Cold War Exiles in Mexico

Cold War Exiles in Mexico

U.S. Dissidents and the Culture of Critical Resistance

Rebecca M. Schreiber
Table of Contents

$22.50 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4308-0

$67.50 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4307-3

Challenges notions of Cold War American art, culture, and politics.

The onset of the Cold War in the 1940s and 1950s precipitated the exile of many U.S. writers, artists, and filmmakers to Mexico. Rebecca M. Schreiber illuminates the work of these cultural exiles in Mexico City and Cuernavaca and reveals how their artistic collaborations formed a vital and effective culture of resistance.

As Schreiber recounts, the first exiles to arrive in Mexico after World War II were visual artists, many of them African-American, including Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, and John Wilson. Individuals who were blacklisted from the Hollywood film industry, such as Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler, followed these artists, as did writers, including Willard Motley. Schreiber examines the artists’ work with the printmaking collective Taller de Gráfica Popular and the screenwriters’ collaborations with filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, as well as the influence of the U.S. exiles on artistic and political movements.

The Cold War culture of political exile challenged American exceptionalist ideology and, as Schreiber reveals, demonstrated the resilience of oppositional art, literature, and film in response to state repression.

“Schreiber highlights the interaction independent national cultures in the space of exile, and demonstrates how that syncretism continues to shape the cultural production of both nations. By doing this, she not only writes a chapter of repressed American history, she also offers a profound challenge to the concept of national, as well as intellectual, boundaries.” —Mobilization

Rebecca M. Schreiber is assistant professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico.

320 pages | 11 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Routes Elsewhere: The Formation of U.S. Exile Communities in Mexico

2. The Politics of Form: African American Artists and the Making of Transnational Aesthetics

3. Allegories of Exile: Political Refugees and Resident Imperialists

4. Audience and Affect: Divergent Economies of Representation and Place

5. Unpacking Leisure: Tourism, Racialization, and the Publishing Industry

6. Exile and After Exile

Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

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Cold War Exiles in Mexico *U.S. Dissidents and the Culture of Critical Resistance* Rebecca M. Schreiber Table of Contents		$22.50 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4308-0 $67.50 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-4307-3
Challenges notions of Cold War American art, culture, and politics. The onset of the Cold War in the 1940s and 1950s precipitated the exile of many U.S. writers, artists, and filmmakers to Mexico. Rebecca M. Schreiber illuminates the work of these cultural exiles in Mexico City and Cuernavaca and reveals how their artistic collaborations formed a vital and effective culture of resistance. As Schreiber recounts, the first exiles to arrive in Mexico after World War II were visual artists, many of them African-American, including Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, and John Wilson. Individuals who were blacklisted from the Hollywood film industry, such as Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler, followed these artists, as did writers, including Willard Motley. Schreiber examines the artists’ work with the printmaking collective Taller de Gráfica Popular and the screenwriters’ collaborations with filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, as well as the influence of the U.S. exiles on artistic and political movements. The Cold War culture of political exile challenged American exceptionalist ideology and, as Schreiber reveals, demonstrated the resilience of oppositional art, literature, and film in response to state repression. “Schreiber highlights the interaction independent national cultures in the space of exile, and demonstrates how that syncretism continues to shape the cultural production of both nations. By doing this, she not only writes a chapter of repressed American history, she also offers a profound challenge to the concept of national, as well as intellectual, boundaries.” —Mobilization Rebecca M. Schreiber is assistant professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico. 320 pages \| 11 b&w photos \| 6 x 9 \| 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1. Routes Elsewhere: The Formation of U.S. Exile Communities in Mexico 2. The Politics of Form: African American Artists and the Making of Transnational Aesthetics 3. Allegories of Exile: Political Refugees and Resident Imperialists 4. Audience and Affect: Divergent Economies of Representation and Place 5. Unpacking Leisure: Tourism, Racialization, and the Publishing Industry 6. Exile and After Exile Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index