Comments on: General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 14:30:24 +0000

I probably noticed the titles on a sporadic basis at best as a kid, but I was still watching them on occasion when a little older. Cartoon channels on basic cable used to still carry the good, old stuff.

It is possible that I had heard or read [National Review?] some reference to A Message to Garcia in close proximity to seeing that cartoon one more time and that spurred the recognition.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 23:39:17 +0000

I watched plenty of Warner Bros. cartoons in my day, but I didn’t know any of their titles until I learned them as an adult: “What’s Opera, Doc?”, etc.

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 22:45:43 +0000

Isegoria,

A pleasure.

I must have seen that many times in the 70s when Warner cartoons were in heavy Saturday morning circulation as part of packaged blocs on TV.

I actually did read A Message to Garcia sometime in the 1990s. Almost certainly because I was finally looking for the basis of the joke in the cartoon title.

Inevitably, when you posted your comments, the cartoon was still my first thought.

By: Charles W Abbott

Charles W Abbott — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 13:10:25 +0000

The nice Letterpress look of the title page and the designation of East Aurora NY as the place of publishing prompts me to comment.

East Aurora NY is worth visiting for the calm, quiet, Arts and Crafts vibe. It is quiet and serene and draws tourists as well as those interested in Letterpress and the various methods big among the Arts and Crafts devotees. A more modern prosaic townscape surrounds the older buildings, which have a landmark designation.

There is a lot about Elbert Hubbard on Wikipedia.

Starting in the 1990s or 2000s I’d seen “Message to Garcia” circulated as a long text file on the internet, but until stumbling upon East Aurora I had no idea he’d been based in Western New York. Nor that he had so many interests and projects.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 23:38:42 +0000

The subtext of those Speedy Gonzales cartoons was totally lost on me as a kid — and they stopped showing them for some reason. Thanks for sharing that, Graham.

By: Thibodeaux

Thibodeaux — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:39:35 +0000

My dad was a sales manager at a car dealership in the 1980s. He had a copy of this in his desk and used the phrase often.

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:34:05 +0000

There was also a Speedy Gonzales cartoon, “A Message to Gracias”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Gracias

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2yxoo3

Made as late as 1964, it has a counter-revolutionary message.