The Development of Mexico's Tourism Industry: Pyramids by Day, Martinis by Night (review)

Dina Berger's The Development of Mexico's Tourism Industry: Pyramids by Day, Martinis by Night traces the historical foundations of the tourism industry in México from 1928 to the early post–WW II period. The author argues that during this period tourism became a medium for the modernization and economic development of México. According to Berger, the "creation of a tourist industry emerged as the cornerstone to state-led modernization programs in the late 1920s at the height of revolutionary reconstruction" (4). This process was complicated by the contradictions of Mexican nationalism that zealously guarded the control of its economy from the same foreign interests catered by the tourist industry.

The revolutionary elite "tried their best to keep American capital, but not American know-how, out of the tourist industry, and to place it instead in the hands of Mexican nationals" (40). The development of the industry was further hampered by the weakness and political chaos that characterized the revolutionary state before 1938, which diminished confidence in the ability of the state to create the necessary infrastructure to advance the industry. Although "no single private or official organization operated alone to build México's tourist industry," (46) Berger emphasizes how private individuals or "tourist pioneers" took the lead in promoting the industry, forming associations of government officials and private entrepreneurs for that purpose. Similarly, American "boosters" of México, such as the Wagons Lits Cook Travel Agency in the United States, worked in the United States to attract American tourists by publishing tour guides and maps. A new social class emerged in the late 1930s "more capable than the government to push México towards prosperity" (47). Through organizations such as the Mexican Automobile Association (AMA) or the state-led National Tourism Committee (CTNT), this enterprising elite set the norm for cooperation between the state and private business in the tourism industry.

The commodification of Mexican culture is another crucial aspect of the industry explored by Berger. Very early on, pioneers and boosters understood the necessity of dispelling notions of México as dangerous and unsanitary in order to sell México to Americans. Initial campaigns played "on Americans' sense of romanticism and national duty," (34) promising cultural understanding and a taste of European refinement and Asian exoticism. These early efforts to juxtapose modernity and tradition were refined in response to fears that tourism would erode national culture, while reflecting nationalists' appropriation of Mexican Indian culture as the basis for national culture. Thus, the paradoxical aspects of nationalism were embraced in the definition of national culture as "the convergence of modernity and antiquity" (58). Tourists were promised modernity in the enjoyment of Mexico City's urban nightlife and tradition in the consumption of Indian monuments and art. The intersection of these projects was reflected in the drive to beautify Mexico City, an urban renewal project that involved the preservation of archeological ruins, monuments, and objects as well as the sanitization of city life to create a sophisticated and "moral capital city" (60).

As the mid-century approached and new lines of collaboration were opened with American businesses now willing to accommodate themselves to México's desire to control its economy, the image of México shifted decisively from the barbaric to that of America's good neighbor. Berger's analysis of promotional material highlights how the image of México was gendered female, first as an Indian woman, then as mestiza, a racial sign for the convergence of tradition and modernity embodying change, optimism, and progress. After the war, México City profited from a new cosmopolitan image signified by a more Anglicized female shopping in an Indian market.

Berger's mining of tourist brochures, government records, newspaper articles, and private and public correspondence sheds new light on the leading role of private entrepreneurs in the...