Joanne Hershfield

A look at how the modern woman was envisioned in postrevolutionary Mexican popular culture and how she figured in contestations over Mexican national identity.

Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917–1936

Imagining la Chica Moderna

David Maciel

In recent years, Mexican films have received high acclaim and impressive box-office returns, earning prestigious international awards in film festivals worldwide. Moreover, Mexico has the most advanced movie industry in the Spanish-speaking world in terms of economic resources, technical production, number of films produced annually, and in distribution. Its impact on Mexican culture and society cannot be overstated. Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers is a collection of fourteen essays that encompass the first 100 years of the cinema of Mexico. Included are original contributions written specifically for this title, plus a few classic pieces in the field of Mexican cinema studies never before available in English. These essays explore a variety of themes including race and ethnicity, gender issues, personalities, and the historical development of a national cinematic style.

A Century of Film and Filmmakers

Mexico's Cinema

In the years following the Mexican Revolution, visual images of la chica moderna, the modern woman, au courant in appearance and attitude, popped up in mass media across the country. Some of the images were addressed directly to women through advertisements, as illustrations accompanying articles in women’s magazines, and on the “women’s pages” in daily newspapers. Others illustrated domestic and international news stories, promoted tourism, or publicized the latest Mexican and Hollywood films. In Imagining la Chica Moderna, Joanne Hershfield examines these images, exploring how the modern woman was envisioned in Mexican popular culture and how she figured into postrevolutionary contestations over Mexican national identity. Through her detailed interpretations of visual representations of la chica moderna, Hershfield demonstrates how the images embodied popular ideas and anxieties about sexuality, work, motherhood, and feminine beauty, as well as class and ethnicity. Her analysis takes into account the influence of mexicanidad, the vision of Mexican national identity promoted by successive postrevolutionary administrations, and the fashions that arrived in Mexico from abroad, particularly from Paris, New York, and Hollywood. She considers how ideals of the modern housewife were promoted to Mexican women through visual culture; how working women were represented in illustrated periodicals and in the Mexican cinema; and how images of traditional “types” of Mexican women, such as la china poblana (the rural woman), came to define a “domestic exotic” form of modern femininity. Scrutinizing photographs of Mexican women that accompanied articles in the Mexican press during the 1920s and 1930s, Hershfield reflects on the ways that the real and the imagined came together in the production of la chica moderna.

"Arranged chronologically, this updated and revised edition covers the scope of Mexican cinema. The main films and their directors are discussed, together with the political, social and economic context of the times. Appendices offer selected filmographies and useful addresses"--Provided by publisher.

Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 1940-1950

David R. Maciel

In recent years, Mexican films have received high acclaim and impressive box-office returns. Moreover, Mexico has the most advanced movie industry in the Spanish-speaking world, and its impact on Mexican culture and society cannot be overstated. Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers is a collection of fourteen essays that encompass the first 100 years of the cinema of Mexico. Included are original contributions written specifically for this title, plus a few classic pieces in the field of Mexican cinema studies never before available in English. These essays explore a variety of themes including race and ethnicity, gender issues, personalities, and the historical development of a national cinematic style. Each of the book's three sections-The Silent Cinema, The Golden Age, and The Contemporary Era-is preceded by a short introduction to the period and a presentation of the major themes addressed in the section. This insightful anthology is the first published study that includes pieces by Mexican and North American scholars, including a piece by the internationally acclaimed essayist Carlos Monsivais. Contributors include other acclaimed scholars and critics as well as young scholars who are currently making their mark in the area of film studies of Mexico. These authors represent various fields-community studies, film studies, cultural history, ethnic studies, and gender studies-making this volume an interdisciplinary resource, important for courses in Latin America and Third World cinema, Mexican history and culture, and Chicana/o and ethnic studies.

Joanne Hershfield

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