Resumen

ILLESCAS NAJERA, Francisco. ¿Hasta qué punto fue el Santo, "El Enmascarado de Plata", definido por la ascendente cultura popular mexicana del siglo XX?. En-clav. pen [online]. 2012, vol.6, n.12, pp.49-66. ISSN 2594-1100.

In order to satisfy the needs of a new culture in a post-revolutionary Mexico, it emerges a set of representations which satisfy the contemporary values of a rising urban and fragmented culture highly oriented towards popular heroes. One of these popular heroes is the so called Santo, who beginning in the wrestling arena, became one of the best known characters in the contemporary legends of the country. This essay tries to specify the development of the Santo character in the communication, cultural and political areas within the country. The paper is looking to answer the following research question: Up to what extent Santo, "The Silver Masked man", was clearly defined by the rising popular culture of Mexico in the 20th century? This essay was conducted by a bibliographic and a documentary research. In this way, notes and demographic information was looked for, comparing and contrasting sources was the applied method and finally an image comparison was essential in trying to answer the research question. The most important sources in this study are the following authors: Nestor García Canclini, Nuria Bou and Xavier Pérez. In the references the hero is displayed as a cultural product involved with specific factors such as: his historical context, his reaction to mistakes in his past, migration, growing of new cities, and the traditional family image. It is concluded that in that age Mexico was in an identity crisis and the character of Santo helped in overcome it. Santo was defined in basis of a popular culture which is related to the Mexican image of that time. This culture is so important that it is considered as a reformed culture which displays the representation of the search for progress that characterizes the middle 20th century.

Palabras llave : identity; icons; popular culture; popular ideals; urban archetypes.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )