JE#1 Speedy Gonzales

I can't help feeling a little guilty that I enjoyed watching the Speedy episodes and even going on YouTube to watch a few more. I felt so much nostalgia as the Warner Brothers logo came on the catchy tune started. When my family and I came to the U.S. we lived in South Central LA for about 3 years while my mom was working at a factory in Vernon which is a heavily industrial city. I was between the ages of 2-5 and my mom was hardly home because she was working very hard to take care of me and my older brother and younger sister and my grandma would take care of us. We didn't have toys to play with and my grandma didn't always allow us to play outside because she thought we were too little so we watched cartoons that my aunt would record on VHS and mail it to us to watch. My aunt had cable so she recorded a lot of Cartoon Network and other shows that were not on regular tv.

In preschool no one looked like me, there was no raza students at my school or any that my childhood memories can recall. I didn't learn English until I started school so before that I did not understand anything the cartoons I would watch said which is why I think I really liked Speedy Gonzales. I understood the language and really liked when he said "Buenos Dias", "señor", etc. Looking back I can see a lot of problematic things about the cartoon but it is still a cartoon that reminds me of my childhood. I think the show should not come back because it portrays a bad stereotype of Mexicans and shows drinking and border crossing which also racializes immigration. I think Speedy Gonzales should be seen as an example on how media is very racist from that time to even now, the differences that now racism comes in many ways and is hidden so that we think it is not racist. Speedy Gonzales was a very cute character but all of his friends were one personality: drunk and slow which is setting one image and we know that Mexicans are not all the same we are all different.