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Chapter 5 Reconfiguring the Revolution celebrity and melodrama The golden age of Mexican cinema (1935–1950) coincides with the consolidation of the revolution that began with the election of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–1940) and extended into the presidencies of Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940–1946) and Miguel Alemán (1946–1952.)1 An important feature of this process was a redefined relationship between state and culture that consisted in the elaboration of policies aimed at sustaining nationalist discourses on modernization and the use of mass media to promote national unity, prosperity, and internationalism at home and abroad. The effect was a new renaissance in which cinema, music, architecture , and dance replaced muralism as vehicles of cultural development and prestige. Thus the 1940s mark a turning point in the “maturing of mexicanidad,” a term that I borrow from Michael Nelson Miller’s study of the cultural policies of the Ávila Camacho regime. During his tenure, government funding of the cultural sector grew exponentially . For cinema, it meant the nationalization of the National Bank of Cinematography in 1947 and the implementation of a financing system based on private-public partnership to support producers and directors and expand the industrial infrastructure. Fundamental as well, Miller points out, was the “attempt on the part of the state to recreate a mass media–based cultural nationalism rooted in loyalty to Mexican personalities who embodied the experience of their history in the artifacts of their creativity” (1998, 1). Out of this strategy, a celebrity culture was born that included figures from the world of visual and performing arts, music, architecture, film, and broadcast radio. For cinema, it meant the creation of a star system. Actors became icons of identity and agents of change, and their interpretations turned them into carriers of moral values. Onand offscreen, they embodied style and modernity. Their publicity photographs printed in newspapers and magazines and close-ups in films projected glamour; their faces and poses enhanced by makeup and lighting confirmed that they were exceptional models of Mexican beauty, honor, and courage. Thus actors (and even some directors) became subjects of constructing the image of the mexican revolution 1 public adoration in Mexico and abroad, mostly in Latin America, where their films were also very popular. Their fame and cultural prestige was sanctioned through the awards they received from the Mexican Academy for the Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, established in 1946, and international film festivals.With the state favoring “films whose characters and characterizations embodied values and virtues consistent with those of the state,” a new mythology was constructed (Miller, 1998, 87). Thirty years after the revolution erupted, the social and political fabric of Mexico and its traditional institutions, family, religion, village, and region had been substantially transformed. As the country was becoming more urbanized, cinema more than any other media reflected the uncertainties brought about by change. From the films, as Monsiváis writes, audiences wanted “a glimpse of what was inevitably to come, lifestyles that frightened and fascinated them, and transgressions that made this patriarchal God-fearing country unrecognizable” (2004, 593). Jesús Martín-Barbero provides a complementary view. “In some ways,” he states, “the people projected on to and recreated memories in films that simultaneously degraded and elevated them, capitalizing on their weaknesses and their search for new signs of identity” (1993, 168). Thus melodrama retained its primacy as a genre. It was an aesthetic and a sensibility capable of conveying what being Mexican and modern meant, offering guidelines of behavior and opinion, as well as a repertoire of gestures and idioms. No matter the theme or setting, its narrative and formal elements were refashioned to represent prevailing experiences and imaginary projections of nation and identity. To the extent that melodrama adjusted its didactic dimension to the citizen- and nation-building agenda that the state had been implementing since the 1920s, the revolution made a comeback as a narrative backdrop . Notable were Flor silvestre (Wildflower) (1943), Las abandonadas (Abandoned Women) (1944), Enamorada (Woman in Love) (1946), and Río Escondido (Hidden River) (1947), all directed by Emilio “El Indio” Fernández and masterfully photographed by Gabriel Figueroa. By resorting to melodrama and its protocols to resolve class, gender, and ethnic differences, these films visualized landscapes and depicted characters as symbolic and gendered constructs of Mexican authenticity. With women as the protagonists, these films proposed different ways to represent and position women within official discourses on nation building and cultural authenticity. Charles Ramírez Berg has dubbed the...

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