Chasing Speedy Gonzales

A zippy, engaging look at everyone's second-favorite cartoon mouse.

Speedy Gonzalez is a mouse that contains multitudes. A plucky hero able to outrun and outsmart his enemies, he’s one of Warner Brothers' oldest cartoon characters. (He first debuted in 1953, during the “Golden Age” of Looney Tunes.) Over the years many observers—taking note of his large yellow sombrero, broken English, and childlike excitability—have criticized Speedy as a stereotype of Mexicans and Latin Americans more broadly. Yet others have hailed him as a revolutionary cultural icon who subverted white audiences’ expectations by being the hero of his own stories. (When the Cartoon Network pulled his shorts in 1999, it was The League of United Latin American Citizens who led the charge in calling for his return.)


Drawing on interviews, research, and new archival sources, Chasing Speedy briskly burrows into the history of American animation to explain the influences of racial stereotypes in popular media that still linger today and reveals the impact that Latine animators and audiences have had in Speedy’s creation and development. As the character’s image and perceptions of him have evolved over the years, author Stephen Andes shows how Speedy has been a recurrent flashpoint in Latine history and culture, one that simultaneously represents a racist past and a hopeful future with positive cultural icons.