Chicanonautica: Sheriffs Amok

by Ernest Hogan

I was sure that, by now, Arizona would be ablaze with weird politics of concern to the La Bloga audience, but I was wrong. It’s kinda quiet. A certain ex-president seems to be losing his mojo. A certain election denier keeps losing court cases and blaming bizarro conspiracies.

Then I found out about the constitutional sheriffs movement, where Arizona is ground zero.

NPR did a good job of explaining the movement. In short, it consists of sheriffs across the country who believe that a county sheriff’s authority should supersede that of the federal government, including the president. They have an organization, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). Eight Arizona sheriffs are members, along with 300 of the nation’s 3,000 sheriffs. Resistance to mandates to stop the spread of Covid-19 gave them a boost, and they side with the election deniers and have white supremacist connections.

Their name is misleading. There is nothing in the constitution saying that sheriffs have such powers. They also are required by law to take an oath to support the constitution, like the one I had to take–the words include “preserve, protect, and defend”--to become a school janitor and work for the public library.

Yeah, the upcoming election is gonna be messy.

A problem I see is that sheriffs are go-to heroes in pop culture, not just westerns both period and contemporary, but horror, and science fiction. 

Yeah, reality is often quite different, here in Maricopa County, Az, we had Sheriff Joe Arpaio “America’s Toughest Sheriff” who ran on talking like John Wayne, and bragged about defending the border, even though it’s 30 miles away as the crow flies, and 79 to 48 depending on the route you take. 

These “constitutionals” are following his example.

To be fair, the likes of Oscar Zeta Acosta, and Hunter S. Thompson ran for sheriff with left/radical political ambitions. I also remember a guy named Tank Barbera, in L.A. County, who said he’d abolish the Sheriff's Department if elected. None of them won. Probably didn’t fit the stereotype.

This was in the Watergate years, when one of my college teachers said, “I keep expecting to see people wearing crossed ammunition belts.”

In open-carryArizona, I wouldn’t be surprised if ammo belts became fashionable.

Meanwhile, other elected officials are using unenforced, unconstitutional English Only laws to get rid of bilingual education.  

There is also a reversal of the pop culture trope, where the sheriff is a bad guy, usually backed by corrupt, rich landowners. Hmm . . .

Is the country becoming a spaghetti western? In real life you don’t get the entertaining shootout where, by the grace of the writer, the right people get killed. 

And now, the writers are on strike.

Ernest Hogan, the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, author of High Aztech, Smoking Mirror Blues, and Cortez on Jupiter has written a lot of stories this year. Stay tuned for news of where and when you will be able to read them.

Chicanonautica: The Living Death of Stereotypes

 

by Ernest Hogan

 

 

Stereotypes keep making the news, and I've been meaning to write about them for a long time. Now that a new world is forming and Dr. Seuss, Speedy Gonzalez, and Pepé Le Pew are competing with a horrendous mass shootings, it's a good time to get down to it. Of course, with all due respect to Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Ratsus.

A lot of people get the idea that stereotypes are always a bad thing and they should all be banned. This actually is a bad idea. Pardon me while I duck.

Okay, let’s start with the dictionary definition that comes up when you Google the word: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

It doesn’t say anything about it being insulting or derogatory. This is because stereotypes are not necessarily negative. There are positive stereotypes. People rarely complain about them.

And everybody uses stereotypes. Even you. Even me. It’s actually hard not to use them. They are a shortcut, a way of categorizing something that you aren’t familiar with. Part of the learning process. You make a simple rough sketch before you can do a detailed rendering or understanding.

It’s also what lazy people use instead of learning. If you learn a few randoms facts about anything then go acting like an expert, you are being obnoxious and stupid.

Stereotypes can get grotesque and ugly, and are often used to put, and keep, people down. I am against that, especially when the stereotypes are used by those with power against those who don’t have it.

I understand that people can get sensitive and not want to see certain things or hear or see certain words.

But I'm a peculiar creature with a thick skin. I’ve been called just about everything. At my current age and weird experience, it would be difficult for anyone to insult me.

Really. I’m a Chicano writer/artist/satirist. I’ve got that rasquache thing going, and that means that my sense of humor can be weird and vicious. Call me a bad name and I’ll pick it up, twist it up, and throw it back at you.

I’m also a free speech fanatic. My career has been a long fight for the right to be outrageous and, yes, insulting.

I often try to insult certain people in my work, and it’s a joy when they let me know that I’ve been successful.

Yeah, now and then people I didn’t mean to hurt get caught in the crossfire. I never claimed to be writing for everybody. I’m always warning people about me. I am my own warning label.

I also don’t expect the entire fucking universe to be according to my liking. I learned that long ago.

As a cartoonist--cartooning is a language of stereotypes, like hieroglyphics--I have studied the history of the art form and know that stereotypes come and go. Like individuals, societies use stereotypes, then outgrow and then discard them. Cartoons from even just a few decades past have images and jokes that are considered just plain wrong today. As long as I can remember, there have been controversies. 

I remember that some Chicano students petitioned Dr. Demento against playing Lalo Guerrero’s The Ballad of Pancho Lopez. When I told my dad, he said, "They have to go home and ask their parents about Lalo Guerrero." Treasure of the Sierra Madre was banned from television in L.A. because of Alfonso Bedoya's role as Gold Hat, the "we don't need no stinking badges" guy. And the Frito Bandito got offed by MEChA . . .

Some Latinxs have come to the defense of Speedy Gonzalez--who is the closest we have to Hollywood creating a Mexican superhero, and he won an Academy award--and does anyone mourn the Frito Bandito? I won’t mention Go-Go Gomez, who was a human version of Speedy on the Sixties Dick Tracy cartoons.

I still don’t think the old, stereotypical stuff should be banned. It shouldn’t be randomly presented as children’s entertainment either. It needs to be studied, remembered, dissected in broad daylight in front a live audience. Also, things activists in the U.S.A. find offensive are seen as part of the landscape, and even are beloved, down in Mexico. Different generations often disagree. Is the decor of Mexican restaurants demeaning?

We all need to talk.

¡Hijole! I got rambling here . . .

I’ll end with a bit of advice. The best way to fight back against abusers of stereotypes is not be what they think you are and put it in their face. It’s something I can’t help, being so damned nonstereotypical, with the Irish surname, what my grandmother called my “paddy” accent, being interested in all kinds of things that “Mexicans'' aren't supposed to know about, and constantly going where no Chicano has gone before.

Chicanonautica is the best defense.

Ernest Hogan wears a spaghetti western bandido moustache because people keep mistaking him for black or Arab.

Chicanonautica: Yellow Hair in Racist Adventureland

by Ernest Hogan

I needed a break from all the raging politics. Some silly entertainment from my YouTube watchlist. Comes in handy in times like this.

There was this thing called Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold. Looked like a weird spaghetti western. Maybe a Wild West Barbarella. Yippie-eye-oh-tie-yay!

I was not prepared for what I was about to see.

It began with a black and white clip of some Fifties-style kids demolishing a movie theatre. No doubt this 1984 film was inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Hollywood discovered that a formula for box office gold was to take some old schlock, and redo it with a bigger budget and slicker production values. It even started like a chapter of an old serial with a recap of the story, and introduction of the characters.

Yeah, the good guys were all white, and the baddies were Mexican, Indian, or Comanchero, but that’s the way it was back in the bad old days.

And being a proud mestizo, I’ve always liked Comancheros.

Yellow Hair is supposed to be a half-breed with an Apache father. She’s played by Laurene Landon, a tall, sunburned, bleach-blonde. An hija de la chingada of that pedigree would look like a Chicana, but Landon is nice on the eyes, and does well in the action scenes.

She also proclaims that her white blood makes her turn up her nose from the “barbaric” aspects of Apache culture.

Yellow Hair(Yellow for short)’s Apache mother is kind and noble. Maybe she can be “saved.” She also keeps a secret, which turns out to be that Yellow’s real mother was a member of the Tupalans (called Aztecs in the intro, and Mayans in some online synopses, also Tupalan is a town in Veracruz, Mexico, probably a native word or a distortion of one) keepers of the lost city of gold.

Her father was a blond.

When Yellow first sees the Tupalans she’s dazzled. “Aren’t they beautiful? . . . Something tells me these are the most civilized people in the world.” At first she wants to stay with them to the disgust of her buddy, the Pecos Kid: “You sure this is what you want? They don’t even speak English.” But it turns out that the Tupalans not only killed her parents, made them into gold-plated mummies, and cut out their hearts (not necessarily in that order), but planned on doing the same to her.

Suddenly, she decides that they’re filthy savages, 

and is oh, so grateful when Pecos wrecks the lost city, rescues her, and brings her back to so-called civilization.

If that's not enough, there's also Colonel Torres, the effeminate villain who’s the butt of homophobic jokes, and says, “Stay on the other side of the border with your own people!”  Tupalan culture is a mishmosh of preColumbian artifacts even though a “Professor of Aztec Culture” is listed in the credits. The mummification process involves dipping people in molten gold, and somehow their skin and hair isn’t burned, allowing us to see Yellow’s dad’s important hair color.

To be fair, auteur Matt Cimber probably didn’t set out to create a piece of racist propaganda. The modern adventure genre as it evolved from Edgar Rice Burroughs to George Lucas is a product of European colonialism, and the western is its American version. Some white people often don’t notice the racism in this sort of thing. They used to consider it “pure entertainment.”

And it’s not a totally awful movie. There’s lots of rip-snorting action, and strangeness that goes beyond the wildest spaghetti western--like rattlesnakes stuffed into tumbleweeds and rolled down the hill at the heroes. I’m not surprised that it earned a cult following.

And was also released as Yellow Hair and the Pecos Kid, and in dubbed versions in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Spain, and West Germany.

It does end with “scenes from the next adventure,” but failed to spawn a franchise.

Ernest Hogan has a Chicano sense of humor. He finds the damnedest things amusing.

Chicanonautica: Attack of the Mutating Stereotypes

by Ernest Hogan

Stereotype has become a dirty word. After all, they are distortions of reality, often insulting, and are used by those in power to keep the rest of us down. No wonder some gente want them all blasted off the face of the Earth.

But do we really understand what they are?

As a cartoonist who often works in words, I have some insight. My lifelong study of cartooning has shown me that it is essentially a language of stereotypes. Society creates simplified icons that allow for fast communication.

Look through to decade-spanning collections like Cartoon Cavalcade, or The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, and you find all kinds of stereotypes. Over time they change, but they do not decrease in number. They are merely replaced by new, more up-to-date ones.

In my lifetime, I’ve seen them come and go. Hippies have gone from dirty bums to Christ figures and back. Depictions of racial/ethnic types have undergone adjustments, often embarrassing at the first few attempts. The modern nerd and hipster are recent versions of a hallowed tradition.

I once posted a picture of the Frito Bandito on Facebook. Palo Jasso, creator of the Mexican comic strip El Cerdotado, replied: “WTF? Fried Bandit?”

Yes, that is what the name would translate to in Spanish.

I explained that the Bandito was character the Frito Lay company used to advertise Fritos Corn Chips. And that back in the Seventies, MEChA successfully campaigned to have him banned. Seems people were starting to call Chicano kids Frito Banditos . . .

Jasso shot back an "lol." He thought the Bandito was funny, like Yosemite Sam.

What is an insulting stereotype north of the Border is often just part of the cultural landscape down south. Like the way the Virgin of Guadalupe is a right-wing political icon in Mexico, while here in El Norte, she’s gone leftie.

When I was in high school, my fellow Chicano students were often wanting to ban things that my--and their--grandparents loved. Lalo Guerrero’s “The Ballad of Pancho Lopez” is an example. Does anybody get in significance of parodying a song about Davy Crockett into the story of an undocumented immigrant? What is the difference between a pioneer and an illegal alien?

One of my favorite restaurants in Phoenix is the recombocultural Chino Bandido (the d and t depend on who and where you are). I guess we’re lucky, in theses times when sombreros are considered racist, no one has objected to to the sombrero and ammo belt-wearing, gun toting panda mascot. But then what we may be seeing here is clever cartooning that twists the stereotypes into a new world.

The fact is, everybody uses stereotypes to deal with the avalanche of strangeness that is our world. Even you. We cuddle up to them; then they become obsolete, and start offending.

Some people starting screaming about wanting censorship, which is suicidal. Early in my career, people told me that they were afraid to publish me because of all the “minorities” in my work. “They get offended, you know.”

They were protecting the “minorities” by banning me.

I prefer to use the guerrilla cartoonist/Chino Bandido strategy: Take the stereotypes, turn them inside out, and use them against the oppressive reality.

And if someone offends you, offend them right back!

Ernest Hogan often abuses español, gets Spanglishado, and wears a spaghetti western bandido moustache, because that’s the kind of Chicanonaut he is.

Stereotypes, tropes, dignifying Latino fiction

Writing fiction about Latinos brings up questions about stereotyping, even for this Chicano author. Will this fictional family be poor, working class, or prosperous? Are the parents' careers working class or professional? What about secondary characters, the house your characters live in and the roles they play in the household?

I'll give examples from a just-completed, middle-grade fantasy story of mine. Examples where I try to avoid stereotyping, with the intention of enriching the Chicano characters in a novel. Whether I made the best choices is not as important as deliberately attempting to dignify the portrayals. If you're an aspiring writer, perhaps my explanations will give you ideas for presenting your stories in a different light, one more realistic, but also innovative. These are examples from A Cradle for Abuelo:

• The nagual spirit enjoyed running alongside the bulldog while they both barked at the mail woman.

I might've automatically written, the mailman. But my mail is sometimes delivered by a female, and my sister-in-law also delivers mail. This is the only mention of the mail woman, so it's almost insignificant. Still, it's a distinct point.

• "You'll think of something." she said, drying and hanging his skillet on a hook.

In this family, the husband is the cook, which is not highly unusual. When he's busy elsewhere, the wife warms up leftovers. I could've fallen into the wife being the cook and dishwasher, and I'm not off the hook for making her the dishwasher. I simply did what I could to not fall into the regular patriarchal family.

• "You helped so many kids when you taught elementary." He nodded toward the piano in her den.

The husband worked as a manual laborer, and the wife was a music teacher. Both are not uncommon ideas or careers in a Chicano family. We do have Latino teachers, just not enough great ones. I could've just made her a housewife, but in the story, music is important and she provided avenues for including it. Also note that the den is hers, a nice touch, I thought.

• "They would understand," he said, looking out the skylight.

The man is in his workshop making a neo-azteca cradle for his first grandkid. The story didn't need a skylight, but many homes have them. Even some that belong to Chicanos. We raza are not all stuck back in the 19th Century with simple adobe. Nor are all our homes plain old boxes.

• The nagual zoomed across the land until he spotted the house's solar panels.

Did I go too far with the tech? Possibly. But there are mexicanos, Chicanos, etc. that have solar. If I could afford installation, I would.

• The old couple could've bought almost anything for breakfast, but they were making their favorites--barbacoa tacos, fruit salad and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

There are more mentions in the story indicating this family is secure and can buy nearly anything they want or need. They just aren't into consumerism. My one concern is, did I make the family too well-off for many readers to identify with them.

Nutritional note: no foods were harmfully fried in the making of this story; only grilled, or served fresh.

• "We never found any good cocineras for the house. Their meals never tasted as deliciosos as ours." … The invisible nagual giggled because he'd played some tricks on those cooks, to make them quit.

Here I might agree I went too far in making the couple prosperous enough to hire a cook. However, I needed to introduce the mischievous nagual. At the same time, could a family with a hired cook serve as a role model of what saving money might mean in retirement? Possibly.

• "I wanted to give a gift more unique than a metal or plastic toy." [And later:] He rubbed in an oil made of juniper sap and the fruit-juice of nuts. He only used natural stains; toxic manmade chemicals would've harmed the grandkid's health.

Is this environmental preaching? Maybe, but I'm not the only woodworker who avoids nails and screw, to the extent I can. And there are millions of parents concerned about their children's environment.

• He peered at the white door where he kept his demon imprisoned.

The words liquor, alcohol and whiskey are never used; only the word, bottle. The man "had been born in another country and suffered from horrible memories that brought on his demon-sickness." The appropriateness of that sickness in a children's won't be discussed here. My example above concerns the color of the door holding the evil. I didn't go the lazy route of using classic black to denote bad. Instead, I used white. Like many of the evils in real life. The color of the door is a minor point, but how frequently do even Latino writers resort to the color black, when they don't need to?

• She had an idea, but she didn't like telling anybody what to do. Besides, pushy people made for lousy friends.

The wife is intelligent and often knows the answers to her husband's problems. But she's also confident enough to choose when to interfere. And for good reason. Is this anti-bullying propaganda? I don't know.

• "There's people outside driving by slowly." … "They admiring your beautiful landscaping and rosas, again?" … "Rosas, schmosas. They're pointing at the lawn furniture and at the artsy way you decorated la casa." … "Please don't run out and tell them anything," he said, winking. She could spend half an hour explaining his woodwork to strangers.

There's a lot here, but the passage primarily shows that this Chicano couple's home is not just a plain house. It's skillfully crafted and landscaped enough for strangers to slow down and look. Yes, in fact, some people of color have modest homes that are that attractive.

There are other examples in this story and in others, including in those written by other Latinos. And Latinas. Whatever your opinion of my attempts to diversify the story elements, I hope I at least provided material for thought about what you might do in your own stories. For that matter, experienced authors probably know more than me, and you can see in their writings other techniques for dignifying and raising the bar of how Latinos are portrayed.

Remember though, describing mexicanos, Chicanos, puertoriqueños, domicanos, etceteranos involves more than any literary tricks. It's about other worldviews, values, morals and beliefs. To know those, is to know our people.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, a.k.a. Chicano fantasy author, Rudy Ch. Garcia, holding a hot manuscript that's itching for a publisher.