Cheech and Chong, Laredo 1973

One of the first albums I ever bought was Los Cocinos by Cheech & Chong at Santos Grocery Store in Riverdrive Mall in 1974--the album came out in 1973. I was 13 years old and a 7nth-grader at St. Augustine High School which, in those days, was down by the Rio Grande downtown. At lunchtime, we would walk on over from the school to the mall to hang out, eat lunch, and try to stay out of trouble.

One of the mysteries of the 16-year odyssey that ended up embodied in Tex[t]-Mex is the invisibility of Cheech and Chong in that volume--next to Speedy Gonzales, they really are the best known "Mexicans" or mass cultural Chicanos on the planet. Here's a little bit of their work from Cheech & Chong's Next Movie--note their signifying play with "Mexican-American" and "Chicano" figuration:



More on this to come in these pages soon!

Undocumented Souls, America, and the Game Show

Just a quick link today to the Unapologetic Mexican if ONLY for the cool graphic he has of a "no steenkin' badges" "Mexican" on a 50s gameshow! Genius!

Gustavo Arellano and Mexicans and Little Folks

Gustavo Arellano spoke yesterday at SDSU for our Living Writers program. It was amazing; among the revelations, various and diverse bon mots concerning Mexican predilections for little folks. In Arellano's honor, I provide the following synaptic semiotic tickling:

Tex[t]-Mex for Japanese Shoppers!

What pleasure it brings me to know that throngs of shoppers from Kyoto to Tokyo can give into impulse Chicano Studies urges, to odd, unexpected film theory desires and purchase their brand spanking new copy of Tex[t]-Mex online! My own secret fetishes for Godzilla and erotic anime is redeemed with some cross-Pacific shared love!

Gracias to CHOICE--Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

I don't know J.E. Garza, but if I could, I would send her or him a bouquet of roses, a bottle of champagne, and a huge abrazo for the review of Tex[t]-Mex they wrote for Choice: Current Review for Academic Libraries--they are located on the web here. The review, blushingly he writes, appears there to your right. -->

Susan Sontag

Without Susan Sontag's On Photography, I never would have learned to write about pictures. I came across this photo of her in the New York Review of Books by Dominique Nabokov and post it here as homage.

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!