professor gets to excape her or his host asylum to hit the road and go "on tour," sort of speak.

Ok, it's not quite the Frampton Comes Alive tour or Cheap Trick, Live at Budakan sans groupies, but it's as close as us mortar-board wearing, would-be / wanna-be, band-on-the-run, robe & hood sporting wonks are gonna get to that legendary life of tour-buses, champagne, and debauchery.

So it is with great pleasure that I let slip to occasional readers and random image-safari visitors that I am visting Austin (The University of Texas at Austin, UT, November 1), San Antonio (The University of Texas at San Antonio, UTSA, November 5), Los Feliz (at Skylight Books, November 7), Los Angeles (The University of Southern California, USC, November 8), and Santa Cruz (at the Felix Kulpa Gallery, The University of California, Santa Cruz, UCSC, December 7) in support of Tex[t]-Mex.

If you are near one of the readings come out and say hola! Mil gracias a La Bloga for the shout-out regarding this tour!

The poster (below) that Michael Buchmiller did for the Texas gigs is nothing short of amazing--gracias to genius Buchmiller for his savvy graphic eye. Guillermo Nericcio García, rogue, semiotic, imagemeister from memogr@phics designcasa, came up with one as well (left) for the USC reading. Each appears here in living color.

Arrivaderci!