Mexican America - Introduction
Introduction
"Mexican America" is a sampling of objects from the collections of the National Museum of American History. The stories behind these objects reflect the history of the Mexican presence in the United States. They illustrate a fundamentally American story about the centuries-old encounter between distinct (yet sometimes overlapping) communities that have coexisted but also clashed over land, culture, and livelihood.
Who, where, and what is Mexico? Over time, the definitions and boundaries of Mexico have changed. The Aztec Empire and the area where Náhautl was spoken—today the region surrounding modern Mexico City—was known as Mexico. For 300 years, the Spanish colonizers renamed it New Spain.
When Mexico was reborn in 1821 as a sovereign nation, its borders stretched from California to Guatemala. It was a huge and ancient land of ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse regions that struggled for national unity. Texas, (then part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas) was a frontier region far from the dense cities and fertile valleys of central Mexico, a place where immigrants were recruited from the United States. The immigrants in turn declared the Mexican territory an independent republic in 1836 (later a U.S. state), making the state the first cauldron of Mexican American culture. By 1853, the government of Mexico, the weaker neighbor of an expansionist United States, had lost what are today the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In spite of the imposition of a new border, the historical and living presence of Spaniards, Mexicans, indigenous peoples, and their mixed descendants remained a defining force in the creation of the American West.
“La América Mexicana” es una muestra conformada por objetos provenientes de las distintas colecciones del Museo Nacional de Historia Americana. Estos objetos reflejan la historia de la presencia mexicana en los Estados Unidos e ilustran una crónica fundamentalmente americana acerca del encuentro centenario entre comunidades diferentes que han coexistido, pero que también se han enfrentado, en la pugna por la tierra, la cultura y el sustento.
¿Quién, dónde y qué es México? Con el transcurso del tiempo, las definiciones y los límites de México han ido cambiando. Se conocía como México al Imperio Azteca y toda el área donde se hablaba náhuatl —actualmente la región circundante a la ciudad de México. Durante 300 años los colonizadores españoles se refirieron a ella como Nueva España. Cuando en 1821 México resurgió como una nación soberana, sus fronteras se extendían desde California a Guatemala. En ese entonces era un antiguo e inmenso territorio conformado por regiones étnica, lingüística y económicamente diversas que luchaban por adquirir unidad nacional. Texas (en ese entonces parte de los estados mexicanos de Coahuila y Tejas) era una región fronteriza lejos de las densas urbes y de los fértiles valles de México central, donde se reclutaban inmigrantes de los Estados Unidos. En el año 1836 este territorio mexicano se declaró como república independiente (y más tarde, estado de EE.UU.), convirtiéndose en el primer calderón de la cultura mexicoamericana. Hacia 1853, el gobierno de México, el vecino débil de un Estados Unidos en expansión, había perdido el territorio de los actuales estados de California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Nuevo México, Texas y partes de Colorado y Wyoming. A pesar de la imposición de un nuevo límite fronterizo, la presencia histórica y ocupacional de los españoles, mexicanos y pueblos indígenas, junto a sus descendientes mestizos, constituiría a lo largo del tiempo una influencia determinante para el desarrollo del Oeste Americano.
"Mexican America - Introduction" showing 3 items.
Mariposas en Patyenaro
- Description
- With the lucrative growth of tourism in 20th century, stereotypical and processed images of Mexico have often been marketed to the American imagination. In them, "South of the Border" becomes a sunny pre-modern place of vacations, trinkets, and convenient lawlessness. But contrasting and complex images of Mexico have pervaded the American imagination since well before the Civil War. Mexico, itself defined by cultural and racial exchange, has historically represented a starkly different social order to most Americans. A country with cheap land and labor and bountiful mineral and agricultural resources offered economic opportunities to many Americans, from white financiers and mercenaries to black oil workers and baseball players. Mexico was also a refuge for many American artists, of Mexican descent or otherwise, who imagined Mexico in different ways. Some artists sought inspiration from its ancient history, and others came looking for a pristine and exotic landscape. This lithograph, titled Mariposas at Patyenaro was drawn by Alan Crane in 1943. It depicts the picturesque, butterfly-shaped nets of Mexican fisherman paddling their canoes on a lake. Alan Horton Crane (1901–1969) was a Brooklyn-born illustrator best known for his landscapes and genre scenes of life in Mexico and New England. Similar prints by Crane showing scenes of idyllic Mexico are housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1943
- maker
- Crane, Alan
- ID Number
- GA*23830
- catalog number
- 23830
- accession number
- 306563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Night of the Dead
- Description
- Though anchored in local Roman Catholic traditions, many of the religious beliefs and symbols of Mexican Americans have roots in indigenous notions about the soul and our universe. Between October 31st and November 2nd, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated with family, decorating home altars and visiting the graves of loved ones. A holiday with much regional and individual variation, it is traditionally an occasion to commemorate parents and grandparents with altars of marigolds, candles, alcohol, skeleton-shaped sweets, and other foods and personal objects favored by the dearly departed. Day of the Dead celebrations were reinvented across many Mexican American communities beginning in the 1970s, as the Chicano movement promoted and readapted Mexican cultural practices. Many artists since then have seized on the visual power of the altar as a conduit for personal and public memory. In the United States, Day of the Dead altars can be found interrogating life and critiquing politics in public places. Contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations have memorialized those who have died from AIDS, gang violence, the civil wars in Central America, and crossing the border. This lithograph, titled Night of the Dead, was originally drawn in ink by Alan Crane in 1958. Alan Horton Crane (1901–1969) was a Brooklyn-born illustrator best known for his landscapes and genre scenes of life in Mexico and New England. This image is part of a series of prints by Alan Crane housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1958
- maker
- Crane, Alan
- ID Number
- GA*23836
- catalog number
- 23836
- accession number
- 306563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Toluca Market
- Description
- This scene of the Toluca market was depicted by Alan Crane in 1946. Housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History, it is one of a series of lithographs of Mexican landscapes and genre scenes he printed during the 1940s. The growth of the tourist industry, rebounding after WWII, created a market for images of an idyllic Mexico—peaceful, scenic, and premodern. The elements of everyday life shown here—the densely packed stands of the ceramics vendors, the pulquería (a cantina that serves pulque, the fermented juice of the maguey plant), and the traditional dress of the marketeers—were as foreign to the urbanized Mexican American youth in Los Angeles, El Paso, and San Antonio as they were to American tourists seeking a memento of "Old Mexico." The generations of youths who grew up in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were fundamental in negotiating the language, aesthetics, and political vision that would constitute the contemporary culture of Mexican Americans. These young men and women, many of whom were war veterans as well as industrial and agricultural workers, created empowering images of Mexican Americans as they defined new roles for themselves as activists during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1946
- graphic artist
- Crane, Alan
- ID Number
- GA*23825
- catalog number
- 23825
- accession number
- 306563
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center