His presentation, titled “Sex, Death, and Posada鈥檚 Penny Press: A聽Skeletal聽Modernity,鈥� examined the life and works of Mexican Artist Jos茅 Guadalupe Posada.

The presentation was part of Blanton’s major exhibit “In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships: Arshile鈥疓orky and Isamu Noguchi, Jos茅 Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodr铆guez,聽Nora Naranjo Morse and Eliza Naranjo Morse.”

“Deadly Words, Deadly Deeds: Honor, Sexuality, and Uxoricide in Porfirian Mexico,” published by Oxford University Press’ “Journal of Social History,” explores how gender and sexuality shaped (and reshaped) the concept of honor, a concept that embedded itself in the emerging fields of psychology and criminology. It focuses on how medical and legal experts, as well as the press, discussed the transgression of normative boundaries of sexuality and used it to excuse or condemn Rode’s killing of his new wife, Amelia Zornosa.

The essay argues that the highly gendered and sexualized language of honor embedded itself in the foundation of the emerging scientific fields of psychology and criminology, revealing the cluttered and contentious context that gave rise to Mexican criminology.

The article, which published Aug. 26, is available . 

Published by the University of Arizona Press,  explores the cultural venues in which Mexicans articulated their understanding of the social, political and economic change they witnessed taking place during times of tremendous upheaval, such as the Mexican-American War, the Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution. The words of diverse peoples—people of the street, of the field, of the cantinas—reveal the development of the modern nation.

Neufeld and Matthews selected sources unexplored by Mexicanist scholars in order to investigate the ways that individuals interpreted—whether resisting or reinforcing—official narratives about formative historical moments. 

The contributors to this volume offer new research that reveals how different social groups interpreted and understood the Mexican experience. The collected essays cover a wide range of topics: military life, railroad accidents, religious upheaval, children’s literature, alcohol consumption and the 1985 earthquake. Each chapter provides a translated song or poem that encourages readers to participate in the interpretive practice of historical research and cultural scholarship.

In this regard, “Mexico in Verse” serves both as a volume of collected essays and as a classroom-ready primary document reader.  

According to Chris Frazier, author of “Fighting Words: Competing Voices from the Mexican Revolution”, “[Mexico in Verse focuses] on understanding the subjectivities of subaltern social groups through their own forms of lyrical expression or the discursive engagement between dominant elites and subalterns. It helps open a window to understanding the lives and world views of ordinary people and oppressed social groups, challenging or legitimating the dominant discourse of power and the historical formation of national and social identities.”  

His paper, “Festivals of Progress: The Railway Ceremony in Porfirian Mexico,” investigates how government officials used railway inaugurations as a means to promote new, modern values that corresponded to a liberal, capitalistic, and civilized country as well as to promote a sense of national unity and identity.

He also served as Chair and Commentator for the panel “Verse, Identity, and Power: Exploring the Role of Music, Poetry, and Print in Modern Mexico.”

The article argues that the elite used this literature and art to define themselves as modern citizens and diffuse ideas about the benefits of progress, the success of the regime and the ways civilized individuals should behave. It also shows that these groups shared anxieties about the social and cultural changes spurred by modernization.

To read the full article, visit the Journal’s website by clicking the link to the right.