Connect the Dots

Oodles of images teatro and noise I wanted to blog about this past week but my seven days of vacation vow kept me away from my trusty, pan dulce crumbed keyboard. But I had a good break. Saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Read some Borges. Caught up on my TiVo. Now back to pontificating about all things Brown, just in time for the election tomorrow. But first a quick highlight of the week that was...

How about the embarrassing fact that fully one quarter of my fellow Texans think Barack Obama is a Muslim? I mean, I know a lot of my peeps still cling stubbornly to the Davy Crockett/Alamo creation myth (well, at least the gringo half of the Lone Star State does), but this basic biographical ignorance regarding a U.S. Senator who's been running a major presidential campaign almost two years now truly astounds me. It's either 1) mass self-delusion, or 2) the internet's not working down there. I'm puzzled. And await reports from my Tejano readers for clarification. Also, any inside news on why the Spurs are sucking this season would be greatly appreciated. 

Let's see, in other news...

Steven Soderbergh's biopic 'Che' opened this weekend at the AFI Festival here in L.A., and no, the world did not come crashing down and apart from the U.S. bailout of the banking industry the country did not turn socialist. I suggest Cubans-Who-Still-(Wearily)-Care-About-Such-Things direct their Mad Men-era right-wing ire away from a Hollywood movie and focus on issues that truly matter to their self-interest, like, perhaps, Cuban Americans' dwindling influence as players in the all-important Hispanic vote in Florida. I'm just saying: a movie no one will see in its four-hour epic length, or losing the ability to blackmail D.C. pols into myopic foreign policy regarding Cuba? You do the math.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is still deluded.

King of the Hill, TV's best satire, got canceled; adios delicious inside jokes such as characters named Luanne Platter.

The Cowboys are breaking my heart. UT also. And don't get me started on los espurs.

A Chicano Movie is still Number 1 at the box office, two weeks in a row. (For the skeptical cultural nationalists out there, Chicano bona fides on the film here.)

The original Barack Obama -- aka Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos in the West Wing -- gave an interview to Politico in which the actor talks politics and representation. An interesting read from a brown perspective. I mean, if the only Latino pundits we see bloviating in the mainstream media continue to all Republican all the time (see here, here, and the Navarrette reference above), why not get our brown opinion from an actor?

And finally, speaking of Obama and the election, what's especially gratifying is seeing the huge poll numbers of Latinos supporting Obama. This is one great and satisfying wake up to all those gente out there convinced raza would not vote for a black guy. Y'all were so wrong.

Comments

[Aurora]

So how was Beverly Hills Chihuahua? Offensive to chicano sensibilities? Or what?

[Dan R]

While I don't agree with Ruben N's politics, I definitely agree with what he has to say, which I think in turn enforces his point that we can have nuanced opinions. No one is the ultimate authority on one's ethnic legitimacy.