Cartographies of Mexican Cinema in the 21st Century

Ana M López

doi:10.22475/rebeca.v4n1.337

Abstract

This paper provides a map of the historical shifts in Hollywood-Mexico relations, arguing that these changes have also shifted the representational paradigms of contemporary Mexican films. It traces the decentering of the geographic centers that delimited Hollywood-Mexico cinematic relations and its impact on the representational work of recent films from Mexico by Carlos Reygadas, Israel Cardenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, and Enrique Rivero.

Highlights

Since my title includes “cartography” and invokes maps and mapping, let me begin by invoking a map: As Porfirio Díaz remarked and as we all know, Mexico is remarkably close to the United States and, to Hollywood: in the 115 years since the invention of cinema there has been constant traffic between Hollywood and Mexico
We know that the first film equipment to arrive in Mexico was the Lumière Cinématographe, via Paris, most of the cinematic traffic for decades occurred North-South
Most of the arrows point south to mark the transfer of technology, expertise, talent and films, but there is an up arrow as well, since Mexico was a major contributor to Hollywood’s “international” aspirations in the silent and early sound cinemas

Summary

Introduction

Since my title includes “cartography” and invokes maps and mapping, let me begin by invoking a map: As Porfirio Díaz remarked and as we all know, Mexico is remarkably close to the United States and, to Hollywood: in the 115 years since the invention of cinema there has been constant traffic between Hollywood and Mexico. We know that the first film equipment to arrive in Mexico was the Lumière Cinématographe, via Paris, most of the cinematic traffic for decades occurred North-South.

Results

Conclusion