Mexican Public Intellectuals

253 Pages·2014·1.53 MB·English

by  Debra A. Castillo, Stuart A. Day (eds.)

MEXICAN PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS
LITERATURES OF THE AMERICAS
About the Series
This series seeks to bring forth contemporary critical interventions within
a hemispheric perspective, with an emphasis on perspectives from Latin
America. Books in the series highlight work that explores concerns in litera-
ture in different cultural contexts across historical and geographical bound-
aries and also include work on the specific Latina/o realities in the United
States. Designed to explore key questions confronting contemporary issues
of literary and cultural import, Literatures of the Americas is rooted in tra-
ditional approaches to literary criticism but seeks to include cutting-edge
scholarship using theories from postcolonial, critical race, and ecofeminist
approaches.
Series Editor
Norma E. Cantú is Professor of English and US Latino Studies at the
University of Missouri, Kansas City and Professor Emerita from the University
of Texas at San Antonio. Her edited and coedited works include Inside the
Mexican Public Intellectuals
Edited by
Debra A. Castillo and Stuart A. Day
MEXICAN PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS
Copyright © Debra A. Castillo and Stuart A. Day, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-39228-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,

registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-48327-3 ISBN 978-1-137-39229-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137392299
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mexican public intellectuals / edited by Debra A. Castillo and
Stuart A. Day.
pages cm.—(Literatures of the Americas)
1. Mexican literature—20th century—History and criticism.
2. Mexico—Intellectual life—20th century. 3. Intellectuals—Mexico—
History—20th century. I. Castillo, Debra A., editor of compilation.
II. Day, Stuart A. (Stuart Alexander) editor of compilation.
PQ7154.M49 2014
860.997209051—dc23 2013040047
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: April 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To our families
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: A New Kind of Public Intellectual? 1
Debra A. Castillo and Stuart A. Day
Chapter 1
The Democratic Dogma: Héctor Aguilar Camín, Jorge G.
Castañeda, and Enrique Krauze in the Neoliberal Crucible 15
Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
Chapter 2
Engaging Intellectuals: Andrés Henestrosa and
Elena Poniatowska 45
Debra A. Castillo
Chapter 3
Monsiváis in a Nutshell 71
María Cristina Pons
Chapter 4
Guadalupe Loaeza’s Blonded Ambition: Lip-Synching,
Plagiarism, and Power Poses 95
Emily Hind
Chapter 5
It’s My (National) Stage Too: Sabina Berman and
Jesusa Rodríguez as Public Intellectuals 117
Stuart A. Day
Chapter 6
From Accounting to Recounting: Esther Chávez Cano and
the Articulation of Advocacy, Agency, and Justice on the
US-Mexico Border 139
María Socorro Tabuenca C.
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 7
Mayan Cultural Agency through Performance:
Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya–Fomma 163
Elvira Sánchez-Blake
Chapter 8
María Novaro: Feminist Filmmaking as Public Voice 181
David William Foster
Chapter 9
The Masked Intellectual: Marcos and the Speech of
the Rainforest 197
Oswaldo Estrada
Chapter 10
Javier Sicilia: Public Mourning for the Sons of Mexico 217
Javier Barroso
Notes on Contributors 237
Index 241
Acknowledgments
It has been a few years since we sat down in a café in El Paso, Texas,
to discuss a book on public intellectuals in Mexico. With the excep-
tion of a graduate student we had not yet met, we knew who needed
to be on our list of contributors, and we are profoundly grateful for
their willingness to join us on this project. In the end, their own work
says as much about the future of intellectuals as the figures they treat
in the chapters that follow.
We are also indebted to the series editor, Norma E. Cantú, and to
our external reviewers, who provided detailed suggestions to improve
the manuscript, and to Pam LeRow, the Digital Media Services guru
in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas.
Without Pam’s help many a project would never come to fruition—
including this one.
The same goes for the outstanding editorial team at Palgrave
Macmillan, especially Brigitte Shull (Senior Editor), Ryan Jenkins
(Editorial Assistant), Devon Wolfkiel (Production Assistant), and
the production team led by Deepa John at Newgen. At every step of
the process they lived up to their reputation—and more. They are
friendly, fast, and have a collective eye for detail that is, to say the
least, impressive.