Tijuana Bible

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Tijuana, frequently used in US slang to invoke negative stereotypes about Mexico, plus Bible. Attested since the 1940s.

Noun

Tijuana Bible (plural Tijuana Bibles)

  1. (slang) A kind of palm-sized pornographic comic book produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s.
    • 1972, Bernard Wolfe, Memoirs of a not altogether shy pornographer‎, page 18:
      “You acquainted with the Tijuana Bibles?” ¶ “I've heard a lot goes on in those border towns but not much that calls for religious reference works.” ¶ “These bibles they don't use, they make, and fast as they come off the presses they go over the border.”
    • 1984, Ernest Brawley, The Alamo Tree‎, page 209:
      It was a Tijuana bible. They sold them in the newspaper kiosk in the Jardin Obregon, under the counter.

References
  • Jonathon Green (2017), “Tijuana, adj.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang‎
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