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Mexico, From Mestizo to Multicultural
National Identity and Recent Representations of the Conquest
Throughout the twentieth century, the post-revolutionary Mexican State had used mestizaje as a symbol of national unity and social integration. By the end of the millennium, however, Mexico had gone from a PRI-dominated, economically protectionist nation to a more democratic, economically globalizing one. More importantly, the homogenizing, mestizophile national identity that pervaded Mexico throughout the past century had given way to official admission of Mexico's ethnic and linguistic diversity--or 'pluriculture' according to President Salinas's 1992 constitutional revision.
This book is the first interdisciplinary study of literary, cinematic, and graphic images of Mexican national identity in the 1980s and '90s. Discussing, in depth, writings, films, and cartoons from a vast array of contemporary sources, Carrie C. Chorba creates a social history of this important shift.
Carrie C. Chorba is an associate professor of Spanish at Claremont McKenna College.
Chorba has written a significant and timely manuscript. The most significant book to date on the Salinas government.
--William Beezley, University of Arizona
...an excellent examination of identity politics in Mexico.
--A Contra corriente
In this useful monograph for historians, fans of literary criticism, and students of modern Mexico, Chorba illuminates the fluidity of national identity.
--Hispanic American Historical Review
Chorba's book will be of great interest to scholars of Mexican literature and culture because it tackles a big subject--the question of national identity that has been at the heart of the country's most significant intellectual debates at least since the time of the Revolution of 1910. This combination of meticulous scholarly research and high critical acumen makes this absorbing study both very informative and fun to read.
--Maarten van Delden, Rice University
"Chorba's interdisciplinary study is refreshing and astute."
--Bulletin of Spanish Studies