Open Borders to a Revolution

While a number of works have been written about the influence of the United States on the Mexican Revolution, this collection of essays turns the tables by analyzing the influence of the Mexican Revolution on the United States, with emphasis on its cultural impact. As the subtitle indicates, the collection takes on a wide variety of topics; the editors indicate up front that a “notable variety of subject matter” will be covered (p. ix). Open Borders to a Revolution has its origins in an academic symposium held in 2010 to commemorate the centennial of the Mexican Revolution. The book is divided into two sections: “Traveling Borders” and “Living Borders.”“Traveling Borders” examines the revolution's transnational influence on history, culture, and politics. This section covers primarily the 1920s and 1930s but does not follow a chronological order. The period produced three of the most influential writers on Mexican affairs: Ernest Gruening, Frank Tannenbaum, and Carleton Beals. The writings of sympathetic commentators and the dispute over property rights brought the Mexican Revolution into the mainstream of US public opinion. The community of US intellectuals in Mexico City helped to make the Mexico City environment part of the political culture of the United States. The period also featured an “invasion” of the United States by Mexican art (p. 48), a development encouraged by both the Mexican and US governments. This invasion proved to be one of the most important Mexican influences on the United States. The growing American interest in events in Mexico also penetrated Hollywood. Adela Pineda Franco examines the effort of Hollywood to make a movie biography of Pancho Villa in the face of Hollywood's “all-pervading transnational force” (p. 91). Filmmakers had trouble harmonizing Villa's image with that of the actor portraying him, the popular Wallace Beery. The movie production started evolving to fit Beery, and the film reinforced stereotypes of Mexicans rather than helping to eliminate them. Although the movie turned a profit, critics denounced its derogatory treatment of the Mexican Revolution. Jaime Marroquín Arredondo analyzes two famous short stories by Katherine Anne Porter whose critique of the revolution classified it as a failure. Mary Kay Vaughan and Theodore Cohen examine the contributions of composer Carlos Chávez and artist/ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias to the blending of art and ethnography.The second section of the work, “Living Borders,” focuses on the “social, cultural, and political experiences that take place on the fringes of nationhood” (p. viii). Focusing on the two Laredos — Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas — Yolanda Padilla emphasizes the importance of including the Mexican American response to the revolution — the “other novel(s) of the Revolution” — in the historiography of the revolution (p. 134). The novels of the revolution written in Mexico disclose a nationalistic viewpoint, while the “other” novels have a transnational orientation. David Dorado Romo examines the revolutionary legacy of another famous border town, El Paso, Texas. He focuses on south El Paso, the Segundo Barrio area of El Paso. Instead of relying on archival materials, Romo uses buildings and “sites of memory” as his sources. Although there were no military engagements in El Paso, the city played a major role in a variety of ways in the revolution. A zest for urban renewal threatens Romo's sources; one historic hotel was torn down to make way for a Burger King. Border towns are also the topic of Oswaldo Zavala's examination of the revolutionary roles played by Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. Events in the two cities are often connected to the activities of Francisco Villa. While Juárez was the target for several revolutionary factions, Zavala stresses the May 1911 battle in which Villa played a prominent role, most notably by refusing to follow Francisco Madero's orders that the rebels not attack Juárez. Elaine Peña provides another tale of two cities when she examines how the two Laredos dealt with the question of holding the annual George Washington Day celebration with a bloody revolution going on next door. The author sees the discussions and the decision to hold the celebration as an important example of “identity negotiation” in the borderlands (p. 191). Alma Martínez Carranza's essay analyzes the play of Luis Valdez, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa. Valdez sees Villa's head as a metaphor for the separation of Chicanos and Mexican immigrants from their Mexican culture and history.The volume opens with an interview with John Womack Jr. and closes with an excellent afterword by Gilbert Joseph. Each essay features extensive notes and a bibliography. While collections of essays sometimes have problems with coherence, Open Borders ties together well, especially in section 2, “Living Borders.” The work as a whole will be of interest to borderlands specialists, while individual essays may appeal to a larger audience

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Centennial · Economic history · Hollywood · Library science · Mainstream · Media studies · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy