Mexico Reading the United States (review)

Thirteen essays in this thought-provoking volume explore aspects of Mexican perceptions of the United States, spanning from 1920 to the present. The multiplicity of voices in this comprehensive and thoughtfully arranged assemblage covers a broad range of topics in a variety of artistic expressions—novels, essays, film, political cartoons, and Mexican sociocultural movements—all from a Mexican point of view.

Addressing intersections of bicultural and binational ways of life over almost a century, Mexico Reading the United States is arranged chronologically into three parts: first, "Separate and Unequal: Mexico Struggles for Autonomy, 1920-1960"; second, "Inseparable Differences: Mexico Adapts U.S. Models, 1960-1990s"; and third, "At Home with the Other: Mexico Deals with Virtual Nationhood into Twenty-first Century". These essays provide contrasting insights into a wide range of current issues including immigration, Mexican identity, transculturation, consumerism, neoliberalism, globalization, and the virtual realities of cyberspace.

Although each essay is worth reading for its own content and merits, some invite particular attention. In part 1, coeditor Mary K. Long's article, "Writing Home. The United States through the Eyes of Traveling Mexican Artists and Writers, 1929-1940," traces visions of the United States presented by well-known Mexican artists and writers including José Clemente Orozco, Salvador Novo, Xavier Villaurrutia, and José Juan Tablada. Critical analysis illustrates how repeated impressions of order and technological efficiency are mixed with a common denominator of overwhelming materialism, and, in the Mexican view, "bland, boring and familiar uniformity" (26). Yet, there appears a willingness among most cited authors to adopt new techniques benefiting from information, experiences, and modernization without threatening their own cultural identity. Salvador A. Oropesa's study, "Salvador Novo. The American Friend, the American Critic," diligently explores the importance and influence of the poet-essayist and delves deeply into Novo's social, cultural, and political insights based on travel in Mexico and the United States. Novo enjoyed many aspects of American culture, especially the impeccable technical and artistic aspects of Broadway's plays, recognizing that "very professional work can be done by Mexicans and Americans when they work together" (65). However, he criticizes the discrimination and exploitation of Mexican "braceros" and the immigration policies of both the United States and Mexico. Two remaining essays in this part involve filmmaking and attest further to the conflicting nature of perspectives throughout this volume. Robert Conn focuses on the creation of a political and cultural consciousness in Vasconcelos's screenplays, while Fernando Fabio Sánchez explores cultural clashes between the United States and Mexico, and dual implications of Steinbeck's story The Pearl and the film La perla.

In the leading essay of part 2, "Carlos Monsiváis 'Translates' Tom Wolf," Linda Egan confronts the angst developed around issues of civil rights. Examining shifted priorities between US and Mexican culture, Monsiváis continues to emphasize "the capacity for autonomous self-criticism, willingness to confront power and insist on government's obligations to serve" (107, 109), traits of the United States so admired by himself and other Mexican intellectuals. Maarten Van Delden's superb monograph, "La pura gringuez," demonstrates keen scholarship and insightful cultural commentary. He delineates meticulously the essence of the asserted cultural differences and clash of identities between the United States and Mexico, as reflected in the critical views of three well known Mexican writers: José Agustín, Carlos Fuentes, and Ricardo Aguilar Melanzón. Van Delden raises fascinating questions about the validity and sources of the "continuing tradition of denigrating the United States while longing for Mexico" (170). Completing part 2 in unrelated critical veins, Héctor Domínguez-Ruvalcaba provocatively documents political adaptations and cultural translations in development of US and Mexican gay movements, and Danny J. Anderson invokes stereotypes of misguided idealism and US "do-gooders".

In part 3, Emily Hind, in her article "'Mexican' Novels on the Lesser United States," examines some of the complexities introduced by NAFTA, as portrayed in novels by Andrés Acosta, Juvenal Acosta, Boullosa, Puga, Servín...