Handcraft as Cultural Diplomacy

The 1968 Mexico Cultural Olympics and U.S. Participation in the International Exhibition of Popular Arts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7315840
AutoresDeborah Dorotinsky (0000-0001-5964-4503, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen29
Número1
Páginas1-34
Fecha de publicación2020-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569325.2019.1709961
OpenAlexW3006965434
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas22

Mexican post-revolutionary cultural institutions excelled at implementing Mexican art and popular arts as key elements in cultural diplomacy. However, while there is abundant research regarding these arts and their inclusion in international exhibitions during the first part of the twentieth century, there is little research on their role in international cultural diplomacy during the second half of that century. In the first part of this article I present a historiographical appraisal of the 1968 Mexican Cultural Olympiad and the resolutions of the "First Latin American Seminar on Popular Arts and Crafts" sponsored by UNESCO in Mexico City in 1965. In the second, I examine the case of U.S. participation in the "Exposición Internacional de Artesanías Populares" (International Exhibition of Popular Arts), which was part of the 1968 Cultural Olympiad's programme – largely neglected by the historiography of the XIX Olympics – to explain how popular arts were made to perform as agents of cultural diplomacy in Mexico and the U.S. during the Cold War. In addition, I argue that U.S. participation in this exhibition also reveals negotiations and redefinitions of the concepts of handcraft and arte popular, and the economic and social situation of their makers in the United States

Archaeology · Art · Cultural history · Cultural policy · Diplomacy · Exhibition · Historiography · Latin Americans · Olympiad · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Anthropology · History · Law · Spanish History and Politics