Mexico Goes to Disney World: Recognizing and Representing Mexico at EPCOT Center’s Mexico Pavilion

In this article, I explore the creation of the Mexico pavilion that opened in 1982 at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center theme park in Orlando, Florida. I show how designers created a representation of Mexico intended to be recognizably authentic to EPCOT Center visitors by drawing on established touristic images of Mexico in the United States. I then discuss Disney’s decision to hire Mexican American artist Eddie Martinez to oversee the design of the pavilion’s main attraction, a boat ride through Mexican history and culture. Specifically, I examine Martinez’s involvement in the Goez Art Studio and Gallery in East Los Angeles to explain how Mexican Americans gained cultural authority as interpreters of Mexico in the United States. Finally, I show how the pavilion reflected ways in which Mexican Americans read and reconstructed established visions of Mexico in the United States, particularly in relation to pre- Columbian cultures.