Making Cinelandia

Laura Isabel Serna

In the 1920s, as American films came to dominate Mexico's cinemas, many of its cultural and political elites feared that this "Yanqui invasion" would turn Mexico into a cultural vassal of the United States. In Making Cinelandia, Laura Isabel Serna contends that Hollywood films were not simply tools of cultural imperialism. Instead, they offered Mexicans on both sides of the border an imaginative and crucial means of participating in global modernity, even as these films and their producers and distributors frequently displayed anti-Mexican bias. Before the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Mexican audiences used their encounters with American films to construct a national film culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, Serna explores the popular experience of cinemagoing from the perspective of exhibitors, cinema workers, journalists, censors, and fans, showing how Mexican audiences actively engaged with American films to identify more deeply with Mexico.

A Note on Translations and Film Titles xiPrólogo (Prologue) xiiiAcknowledgments xvIntroduction 1Part I. The Yanqui Invasion 171. U.S. Motion Picture Companies Go South of the Border 192. American Movies, Mexican Modernity: The Cinema as a National Space 473. In Lola's House: Fan Discourse in the Making of Mexican Film Culture 85Part II. Border Crossings 1214. La Virgen and La Pelona: Film Culture, Border Crossing, and the Modern Mexican Woman 1235. Denigrating Pictures: Censorship and the Politics of U.S. Film in Greater Mexico 1546. Al Cine: Mexican Migrants Go to the Movies 180Conclusion 215Abbreviations 223Notes 225Bibliography 279Filmography 303Index 309