Mexican National Identity: Memory, Innuendo, and Popular Culture | 
| Author: William H. Beezley
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $21.45
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Sales Rank: 1323949
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0816526907
Dewey Decimal Number: 972
EAN: 9780816526901
ASIN: 0816526907
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
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Product Description
In this enlightening book, the well-known historian William Beezley contends that a Mexican national identity was forged during the nineteenth century not by a self-anointed elite but rather by a disparate mix of ordinary people and everyday events. In examining independence festivals, childrens games, annual almanacs, and the performances of itinerant puppet theaters, Beezley argues that these seemingly unrelated and commonplace occurrencesnot the far more self-conscious and organized efforts of politicians, teachers, and otherscreated a far-reaching sense of a new nation. In the century that followed Mexicos independence from Spain in 1821, Beezley maintains, sentiments of nationality were promulgated by people who were concerned not with the promotion of nationalism but with something far more immediatethe need to earn a living. These peddlers, vendors, actors, artisans, writers, publishers, and puppeteers sought widespread popular appeal so that they could earn money. According to Beezley, they constantly refined their performances, as well as the symbols and images they employed, in order to secure larger revenues. Gradually they discovered the stories, acts, and products that attracted the largest numbers of paying customers. As Beezley convincingly asserts, out of what sold to the masses a collective national identity slowly emerged. Mexican National Identity makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature that explores the influences of popular culture on issues of national identity. By looking at identity as it was fashioned in the streets, it opens new avenues for exploring identity formation more generally, not just in Mexico and Latin American countries but in every nation.
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