Mexico Otherwise, Modern Mexico in the Eyes of Foreign Observers ed. by Jurgen Buchenau (review)

Book Reviews 151 fused with a Maya social identity during the 19" century.Recent scholarshipin the identity formation ofYucatan's peoples debates the creation and longevity of a Maya identity (Journalo f Latin American Anthropology, spring 2004). While the author uses archaeologicaldata to note evidenceof a Maya identity primarily through materials items linked to religious practice, he does not acknowledge the diversity among the indigenous population nor its complex social formation over the centuries since the Spanish arrival. The Maya are not now, nor were they in ancient times, a homogenous group. Other scholars (Farriss 1984, Restall 1998 among others) have long argued that the formation of indigenous Maya identity changed over time to incorporateand modify colonial practices so that what may be regarded as authenticallyMaya is in fact infused with Spanish colonial elements that the Maya had successfullyincorporatedinto their evolvingculture. This innovative study represents an advance in our understanding of the complexities of the Caste War and perhaps, more importantly, the shifting strategies of survival, resistance and accommodation employed by small scale indigenous agriculturalists to persist economically and preserve their way of life over centuries againstextra-communityforces. It is doubtful,however, if these findingscan explainhow and why present-day small-scale agriculturalistssucceed in the face of globalization,as the author maintains. Nonetheless,Yaxcabiiand the Caste War of Yucathn is a notable contributionto the literatureon the Caste War and especially valuable for its application of archaeological methodology to studies of survival,rebellion and resistance. Kathleen R. Martin Department ofSociology/Anthropology Florida International University Mexico Otherwise, Modern Mexico in the Eyes of Foreign Observers. By Jurgen Buchenau (ed. and trans.). Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2005, p. 285, $22.95 paper. Any scholar teaching in the field of Latin America likely has made use of the University of New Mexico's Diiilogosseries, and all of us owe a debt to long time editor David Holtby, who has contributed greatly to the breadth of reasonable quality texts availableto Latin Americanist educators. The newest addition to 152 The Latin Americanist Fall 2005 this admirable series is Mexico Otherwise, an edited volume by Jurgen Buchenau that gathers together 25 selections of observationsby foreignerswholivedand/ortraveled in Mexico.Theselections coverall chronologicalperiods,which the editor dividesinto four historicalcategories: 1800-1867,1867-1910,1910-1940,and 1945 to the present. He includes a brief introduction to each of these periods. The contributors include many traditional favorites that most of us have used previously in our classes on Mexico, such as Humboldt, Poinsett, Flandrau, Turner, Reed, Traven, and Nicholson. The editor argues that his emphasis in making the selectionsfocuses on four major topics for understandingmodem Mexico: ethnicity, gender and race; cultural differences between Mexicans and foreigners; political stability and instability; and economic influences. Only non-fictional excerpts are included. Further, the editor notes that these foreigners share some commonalities ,typically level of education and class background. Professor Buchenau provides an apt introduction to each of the 25 selections, and similarly makes insightful textual comments , explained in the footnotes, which better inform readers of each observation’scontext and biases. The strength of this work lies with his efforts to make availablenew voices to students and teachers alike. He has included a number of additions, and as he notes, has paid special attention to incorporating women’s views among the selections, long overdue.For example, among the five selections included in the post-1945period, three are by women: Irene Nicholson, founder of the famous British Bookstore in Mexico City, Judith Adler Hellman, a fellow Mexicanist who has often interviewed ordinary citizens for her field research, and Isabella Tree, a correspondentfor the Evening Standard who spenttime in Chiapas during the Zapatista movement.A fourth of the selections have not been available previously in English, an obstacle which Buchenau overcomes through his active translations of such works. Each reader will surely have their own favorites, whether historicalor contemporary.For example,one of the more interesting additionsis the inclusionof letters from United Statescitizens addressed to President Diaz Ordaz, most of them concerned with the governmentmassacre of students in Tlatelolco Plaza in 1968. Although these letters are inherently interesting, many of those dealing with government-studentrelations apparently come from a rather odd scatteringof Americans...