The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920–1940 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822336685 ISBN 13: 9780822336686

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2006

Synopsis

When the fighting of the Mexican Revolution died down in 1920, the national government faced the daunting task of building a cohesive nation. It had to establish control over a disparate and needy population and prepare the country for global economic competition. As part of this effort, the government enlisted the energy of artists and intellectuals in cultivating a distinctly Mexican identity. It devised a project for the incorporation of indigenous peoples and oversaw a vast, innovative program in the arts. The Eagle and the Virgin examines the massive nation-building project Mexico undertook between 1920 and 1940. Contributors explore: the nation-building efforts of the government, artists, entrepreneurs, and social movements; their contradictory, often conflictive intersection; and their inevitably trans-national nature. Scholars of political and social history, communications, and art history describe the creation of national symbols, myths, histories, and heroes to inspire patriotism and transform workers and peasants into efficient, productive, gendered subjects. They analyze the aesthetics of nation-building made visible in murals, music, and architecture; investigate state projects to promote health, anti-clericalism, and education; and consider the role of mass communications from cinema and radio to road-building. They discuss how national identity was forged among social groups, specifically political Catholics, industrial workers, middle class women, and indigenous communities. Most importantly, the volume weighs in on debates about the tension between the eagle (the modernizing secular state) and the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Catholic defense of faith and morality). It argues that despite bitter, violent conflict, the symbolic repertoire created to promote national identity and memory-making eventually proved capacious enough to allow the eagle and the virgin to coexist peacefully. The contributors are: Adrian Bantjes, Katherine Bliss, Maria Teresa Fernandez, Joy Elizabeth Hayes, Joanne Hershfield, Stephen E. Lewis, Claudio Lomnitz, Rick A. Lopez, Sarah M. Lowe, Jean Meyer, James Oles, Patrice Olsen, Michael Snodgrass, Mary Kay Vaughan, Marco Velazquez, Wendy Waters, and Adriana Zavala. Mary Kay Vaughan is Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her books include "Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930-1940". She is a co-editor of the journal "Hispanic American Historical Review". Stephen E. Lewis is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Chico. He is the author of "The Ambivalent Revolution: Forging State and Nation in Chiapas, 1910-1945".

About this title

Review

"Steeped in a generation of new cultural and transnational analysis of state formation and popular expression, The Eagle and the Virgin raises the bar for studies of nation building and cultural politics in postrevolutionary Mexico. Particularly impressive is the volume's sensitive analysis of contests over religious culture and symbols, its gendered understanding of state formation, and its handsomely illustrated treatment of the development of a Mexican revolutionary aesthetic." --Gilbert M. Joseph, coeditor of The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics

"The Eagle and the Virgin is a necessary book, a selection of essays which allows readers to see in detail how a nation is invented and reinvented, how it experiences its achievements and its customs, both the good and the bad; and how it is internationalized and nationalized (since by 1940 Mexico was both a more cosmopolitan country and a more Mexican one). A delightful work." --Carlos Monsivais

"The Eagle and the Virgin is an excellent overview of the different cultural, political and social movements that helped to shape an image for the nation after the Mexican Revolution of 1910." --Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez, Art History, Summer 2009

From the Author

Mary Kay Vaughan is Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her books include Cultural Politics in Revolution: Teachers, Peasants, and Schools in Mexico, 1930–1940. She is a coeditor of the journal Hispanic American Historical Review.

Stephen E. Lewis is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Chico. He is the author of The Ambivalent Revolution: Forging State and Nation in Chiapas, 1910–1945.

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0822336685
• ISBN 13: 9780822336686
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 396
• Editor: Vaughan Mary Kay, Lewis Stephen