Laura Isabel Serna, “Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture Before the Golden Age” (Duke UP, 2014)

New Books in Latino Studies · Aug 17, 2015 · 1h 15m

During the early decades of the 20thcentury the nation of Mexico entered the modern era through a series of social, political, and economic transformations spurred by the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. At the same time, American film companies increasingly sought opportunities to expand their market share by exporting films to exhibitionists in Mexico and Latin America. As government bureaucrats and progressive reformers sought to unify and rebuild the Mexican state, the cinema became a critical site through which the post-revolutionary ideals of modernization, secularism, and ethnic…