Saturday, March 27, 2021

Mextasy Limited Edition Poster + My Initial Lesson in Semiotics -- THE BORDERTOWN DRIVE-IN, LAREDO, TEXAS (an excerpt from my dissertation, The Politics of Solitude: Alienation in the Literatures of the Americas)

THE BORDERTOWN DRIVE-IN LAREDO, TEXAS



11x17 print, full color on glossy archival stock, shipped, folded once, via media mail. signed and numbered.
The First Frame, Wherein the Semiotic Ineptitude of a Young Voyeur Leads to Misreading the Bull 

It begins with this bull, the Bordertown bull. Waking up after nineteen years in a small South Texas bordertown--Laredo, Texas, USA, to be exact. Throughout my childhood I thought that the mural featured on the Bordertown Drive-In was of a giant mutant bull, terrorizing the countryside and being attacked by U.S. Air Force jets as a giant cowboy heatedly pursued from behind.

I was wrong, of course.

That is, I had read it wrong. The giant bull was merely a personal idiosyncratic creation, a misreading, owing to a mistake in perspective. Without the tools to understand the concept of perspective in an illustration, I had taken the mural at face value: giant drawing of bull = giant monster, mutant bull. That the animal was merely foregrounded and thus larger than its surroundings was, at the time, a concept as abstract as quantum mechanics or multilateral arms-control negotiations.

The painting was misread.

The mural in question faced out on the main strip leading out of and into Laredo and adorned the back side of a projection wall for the local drive-in called the Bordertown Twin Drive-In Theater. Some fifteen years ago, the Bordertown was a booming two-screen haven of movies, alcohol, and sexual abandon for auto aficionados, raucous families, and young adults on both sides of the Rio Grande River. But in the year 1988, that monument was slowly falling apart. No longer a haven for movie-goers, it was home to a flea market open on the weekends, where one could find various used articles, recycled furniture and a huge assortment of deserted, dated consumer artifacts that could have passed as trash in any dumpster. In the half-decade before the current period when the North American Free Trade Agreement and individuals associated with its passage were heralding the arrival of the New World Order, the Bordertown Drive-in was an icon for Laredo itself--a depressed market selling trash in various disguises as merchandise. But then again even trash is not trash in and of itself; trash is not a generic designation (trash for one may be treasure to another). Given the depleted economic resources of the city, even trash might be repackaged in some way so as serve a purpose or garnish a profit. Even the Drive-In had been repackaged as a pulga, as a flea market

But let us not allow the caress of nostalgia to blind us from the present for I must report that the Bordertown Drive-In/pulga is no more.

The Godzilla-esque bull has been erased from the space of Laredo--my photograph must proxy for the structure as a kind of ersatz visual relic.

The structure was torn town and sold to the Wal-Mart corporation. On the site of the giant cow arose the specter of what is known as Sam’s Warehouse--a discount marketer of groceries and other assorted sundries. Gross sales of Laredo’s Sam’s Warehouse and Wal-Mart were so huge that just before his death in 1992, Sam Walton flew to Laredo to celebrate his profits. Walton was visibly weak and ailing as he greeted cheering workers and shoppers like some latter-day vision of Cortez.

I would have included a picture of the store if I didn’t miss that old bull so much.
Order your own Bordertown, Drive-In #Mextasy Poster--order here with 99¢ shipping! After your purchase, email Memo Nericcio to memo@sdsu.edu and let me know if you want the poster signed and numbered or sent to you "clean." This is a limited edition poster--when 25 have been sold, that's it! ;-)




11x17 print, full color on glossy archival stock, shipped rolled, via media mail

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Mextasy Limited Edition Poster: THE CAUCASIAN VOYEUR




THE CAUCASIAN VOYEUR    

The Caucasian Voyeur is a graphic that dates back to Monday, July 18, 2011. Originally produced for a presentation in San Antonio, Texas. 

Like most of the Textmex/Mextasy project, this particular digital manipulation focuses on the eyes of the spectator--consumers of Mexican stereotypes for the better part of their lives, these trapped witnesses optically imbibe at the trough of anti-Mexican hate that is right at hand for our least educated and thoughtful American citizens. 

The graphic is composed mainly of three 'found' graphic pieces featuring a handsome anglo watcher, Salma Hayek, and Alfonso Bedoya (from a TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE screengrab). 

This 11x17 inch limited edition print is delivered signed and numbered--it is printed on glossy archival stock and shipped, rolled, via USPS media mail.

Order here for $11.95 with 99¢ shipping!!!






Tuesday, March 23, 2021

New Tapestry Print Honoring the Graphic Vision of Diego Gutiérrez Monterrubio for the Upcoming 2022 #Mextasy Invasion of ... To be Announced (shhhhhhh ... somewhere in Louisiana!) c/s

Loooooook at this CHINGON regalo from my hermano/camarada William Nericcio from San Diego!!! Honored to be part of his MEXTASY project. Badasssssssss!! Thanks William! This makes us compadres!! 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Posted by Diego Gutiérrez Monterrubio on Monday, March 22, 2021

Sunday, March 21, 2021

About that new Danny Trejo commercial for AT&T ... #nomextasy

A man's gotta eat--I get it. And acting jobs can be some of the most unpredictable gigs on the planet. Still I am not a big fan of Danny Trejo's latest commercial for AT&T--being featured on heavy rotation during the March Madness NCAA basketball circus currently playing on four major networks: CBS, TNT, TRU, and TBS. It is base and sans irony--it purely banks on the stereotype of the scary Mexican gangbanging thug.  Trejo has done other adverts where he plays with his casting central persona--not this commercial.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Special Issue of Texas Monthly Featuring Hall of Fame #Mextasy Icon, Selena Quintanilla

Kudos to our friends over at Texas Monthly--great issue! Selena, presente!

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Mextasy Poster Book! Exclusively Available here on the Mextasy Blog!

Front Cover of the Book--Click to enlarge!


MEXTASY POSTER BOOK: NUMERO UNO (2018)


The one and only official Mextasy Poster Book--20 pages of high-gloss limited-edition fun from the addled minds of Guillermo Nericcio García and his doppelgänger William Nericcio. A limited-edition museum guide produced especially for the Franklin and Marshall College Mextasy Pop-Up Exhibition and film-screening. Shipped flat via media mail, signed and numbered by the artist. Write Nericcio directly at memo@sdsu.edu after you purchase this book and tell him which two prints you'd like from the growing Mextasy Gallery of Desmadres--pick any of the prints catalogued here.  
More image spreads from the book below!
How much!? Cheap! $13.95 + 99¢ shipping!








Back Cover