Imagining La Chica Moderna

Joanne Hershfield is Professor of Media Studies and Chair of the Curriculum in Women’s Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Invention of Dolores del Rio and Mexican Cinema/Mexican Woman, 1940–1950 and a coeditor of Mexico’s Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers.

• Illustrations ixAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction 31. Visualizing the New Nation 212. En MÉxico como en ParÍs: Fashioning la Chica Moderna 443. Domesticating la Chica Moderna 734. Picturing Working Women 1025. La Moda Mexicana: Exotic Women 127Conclusion. Imagining "Real" Mexican Women 156Notes 163Bibliography 173Index 195

“This interesting volume approaches a very important topic: the changes in visual culture relating to middle- and upper-class women in Mexico during the years immediately following the violence of the Mexican revolution. . . . [T]his introduction to the topic of changing visual culture related to women in a time of political, economic, and social change is well conceived and fascinating.” - Linda B. Hall, The Americas “With Imagining la Chica Moderna, Joanne Hershfield has made another important contribution to our understanding of popular culture in post-revolutionary Mexico.” - Stephanie Mitchell, Social History “Joanne Hershfield’s intriguing monograph, Imagining la Chica Moderna reminds readers of an era following the 1910-1920 Mexican revolution in which multiple cultural experiments emerged. . . . Imaging La Chica Moderna is as insightful as it is suggestive.” - Marjorie Becker, Journal of Social History “Richly illustrated, this book provides a smart, engaging and accessible study of Mexican modernity through the lens of popular visual culture.” - Freya Schiwy, Bulletin of Latin American Research “[A] detailed and comprehensive study.” - Georgina Jimenez, Latin American Review of Books“[S]everal aspects of Hershfield’s study recommend it for classroom use. . . . [She] writes clearly, carefully avoids jargon and cumbersome theoretical digressions, and assumes no prior knowledge of Mexican history. Her book might be productively used in any class that seeks to explore the relationship between visual culture and social life.” - Jocelyn Olcott, American Historical Review “Imagining la Chica Moderna is an engaging book that both demonstrates the role of gender in fashioning the Mexican nation and underscores the primacy of popular culture in that enterprise.”-Ann Marie Stock, editor of Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical Perspectives “Joanne Hershfield’s book will become an essential reference guide for unpacking la chica moderna as a central trope of postrevolutionary Mexican society. By demonstrating the ways that ‘the modern girl’ was simultaneously cosmopolitan and native, Hershfield makes sense of the seemingly out-of-place phenomenon of the ‘Mexican flapper’ and her multiple meanings within the project of Mexican nationhood.”-Eric Zolov, author of Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture “[A] detailed and comprehensive study.” - Georgina Jimenez (Latin American Review of Books) “[S]everal aspects of Hershfield’s study recommend it for classroom use. . . . [She] writes clearly, carefully avoids jargon and cumbersome theoretical digressions, and assumes no prior knowledge of Mexican history. Her book might be productively used in any class that seeks to explore the relationship between visual culture and social life.” - Jocelyn Olcott (American Historical Review) “Joanne Hershfield’s intriguing monograph, Imagining la Chica Moderna reminds readers of an era following the 1910-1920 Mexican revolution in which multiple cultural experiments emerged. . . . Imaging La Chica Moderna is as insightful as it is suggestive.” - Marjorie Becker (Journal of Social History) “Richly illustrated, this book provides a smart, engaging and accessible study of Mexican modernity through the lens of popular visual culture.” - Freya Schiwy (Bulletin of Latin American Research) “This interesting volume approaches a very important topic: the changes in visual culture relating to middle- and upper-class women in Mexico during the years immediately following the violence of the Mexican revolution. . . . [T]his introduction to the topic of changing visual culture related to women in a time of political, economic, and social change is well conceived and fascinating.” - Linda B. Hall (The Americas) “With Imagining la Chica Moderna, Joanne Hershfield has made another important contribution to our understanding of popular culture in post-revolutionary Mexico.” - Stephanie Mitchell (Social History)