Cold War exiles in Mexico : U.S. dissidents and the culture of critical resistance / Rebecca M. Schreiber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schreiber, Rebecca Mina.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Americans--Mexico--History--20th century.

Americans.

Politics and culture--Mexico.

Politics and culture.

Political refugees--Mexico--History--20th century.

Political refugees.

History.

Mexico.

Politics and culture--United States.

United States.

Political refugees--United States--History--20th century.

Cold War--Influence.

Cold War.

Physical Description:

xxv, 303 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2008]

Summary:

The onset of the Cold War in the 1940s and 1950s precipitated the exile of many U.S. writers, artists, and filmmakers to Mexico. Rebecca M. Schreiber studies the work of these cultural exiles in Mexico City and Cuernavaca and reveals how their artistic collaborations formed a vital and effective culture of resistance.

As Schreiber recounts, the first exiles to arrive in Mexico after World War II were visual artists, many of them African-American, including Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, and John Wilson. Individuals who were blacklisted from the Hollywood film industry, such as Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler, followed these artists, as did writers, including Willard Motley. Schreiber examines the artists' work and their influence on artistic and political movements, revealing how the Cold War culture of political exile challenged American exceptionalist ideology and demonstrated the resilience of oppositional art, literature, and film in response to state repression.

Contents:

Routes elsewhere : the formation of U.S. exile communities in Mexico

The politics of form : African American artists and the making of transnational aesthetics

Allegories of exile : political refugees and resident imperialists

Audience and affect : divergent economies of representation and place

Unpacking leisure : tourism, racialization, and the publishing industry

Exile and after exile.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-279) and index.

ISBN:

9780816643073

0816643075

9780816643080

0816643083

OCLC:

229030875