My favorite birthday present was a Flip MinoHD camera given to me by Mariela. I fell instantly in love with it when I saw it online. I had originally come across the Mino line when I followed a link from the Sanrio website that boasted of Hello Kitty cameras. My eyes were transfixed by handheld video cameras bearing the likeness of Chococat and even Tuxedo Sam (Hella throwback!). When I explored the other designs in the line I was shocked and surprised to see one with the Virgin of Guadalupe on it. I knew I had to have it and sent Mariela the link.
I’m fascinated that the semiotics of cultural tourism and Mexican kitsch have finally reached high technology. As a Chicano I know I’m not the primary audience for plastering the Virgin of Guadalupe on an HD video camera. The design is a product of the Santa Cruz skateboard company and it’s intended as pure hipster irony. It would have been a perfect accessory to Tulane Law School student Melissa Swabacker’s racist “Border Party”.
I’m not claiming any act of reclamation in using and loving my Guadalupe Flip MinoHD. I share my mother’s fascination, love of, and artistic & academic interest in Mexican kitsch and tourist icons (what she call “Mexicana”).
You can see the videos I’ve created with Lupe so far here: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=721637572&v=app_2392950137
Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking 