Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico
Art, Tourism, and Nation Building Under Lazaro Cardenas
1st Edition
Published on 24. January 2018
277 pages
978-1-4773-1422-7 (ISBN)
Description
In the 1930s, the artistic and cultural patronage of celebrated Mexican president Lazaro Cardenas transformed a small Michoacan city, Patzcuaro, into a popular center for national tourism. Cardenas commissioned public monuments and archeological excavations; supported new schools, libraries, and a public theater; developed tourism sites and infrastructure, including the Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares; and hired artists to paint murals celebrating regional history, traditions, and culture. The creation of Patzcuaro was formative for Mexico; not only did it provide an early model for regional economic and cultural development, but it also helped establish some of Mexico's most enduring national myths, rituals, and institutions.
In Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico, Jennifer Jolly argues that Patzcuaro became a microcosm of cultural power during the 1930s and that we find the foundations of modern Mexico in its creation. Her extensive historical and archival research reveals how Cardenas and the artists and intellectuals who worked with him used cultural patronage as a guise for radical modernization in the region. Jolly demonstrates that the Patzcuaro project helped define a new modern body politic for Mexico, in which the population was asked to emulate Cardenas by touring the country and seeing and embracing its land, history, and people. Ultimately, by offering Mexicans a means to identify and engage with power and privilege, the creation of Patzcuaro placed art and tourism at the center of Mexico's postrevolutionary nation building project.
In Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico, Jennifer Jolly argues that Patzcuaro became a microcosm of cultural power during the 1930s and that we find the foundations of modern Mexico in its creation. Her extensive historical and archival research reveals how Cardenas and the artists and intellectuals who worked with him used cultural patronage as a guise for radical modernization in the region. Jolly demonstrates that the Patzcuaro project helped define a new modern body politic for Mexico, in which the population was asked to emulate Cardenas by touring the country and seeing and embracing its land, history, and people. Ultimately, by offering Mexicans a means to identify and engage with power and privilege, the creation of Patzcuaro placed art and tourism at the center of Mexico's postrevolutionary nation building project.
Reviews / Votes
"Creating Mexico is a much welcomed addition to Mexican regional history...[Jolly] brings to light how the periphery informed nation-state building. " (The Public Historian) "Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico makes important contributions to our understanding of 1930s Mexico, tourism development, art history, and the role of cultural policy in nation building. The book is essential for scholars interested in these fields and accessible for graduate and advanced undergraduate students." (Hispanic American Historical Review) "A fascinating journey into art and tourism in Patzcuaro...a welcome contribution to our understanding of regional art institutions and monuments, the interdisciplinary study of Mexican nation- and region-formation during the 1930s, and most importantly, the emergence of domestic tourism in postrevolutionary Mexico." (The Americas) "Jolly's acute book is successful in giving us a comprehensive view of the mechanisms by which the image of Patzcuaro was created through a process of power engineering...Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico demonstrates how history, art, and tourism can be combined and serve as a technology of governance." (caa.reviews) "Through her consideration of visual culture, Jolly links the regional to the national (and the national to the regional), and thus effectively illuminates the ways in which the molding of Patzcuaro's local identity contributed to Mexico's nation building overall. Jolly offers a significant study, but her colorful discussion of Patzcuaro's art, murals, architecture, and streets ensure a lively read as well." (American Historical Review) "As a compelling account of the creation of a particular historical and cultural narrative for Patzcuaro in the context of building a national Mexican identity, Jolly's book constitutes both an excellent scholarly contribution and a fascinating and insightful story well worth reading." (Monthly Review) "[A] magisterial study of cultural patronage and the construction of regional identity in Patzcuaro...one of the most interesting new books on the history of modern Mexican art to appear in the past several years...It will long stand as the definitive account of this particular time and place...Jolly's book sets a high bar for future scholars who seek to excavate the histories of these and other sites, where regional differences remain resilient, notwithstanding the forces of industrialisation and globalisation." (Bulletin of Latin American Research)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-1422-7 (9781477314227)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jennifer Jolly
Creating Patzcuaro, Creating Mexico
Art, Tourism, and Nation Building Under Lazaro Cardenas
Book
02/2018
University of Texas Press
€109.13
Shipment within 15-20 days
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Seeing Lake Patzcuaro, Transforming Mexico
Chapter 2. Creating Patzcuaro Tipico: Architecture, Historical Preservation, and Race
Chapter 3. Creating the Traditional, Creating the Modern
Chapter 4. Creating Historical Patzcuaro
Chapter 5. Creating Cardenas, Creating Mexico
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Chapter 1. Seeing Lake Patzcuaro, Transforming Mexico
Chapter 2. Creating Patzcuaro Tipico: Architecture, Historical Preservation, and Race
Chapter 3. Creating the Traditional, Creating the Modern
Chapter 4. Creating Historical Patzcuaro
Chapter 5. Creating Cardenas, Creating Mexico
Notes
Bibliography
Index
