Mexican-American studies, visual culture, and film theory reading in Austin

John Jones — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:34:47 +0000

If you’re going to be in Austin on Thursday, November 1, you will want to plan on attending Bill Nericcio’s reading from his book Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the “Mexican” in America. He’ll be speaking from 4–6 p.m. at UT’s Cactus Cafe.

Here’s the publisher’s description of the book from their website.

A rogues’ gallery of Mexican bandits, bombshells, lotharios, and thieves saturates American popular culture. Remember Speedy Gonzalez? “Mexican Spitfire” Lupe Vélez? The Frito Bandito? Familiar and reassuring—at least to Anglos—these Mexican stereotypes are not a people but a text, a carefully woven, articulated, and consumer-ready commodity. In this original, provocative, and highly entertaining book, William Anthony Nericcio deconstructs Tex[t]-Mexicans in films, television, advertising, comic books, toys, literature, and even critical theory, revealing them to be less flesh-and-blood than “seductive hallucinations,” less reality than consumer products, a kind of “digital crack.”

Nericcio engages in close readings of rogue/icons Rita Hayworth, Speedy Gonzalez, Lupe Vélez, and Frida Kahlo, as well as Orson Welles’ film Touch of Evil and the comic artistry of Gilbert Hernandez. He playfully yet devastatingly discloses how American cultural creators have invented and used these and other Tex[t]-Mexicans since the Mexican Revolution of 1910, thereby exposing the stereotypes, agendas, phobias, and intellectual deceits that drive American popular culture. This sophisticated, innovative history of celebrity Latina/o mannequins in the American marketplace takes a quantum leap toward a constructive and deconstructive next-generation figuration/adoration of Latinos in America.

Visual resources for teaching Latin American and Border Studies

John Jones — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:43:41 +0000

UT’s First-Year Forum text for 2007–2008 will be Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway. Yesterday I sat in on a seminar hosted by the DRW where Domino Perez discussed some of the background and context of the issues that the book engages.

One theme of the discussion was the influence of film on the Urrea’s prose, as well as how images of Latinos can both support and trouble Urrea’s arguments. In the wake of that discussion, I thought I would post links to some Latin-American and Border Studies visual resources for use by DRW instructors and anyone else who is teaching a class that deals with these fields.

Immigrant Workers" align="right" width=100 class="example">• Center for Latin American Studies University of California, Berkeley: This site has links to the Center’s art gallery which features virtual galleries and slideshows of exhibitions. Of particular interest to DRW instructors is David Bacon’s “Trabajadores Immigrantes/Immigrant Workers.” Beatriz Manz’s site for the Fall 2007 course “The Southern Border” also has links to border-realted art and photography and maps, charts, and timelines.

• Center for Latin American Studies, The University of Arizona: Jack Mount’s “Maps of the Pimería: Early Cartography of the Southwest” contains maps of the Pimería section of Spanish colonial Mexico which is located in what is now Arizona.

• America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935–1945, The Library of Congress, American Memory Project: This collection of photographs can be searched for relevant images. Some potentially helpful searches are “border,” “labor,” and “farm.”

• “Border Icons”: Border Studies Curriculum, The Center for Latin American and Border Studies, New Mexico State University: Although it contains no images, this lesson plan discusses border icons and provides class activities that could be adapted for use in a college classroom.

• Border Studies, Humanities-Interactive: This collection of multimedia essays documents the changes to the border between Mexico and the U.S.

• Blogging Pedagogy: Jim Brown has created a map of one of his personal borders using Google’s MyMaps tool. A discussion of how this tool can be used in teaching border studies can be found at Blogging Pedagogy.

Update: Bill Nericcio’s Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog® “devotes itself to the aggressive, relentless, and, at times, pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, “Hispanic,” Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes. It is either the online supplement to or the bastard sister of” his 2007 book Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the “Mexican” in America. (via Noël)

I’m sure this list is far from complete; please add to it by posting links any other relevant sites in the comments section.

viz. - Border Studies

Mexican-American studies, visual culture, and film theory reading in Austin

Visual resources for teaching Latin American and Border Studies