This online writing environment digitally archives the embodied rhetoric, issues and projects that relate to me as Associate Professor at Santa Clara University and Bread Loaf School of English faculty. E-mail me at: cnmedina AT SCU DOT edu.
Cruz Medina, a Texas State University--San Marcos Predoctoral Summer Fellow
Start spreading the news, I'm leaving in June for San Marcos, Tejas where I will be living the dream of writing my dissertation this summer as a Fellow.
Conference on College Composition and Communication Atlanta 2011
Leaving Wednesday and presenting Friday, I'm excited for this week. I know I've posted this announcement before, but I can't help but think it's fitting to re-post.
Check out my guest blogging at Pocho in Greater Mexico. It's a great performance of pocho community, digital mestizaje and collaboration. Please check it out as a sign of encouragement for these kinds of collaborative projects in the future!
Free Showing of Precious Knowledge March 24 at Fox Theatre in Tucson
I posted the trailer to this film about a year ago and I'm excited to see that it's getting its release later this month.
This documentary deals with the Mexican American Studies program at Tucson High school that is currently being targeted by the pura mierda Arizona State legislation HB 2281.
This past summer, one of my students, Alan Gamez wrote, directed, edited and produced the "Batman vs. Parents" video.
(image from i09.com)
He's got a youtube channel with a couple shorts he's put together with his brother who played the concerned parent in the Batman video.
Check out their channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Galandelax
I was told that I needed to see the *Sleep Dealer* because it deals with technology, migrant laborers and the disposable bodies of factory workers in the borderlands. The story is sci-fi and has a satirical agenda that exposes a dark "American Dream" that asks for and utilizes a migrant labor force, but then wants it to disappear.
In undergrad, I took a course that looked at sci-fi as psychological fiction in that many of these outlandish ideas we see represented in films like Stepford Wives play on deeper psychological desires. Looking at Sleep Dealer in this same psychological context, I think the effectiveness of this film hinges on technology erasing racial markers, a concept that could be grounded in some of the tangible legislation that puts into place systems of control for racially marked bodies.
More Pedagogical Praxis with Technology
So I'm interested in the intersections of race and technology, especially with regard to Latinas/os and technology. Here is yet another example of something I will use in class. My avatar looks strangely like my father, but the accents are a dig at the assumption that British accents are somehow reifications of education and an ideal for Others to fall short of.
I had the chance to attend Pres. Obama's appearance here in Tucson yesterday. On my way out, a reporter with a recording device asked me for my response and I told her that it was a beautiful event, but it was unfortunate that it came about because of tragedy. I explained that Tucson and Arizona are in need of healing because we are in a conflicted and contested place. Too quickly, sides go on the attack when wounds are still fresh.
(photos by Amanda Wray)
What I found frustrating being attendance was the flippant attitude of college age people who treated the event more like a concert than a moment for healing. Raised consciousness is a process. We have hope that those who lacked the understanding of gravitas might reflect on the event as one step towards critical consciousness. As the saying goes, every saint has a past and every sinner a future.
As I have mentioned before, I live in Tucson. When this past weekend's tragic events occurred here, it was surreal to see the city where I live on the news. I had been to that Safeway and I had eaten dinner last Christmas at the Chinese restaurant in the shopping center that was roped off with police tape.
I hope to make President Obama's speech tomorrow at the McKale Center. I leave you with Jon Stewart's reflections.
An Interesting Documentary I had the opportunity to attend some of the panels for the Conference I mentioned in previous posts. I still have notes I took that I should post because of the great point that were made, but for right now, I'm posting a video I saw from a group of Berkeley grads who participated in a Decolonizing Conference.
Pop Culture Artifact Señor Clean Charged with Meaning
The TV show Robot Chicken has provided examples of cliche stereotypes about Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the past (http://writerscholarprofessional.blogspot.com/2010/07/shared-assumptions-about-mexican.html). But when I saw the "Señor Clean" short below, I was reminded of Brummet's Rhetoric in Popular Culture and the discussion of meanings submerged in belief systems that hide reality. Speaking about the validity of the signs we see in the artifacts of pop culture, Brummet writes: "all signs are meaningful, and that artifacts in particular are signs that are charged with extra meaning"(31).
The caricature plays on the subservient role of the Latino domestic, representing the essence of the Mexican with a poncho and sombrero, but then takes a sexually aggressive turn. This suggestion reinforces the role of exoticized 'Other,' the symbolic reminder of inferiority.
Cross-Promotion Sin Verguenza I was speaking with a colleague and friend of mine the other day and she mentioned that she'd seen the article I wrote in the most recent NCTE Latina/o Caucus Newsletter. It occurred to me that I had yet to post a link from my very own blog. It's a really great issue, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it. The editors Janie Jaramillo Santoy and Alexandra Hidalgo did an amazing job of working with the contributors and putting out a professionally crafted product.
It's hard to believe that this trailer has been out since Cinco de Mayo and I've only just now seen it. What I hope is that El/The Machete takes on a Zoot Suit Pechuco-like status, a cultural symbol to rally around, if you will; hopefully the kitsch factor will outweigh representations in the film that inspire criticism. The representation of El Machete as an exoticized 'other' should be pointed out, with all of the over-sexualized "he gets the ladies" trappings of the person of color should be noted; yet, the Jessica Alba character seems to have a character arch that reflects the enlightening of a close-minded, self-hating Latina who becomes empowered all the while Machete goes after Brewer/Arpaio types.
