The Americas: Collecting Mexico

Review of Shelley Garrigan's book.

garrigan_collecting coverShelley Garrigan's work is an important contribution to the study of official culture during the rule of Porfirio Diaz in Mexico (1876-1910), primarily because it casts new light on episodes, objects, and events that historians of Mexico tend to think they know quite well. The book's five chapters examine the construction of a national canon of painting; the creation of a "national" discipline of archaeology, which culminated in the renewed importance afforded to Mexico's National Museum; the production of urban monuments to commemorate national events and heroes in the Mexican capital; the exhibition of Mexican artifacts for international consumption at the 1889 Paris World's Fair; and the gathering and display of statistical information used to rationalize, order, and govern Mexico's territory and resources.

Read the full article on academia.edu.

Published in: The Americas
By: Luis M. Casteneda