Perfect Gifts for the Holidays! Immigration Rights T-Shirts

Post-Thanksgiving Lupe Velez Trailer

iggity ziggy guble blub goyng goo: Another Chapter in the U.S. History of Racialized Representation

source: Pappy's Golden Age Comic Blogzine (an amazing, cool cyber treasure!)

...and he's naturalizing the illegals and all that"--The Physiognomy of Fascism in "Our" 'Merica

Gilbert Hernandez and the Modern Novel

Repost from November 30, 2007

There is not enough to be said of our late 20th Century and early 21st Century Chicano Dickens, the one and only Gilbert Hernandez. Serializing stories that span the Americas from Agoura, Califas to Central America, from Las Vegas to outer space, Hernandez's savvy pen and inks transformed graphic narrative in the United States. He is one of a generation of india ink American seers like Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, and Robert Crumb, with graphic visions that reveal vividand luridtales of America North, South, and Central with a line as sure as Dan DeCarlo's and a narrative savvy like Pynchon channeling García Márquez through Frida Kahlo's paintbrush (with Buñuel capturing it all on his instamatic).

All these plaudits, then, as a prelude to an excellent interview from last April with Gilbert Hernandez at The Daily Cross Hatch.

In Tex[t]-Mex, Hernandez cameos as my avatar of cultural osmosis, the epitome of Xicanosmosis--he is that and more. Check out his wares here.

You'll be glad you did!



update, November 30, 2009

One of Hernandez's all-time hottest short piece is his illustrated biography of Frida Kahlo; I have a chapter on this piece in Tex[t]-Mex that originally appeared as an essay in NYU Press's Latino Studies collection. A stunning nude of Kahlo by Julien Levy has recently been making the rounds online via Tumblr--Kahlo's expression in the image is striking.

Black Friday Consumer Shilling Event or "I don't need no steenkin ugg boots"

Readers! I have no idea why, but a kindly, talented purveyor of UGG boots from Down Under, has got it into her head that Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog readers are clamoring to adorn their feet in what she's got to offer! In her own words:

Just in time for Winter, Whoogaboots are offering readers of the Tex[t]-Mex Gallerblog a $20 gift code toward the purchase of their thermofleece ugg boots! Simply enter: 4TEXTMEX into the gift card section of their shopping cart for $20 credit on any item.

If any sales of these peculiar foot garb actually sell (and I know they are popular here on the SDSU campus), I vow to wear a pair to lecture in during the Spring semester!

[pictured above, Alfonso "no steenkin badges" Bedoya from John Huston's amazing Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), wearing a pair of posh Whoogaboots while menacing Humphrey Bogart--there's a cool blog posting on the movie here that also includes "Mexican" avatar Bedoya's infamous lines.]

Lou Dobbs, Toasted by Mariachis, on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show

The Question of Rita Hayworth | Photography as Allegory

Lalo Alcaraz on Lou Dobbs

NPR on Latinos in Long Island

Gracias to new West Coast agent Paco Barajas for sending me this story.

Eyegiene Sketch

Dystopia, Dystopia! Spring 2010, English 549 @ SDSU

My new Spring 2010 class on Dystopias in film and literature is now live on the internets (Dystopia, Dystopia! From the Erotic Electric to the Anarchy of Technologies on the Verge). See a screenshot of the page opposite or click here to be instantly teleported! No worries, despite the cynical pessimism that is the life's blood of your dystopic webweaver, there is no danger in this process (I hope) and no big brother is watching (I think). The class is perfect for folks interested in interdisciplinary studies (MALAS, are you listening?) and other area and ethnic studies devotees!

Art Laboe in the LA Times

audio slide show

Art LeBoe in the LA Times

Salvador Barajas Writes in With a Xicanosmotic Project