Crafting Mexico

After Mexico's revolution of 1910-1920, intellectuals sought to forge a unified cultural nation out of the country's diverse populace. Their efforts resulted in an "ethnicized" interpretation of Mexicanness that intentionally incorporated elements of folk and indigenous culture. In this rich history, Rick A. Lopez explains how thinkers and artists, including the anthropologist Manuel Gamio, the composer Carlos Chavez, the educator Moises Saenz, the painter Diego Rivera, and many less-known figures formulated and promoted a notion of nationhood in which previously denigrated vernacular artsodance, music, and handicrafts such as textiles, basketry, ceramics, wooden toys, and ritual masksocame to be seen as symbolic of Mexico's modernity and national distinctiveness. Lopez examines how the nationalist project intersected with transnational intellectual and artistic currents, as well as how it was adapted in rural communities. He provides an in-depth account of artisans' practices in one such community, the village of Olinala. Located in the mountainous southern state of Guerrero, Olinala is renowned for its lacquered boxes and gourds, which have been considered since the 1920s among the "most Mexican" of the nation's arts. Crafting Mexico illuminates the role of cultural politics and visual production in Mexico's transformation from a regionally and culturally fragmented country into a modern nation-state with an inclusive and compelling national identity.