Abstract

BARREIRO, Emma Julieta. A game of mirrors: the representation of women in books by German-speaking travelers in Mexico in the 1920s. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2023, vol.44, n.173, pp.145-176.  Epub Aug 25, 2023. ISSN 2448-7554.  https://doi.org/10.24901/rehs.v44i173.962.

A first look at the representation of women in the books Wanderjahre in Mexiko (1925), by Emil Landenberger; Mexiko (1925), by Alfons Goldschmidt; Land des Frühlings (1928), by B. Traven; and Von Vulkanen, Pyramiden und Hexen. Mexikanische Impressionen by Marianne West (1930), shows a variety of ways of perceiving and depicting female figures as an essential component of Mexican nature and society during the 1920s. The stereotypes and types depicted tell us about the differentiations made between women and other social sectors. Questions of race, gender, or education and tradition are displayed in this look and encounter with a feminine other that awakens astonishment, respect, and solidarity or, in some cases, even erotic attraction. We see a game of mirrors that tells us as much about the representation of Mexican women as about that of German women of that time, and motivates us to extend our gaze over a panorama so far little studied from a comparative point of view.

Keywords : Mexico; German-speaking travelers; women; gender; race; representation; education.

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