Review: Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s–1950s, by Daniel D. Arreola

Abstract

Book Review| February 01 2023 Review: Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s–1950s, by Daniel D. Arreola Daniel D. Arreola. Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s–1950s. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2021. 392 pages. Verónica Castillo-Muñoz Verónica Castillo-Muñoz University of California, Santa Barbara Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos (2023) 39 (1): 176–177. https://doi.org/10.1525/msem.2023.39.1.176 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Verónica Castillo-Muñoz; Review: Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s–1950s, by Daniel D. Arreola. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 1 February 2023; 39 (1): 176–177. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/msem.2023.39.1.176 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentMexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos Search Before social media, postcards captured moments in time treasured by tourists who visited new places all over the world. On the Mexican border, postcards became the window to how US tourists perceived and shared their perceptions of the border. As Daniel Arreola demonstrates in his new book, Postcards from the Baja California Border, photographs of landmarks, casinos, and geographic locations became part of the US imaginary of the Mexican border in the early twentieth century (4). According to Arreola, these images of the Mexican border went beyond representing places like the towns of Tijuana, Mexicali, and Tecate. They also captured photographers’ perspectives of “place and time” (4). The author has divided the book into five parts, with thirteen short chapters that allow the reader to better understand the geographic location, city landscapes, and landmarks displayed in postcards during the first half of the twentieth century. In the book’s first... You do not currently have access to this content.