Bring ¡Mextasy! A Traveling Circus of Desmadres, to Your School, Gallery, University, Library, or Dive Bar! Updated for 2026-2027

~ Last updated February 13, 2026

#Mextasy is back! 2026-2027

Mextasy: Seductive Hallucinations of Latina/o Mannequins Prowling the American Unconscious is a traveling pop-up or gallery-based art show/exhibit based on the work of William "Memo" Nericcio and Guillermo Nericcio García. 

The traveling exhibition or "Circus of Desmadres" was originally curated by Leticia Gómez Franco for Casa Familiar, San Ysidro, California, and Rachel Freyman Brown, South Texas College, McAllen, Texas. Recents shows include exhibitions / performances at the University of Denver,  Boise State University,  UC Riverside (virtual via Zoom, thx Covid!)  Iowa State University and the Nepantla Cultural Arts Center, Seattle, Washington --other noteworthy gigs include performances at Northwestern University, Wabash College, California State University, San Bernardino, and Franklin & Marshall College.

Mextasy is re-imagined, interactive art and artifact exhibition that grew out of Nericcio's 2007 American Library Association award-winning book with UT Press, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America. 

In addition to racist artifacts from American mass culture (the bread and butter of Uncle Sam's unconscious and the backstory for the resurgence in anti-Mexican, anti-Latina/o peoples presently), the show also features works that is "xicanosmotic," that is, works by Mexican-American artists where the delicious fusion of the Mexican/US borderlands/frontera is writ large as in the deliriously delicious artistic tracings of Raul Gonzalez III, Perry Vasquez, Rafaella Suarez, and Izel Vargas. Visitors to this page interested in having MEXTASY invade their local gallery/university of choice should contact us here.

Let the #Mextasy Invasion, 2025-2026 Begin!

BRING ¡MEXTASY! — A TRAVELING CIRCUS OF DESMADRE, DESIRE & DECONSTRUCTION 

⚡️ 2025–2026 Tour | Booking Now 

Tired of beige art shows where nothing bleeds, sweats, or argues back? ¡Mextasy! is your antidote — a border-born carnival of images and ideas that refuses to behave. Curated and conjured by William “Memo” Nericcio — author of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the “Mexican” in America — ¡Mextasy! turns the museum wall into a bilingual hallucination. It’s a mash-up of racist Americana, pop-art remix, and Chicano/x visual thunder — part seminar, part stand-up, part séance. 

Born in Laredo, raised on Mad magazine, Derrida, and Mexican TV static, Nericcio drags the archive out of the ivory tower and into your gallery, library, or dive bar. 

🔥 See it to believe it: Photo gallery + past shows 

Denver 2024 installation 

Nepantla Cultural Arts Center, Seattle 

Boise State Pop-Up 

What You Get (Besides Goosebumps) 

Visual detonations: 100+ years of Mexican caricature turned inside-out. 

Hybrid happenings: lectures that slip into comedy, gallery talks that break into confessionals. Collaborative chaos: workshops, film nights, and bilingual brain spasms that leave people buzzing. 

How It Works 

Full circus install — Nericcio + crew transform your space. 

Pop-up guerrilla show — we hit and run, no damage deposit required. 

Zoom / hybrid setups for the cautious or cash-strapped. 

💰 Price? Negotiable. Art first, spreadsheets later. 

Who’s Survived It So Far University of Denver • UCLA • UC Riverside • Iowa State • Nepantla Arts (Seattle) • Casa Familiar (San Ysidro) • San Antonio College 

If your gallery’s got walls that can take a punch — or an audience that’s hungry for something that bites back — we should talk. 

📩 Contact: memo@sdsu.edu | textmex@me.com 🌐 More proof, madness, and mirth: mextasy.blogspot.com

New Swag in the DEPOP #Mextasy Tiendita/Shoppe! Check it out now ... SAD WALLS BE GONE!

Check it out!

WAVES OF THE SOUL by Marian Cuevas, Published by Atelier de Laredo Press

 

{M}ex Machina! #mextasy #roboticeroticelectric #textmex #eyegiene Lecture at UC RIVERSIDE

 

ChatGPT Wants Mextasy to Get Into the Action Figurine Business! #mextasy

 

Best Deal on the Internets! | Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America by William A. Nericcio

updated 7/22//24; posted 4/17/19

Click to enlarge | More images below

TEX{T}-MEX

SEDUCTIVE HALLUCINATIONS 

OF THE "MEXICAN" IN AMERICA

Special Dealio #Mextasy Cost to You!?

$22.00 USD + $1 shipping!

 

Also available via Bezos's monopoly engine!

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Original Proposed Cover Art
by Guillermo Nericcio García
click to enlarge

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.

What do you get for your hard-earned twenty+ bucks??? A new, hermetically-sealed (for your protection!) copy of William Nericcio's 2007 ALA award-winning book, Tex{t}-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America.  And at a ¡venta venta, venga venga! sale price as Jeff Bezos at Amazon is trying to charge $27.95 for this book! If you want me to "break the seal" and sign the book, just order here and then email me to memo@sdsu.edu and tell me how you want it inscribed!

Evil Jeff Bezos Price?    27.95 USD 

Special Dealio #Mextasy Cost to You!?

$22.00 USD + $1 shipping!

More images from the book!

 

Mextasy Update | SMU Edition

 

Love in the Age of Hate! Mextasy @ SMU!

 

alternate poster:

Mextasy, Naranja County Edition! Opening February 3, 2024! Gala Event with Gustavo Arellano (and Mezcal!), February 10 @ 2pm!

 

 

OPENS THIS SATURDAY

During 1st Saturday Artwalk 6-10pm

February 3, 2024

The Mextasy Circus of Desmadres:

Naranja County Edition

February 3-March 2, 2024

“Mextasy: Seductive Hallucinations of Latina/o Mannequins Prowling the American Unconscious” stands as a vibrant testament to the creative vision of Chicano artist William “Memo” Nericcio. Curated by Nericcio and Guillermo Nericcio García, the traveling exhibition emerged from the pages of Nericcio’s acclaimed 2007 book, “Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America.”

Rooted in the Chicano experience, Mextasy boldly confronts and redefines stereotypes of Mexicans pervasive in American mass culture. Nericcio, primarily known as a writer, unveils his artistic persona as Guillermo Nericcio García, reflecting the duality of his identity, hailing from the border town of Laredo, Texas.

Beyond showcasing racist artifacts, Mextasy introduces the concept of “xicanosmotic” art, featuring creations by Mexican-American artists like Raul Gonzalez III, Perry Vasquez, Rafaella Suarez, and Izel Vargas. Their works vividly embody the fusion of Mexican and U.S. borderlands, challenging and reshaping perceptions.

Mextasy serves not only as an exploration of Mexican culture but as a dynamic representation of Chicano identity and resilience. Nericcio’s transition from a writer to a Chicano artist further enriches the narrative, as he draws on his childhood passion for drawing and challenges the dehumanizing portrayals of Mexicans in American visual culture.

As Mextasy travels to galleries, universities, and cultural centers, it continues to amplify the voices of Chicano artists, offering a thought-provoking and visually compelling perspective on cultural identity and representation within the American landscape.

Artist’s Talk & Mezcal Reception

2pm Saturday, February 10th

Moderated by Gustavo Arellano

This exhibition is supported in part by LibroMobile Arts Cooperative and free to the public. For more details, email libromobile@gmail.com.

#mextasy #williamnericcio #bipocartspaces #crearstudio

16MM WARNER BROTHERS ANIMATED CLASSIC: "DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR" {1939}

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This is a treasure--a used, but carefully kept 16mm film copy of a classic Warner Brothers animated short: "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" {1939},

The film was property of the "San Diego County Library," and  then SDSU, then, doomed to be jettisoned by the university, I saved it from the scrapheap.  I screened it once at a kids party in 2005 and it has sit in my climate-controlled office since that time.

Carefully packaged and shipped.  No returns, please. Note the additional shipping expenses for this item are included in the price.

You can pre-screen the animated short on youtube here:  http://youtu.be/3Kue7P_nyvw

$99.99 USD + FREE SHIPPING

Breaking News: Orange County Edition! SOMETHING MEXTASTIC YOUR WAY GOETH👀‼️👊🏽

 

Gratuitous cameo!

Hispanic Heritage Month Video, William Nericcio, #mextasy

During Covid I was asked to make a video of myself to share -- this is the result of that experiment …

 

Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson's MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD is a wonder of artistry and Chicano/African American Collaboration and Invention

2024-2025 Mextasy: A Primer

~ Last updated October 13, 2024 ~

#Mextasy is back! 2024-25

Mextasy: Seductive Hallucinations of Latina/o Mannequins Prowling the American Unconscious is a traveling pop-up or gallery-based art show/exhibit based on the work of William "Memo" Nericcio and Guillermo Nericcio García. 

The traveling exhibition or "Circus of Desmadres" was originally curated by Leticia Gómez Franco for Casa Familiar, San Ysidro, California, and Rachel Freyman Brown, South Texas College, McAllen, Texas. Recents shows include exhibitions/performances at Boise State University,  UC Riverside (virtual via Zoom, thx Covid!)  Iowa State University and the Nepantla Cultural Arts Center, Seattle, Washington--other noteworthy gigs include performances at Northwestern University, Wabash College, California State University, San Bernardino, and Franklin & Marshall College.

Mextasy is re-imagined, interactive art and artifact exhibition that grew out of Nericcio's 2007 American Library Association award-winning book with UT Press, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America. 

In addition to racist artifacts from American mass culture (the bread and butter of Uncle Sam's unconscious and the backstory for the resurgence in anti-Mexican, anti-Latina/o peoples presently), the show also features works that is "xicanosmotic," that is, works by Mexican-American artists where the delicious fusion of the Mexican/US borderlands/frontera is writ large as in the deliriously delicious artistic tracings of Raul Gonzalez III, Perry Vasquez, Rafaella Suarez, and Izel Vargas. Visitors to this page interested in having MEXTASY invade their local gallery/university of choice should contact us here.

Ronald Rael and William “Memo” Nericcio have a Conversation on the Border

A quick chat with Ronald Rael on the border and more (watch for the Izel Vargas cameo) in #craftdesert … a dreamy radzine by Kerianne Quick and Adam Manley

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rPmQndxs3eQGwgBQkfa0FDEGVsnJatA-/view?usp=drivesdk

#borders #borderstudies #lafrontera #ronaldrael

A New Boriqua #Mextasy Homage! Aubrey Plaza in Vanity Fair!

via Vanity Fair

"She can summon some delicious anarchy for the camera. “I’m way more socially, like, anxious and introverted than people would expect, I think,” she tells me over coffee. “I’m just as insecure as anybody, and I’m probably way more shy than people think. But obviously the way I deal with that is, like, extreme behaviors.” Her guiding philosophy comes down to this, she adds: “I try to maintain some authenticity, for better or for worse. That’s the goal. If all else fails, at least be authentic.”

Plaza rarely reads her own press, but someone forwarded her an LA Times piece about her bit at the SAG Awards. The story, by Suzy Exposito, was entitled “In Praise of Jenna Ortega, Aubrey Plaza and Moody, Deadpan Latinas.” Plaza beams when I mention it. “I loved that,” she says. “That shit is important to me, because that’s my whole thing. Even with April Ludgate, it was like, Come on. Sofia Vergara is not the only Latina personality. There’s other ones! A lot of the characters I play, even with White Lotus—it’s important to normalize that there’s all kinds of different Latina people. I mean, all my Puerto Rican cousins are, like, morbid. Morbid shit is going on over there!”

As Plaza and I commiserate about all the ways that Latinas can and do exist, her multiplicity comes into focus: her bicultural upbringing, her public and private selves, her ability to play taut characters like Emily the criminal and Harper the lawyer, snarling perverts like Lenny on the underappreciated sci-fi drama Legion, and more. What Plaza has done, and will do again, is let all these impulses coalesce.

“She is a warm and snuggly person with people she trusts,” says Amy Poehler. “Kids love her because she doesn’t talk down to them and she isn’t afraid to be weird. She cares deeply and works really hard. She has a good sense of humor about herself. But don’t be fooled, she is a witch.”

 

On KPBS Tonight! Trino in San Diego on KPBS!

Mentor Event at SDSU … Mextasy Edition! Noon, April 27, 2023!

#repost --> Tex[t]-Mex and #Mextasy Invading Houston, Texas, May 4, 2023 at Houston Community College (Downtown!)