1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828515603321

Autore

Ruiz Jason

Titolo

Americans in the treasure house : travel to Porfirian Mexico and the cultural politics of empire / / Jason Ruiz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin : , : University of Texas Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

0-292-75381-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (294 p.)

Classificazione

HIS036060HIS025000

Disciplina

917.2/04

Soggetti

Americans - Travel - Mexico - History - 19th century

Tourism - Mexico - History - 19th century

Investments, American - Mexico - History - 19th century

Mexico History 1867-1910

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Usage -- Introduction: Keep Close to a Kicking Horse -- Desire among the Ruins: Constructing Mexico in American Travel Discourse -- The Greatest and Wisest Despot of Modern Times : Porfirio Diaz, American Travelers, and the Politics of Logical Paternalism -- American Travel Writing and the Problem of Indian Difference --The Most Promising Element in Mexican Society : Idealized Mestizaje and the Eradication of Indian Difference -- Reversals of Fortune: Revolutionary Veracruz and Porfirian Nostalgia -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

"This book examines travel to Mexico during the Porfiriato (the long dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz 1876-1911), focusing especially on the role of travelers in shaping ideas of Mexico as a logical place for Americans to extend their economic and cultural influence in the hemisphere. Overland travel between the United States and Mexico became instantly faster, smoother, and cheaper when workers connected the two countries' rail lines in 1884, creating intense curiosity in the United States about Mexico, its people, and its opportunities for business and pleasure. As a result, so many



Americans began to travel south of the border during the Porfiriato that observers from both sides of the border began to quip that the visiting hordes of tourists and business speculators constituted a "foreign invasion," a phrase laced with irony given that it appeared at the height of public debate in the United States about the nation's imperial future. These travelers created a rich and varied record of their journeys, constructing Mexico as a nation at the cusp of modernity but requiring foreign intervention to reach its full potential"--