Holy Jesus! The video above, from 2005, comes to me from new, deeply embedded "Old South" correspondent William Minton-Marshall, who sends in this missive!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:51:36 -0600 To: memo@sdsu.edu Subject: Frank Myers Auto, Paco, a chicken, and the Reconquista of North Carolina From: William Minton-Marshall
This came at me like a big slow overhand curve ball from 2005! I'm almost certain that by next year "Frank Myer's Auto Maxx" will be rechristened "Paco's Auto Maxx." There will be chicas instead of chickens. La Fiesta in SE Houston is the future for Winston-Salem. Chido has his own Myspace page.
The whole gnarly matrix of sex and ethnicity that comes to the fore when you are talking about African Americans and Latinas/os is one of the root theses of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America. Sex worker cum journalist Violet Blue's recent piece in the SF Gate eloquently speaks to this heady mix as the porn industry grapples with the world-wide recession. Here's a taste of the piece:
Locally-based Hapa performer Jiz Lee (jizlee.com, link NSFW) told me, "I think the racial layout of mainstream porn is such a mindf--k. It's like a magnified look at race and power in our economy. And 'interracial' is particularly curious to me because it stands out as the only straight category that isn't defined by the female actor -- i.e., 'Asian' or 'Latina' indicates a white male with an Asian or Latina female; however, 'interracial' indicates black men with white women. It's bizarre to me."
It may be that some porn producers cling to the extremes of the "interracial" umbrella to survive the economic storm. Lee thinks that the exact opposite of marketing "funny" racial slurs is the recipe for success and survival saying, "Personally I see porn as a medium for social change, and diverse casting more adequately reflects my own identity and community. Perhaps this authenticity is one of the reasons indie porn is also 'recession proof.'"
I have just hit the ground here in Columbus for a presentation this afternoon with Guisela Latorre called Eyes Wide Open. In a moment of serendipity I just happened across a YouTube posting of a Lupe Velez film short--it is quite peculiar and cool; allegorically, it is as if she is framed (symbolically foregrounding the "frame" of cinema) even as the odd, tiny serenaders give vent to their desire for her via music! Yowza.
postscript
I want to thank all the amazing students and professors that made my all-too-brief junket out to Columbus and THE Ohio State University such a success; it was cool to share the stage with Guisela Latorre who delighted the audience at OSU's posh faculty club Grand Room with her findings on Mexican and Chicano murals and muralists--even though Latorre had stacked the deck for herself question-wise by having her Daddy, a professor himself (and utterly proud Papa) in the audience! If you are looking for a first tier, top rank graduate and/or undergraduate crib to immerse yourself in Latina/o Studies, you cannot do yourself wrong by firing up that lowrider (forgive the stereotype) and cruising yourself to the American Midwest and OSU. Huge abrazos y besos to polyglot, empresario wunderkind Luis Federico Aldama, aka Frederick Luis Aldama (yes, that is him in the luchador mask--and, unseen, the speedos, keys in pants), for making this bracing gig happen!
Tomorrow morning I head out for the chilly wonders of Columbus, Ohio for a lecture/reading/signing with Guisela Latorre. They are calling the event, Eyes Wide Open: New Work on Latina/o Visual Culture, an homage to Stanley Kubrick nestled nicely in a catchy moniker. Click here for additional verbiage. The event at OSU is being hosted by their pretty remarkable Latina/o Studies program that includes, among its other hip, mexi-poindexters, the one and only Frederick Aldama--hit the image here to be transported to their main cybercrib. Below the image, a scene from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut--I trust the parties in Columbus are all like the one depicted.
In 2006, I designed a class in comparative literature and dedicated it to Elvis Costello--it's name? The Imperial Bedroom: the syllabus for the class is here. This is the final exam; like most images on this blog, click it to see it "actual size."
[click image to enlarge; source: Playboy Magazine, 2008]
I will save for a later posting an extended posting that thinks through our American (and now, European) fascination with "Mexican" anal/fecal figuration at a later date; ScholarX, an anonymous exegete now working at a university in the deep, old South, has touched this subject (yikes) at the Old-School Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog.
Decimated by layoffs like every other major newspaper, The LA Times is still providing comprehensive coverage of the violence currently churning the zeitgeist of Mexico--for more, hit the graphic below:
![The Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_KqWRy3aDsokE_MKZPvSky0JCY5DtTUqNZ1YcuqLN4LzX6kUbISADnHe9CR8IEBlhVVcnUnXMjc1EY54oLPx-aOoWF_VdXOokJ2Y2smvV1WCxEu2TZguczGSloiFnkz4iQ_SkIi56dw/s1600/111Screen+shot+2014-04-01+at+10.jpg)
