Mestizo Modernity

After the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1917, post-revolutionary leaders hoped to assimilate the countrys racially diverse population into one official mixed-race identitythe mestizo. This book shows that as part of this vision, the Mexican government believed it could modernize primitive indigenous peoples through technology in the form of education, modern medicine, industrial agriculture, and factory work. David Dalton takes a close look at how authors, artists, and thinkerssome state-funded, some independentengaged with official views of Mexican racial identity from the 1920s to the 1970s. Dalton surveys essays, plays, novels, murals, and films that portray indigenous bodies being fused, or hybridized, with technology. He examines Jos Vasconceloss essay The Cosmic Race and the influence of its ideologies on mural artists such as Diego Rivera and Jos Clemente Orozco. He discusses the theme of introducing Amerindians to medical hygiene and immunizations in the films of Emilio El Indio Fernndez. He analyzes the portrayal of indigenous monsters in the films of El Santo, as well as Carlos Olveras critique of post-revolutionary worldviews in the novel Mejicanos en el espacio. Incorporating the perspectives of posthumanism and cyborg studies, Dalton shows that technology played a key role in race formation in Mexico throughout the twentieth century. This cutting-edge study offers fascinating new insights into the culture of mestizaje, illuminating the attitudes that inform Mexican race relations in the present day.