SDSU Professor Discusses Stereotypes of Mexicans in Media
Tom Fudge:
Okay... you watch TV, you go to the movies, think of a Mexican. Now... who do you have in mind? Is it that guy in Treasure of the Sierra Madre who says "We don't need no stinkin' Badges." Is it Speedy Gonzalez ? Is it Cheech Marin ? Whatever you came up with is probably fodder for the great American Mexican stereotype.
U.S. pop culture is like a bad cold you just can't get rid of. No matter how open-minded you think you are, you're still stuck with those pervasive caricatures. Stereotypes are the shorthand of mass communication. They're handy, and we use them all the time. But they bear little more than a passing resemblance to the real thing.
Pop culture, and what it's done to the Mexican, is the subject of a new book called
Tex(t) Mex,
by San Diego State University professor Bill Nericcio.
Guest:
- Bill Nericcio, author of Tex(t) Mex and chairman of the department of English and Comparative Literature at SDSU.
