The Social Experience of Going to the Movies in the 1930s–1960s in a Small Texas Border Town: Moviegoing Habits and Memories of Films in Laredo, Texas

Abstract

This chapter discusses the findings of 40 interviews with informants 64–95 years old born and/or raised in Laredo, Texas, a small city on the US border with Mexico, where Mexican Americans have always been the demographic majority and where Spanish-language movies from the neighbouring country were profusely exhibited for decades. The study focuses on the memories of Mexican and Hollywood films among this group of respondents when they were children or teenagers. The chapter explores the way American and Mexican films interacted with their complex double ascription to the US and to Mexican linguistic and cultural features and were part of their complex strategies to navigate between their new American national identity and their still strong and pervasive Mexican cultural roots.