Storia e Politica (Dec 2022)
¿Orientalismo en Occidente? Miradas italianas sobre cultura e identidad mexicana, 1913-1931
Abstract
The article addresses the issue of the center-periphery relationship in the first half of the 20th century, from the perspective of the European “orientalist” gaze towards the Latin American “periphery”. Starting from the assumption that Italy was a “periphery” of the European “center”, a tour is presented through some Italian travelers who visited Mexico in the first decades of the century, in the context and background of the formation of authoritarian nationalist regimes in both countries. Through the traveling gaze of Italians – journalists and writers – the universe of Italian perceptions of the complex and “exotic” geographic, ethnic, cultural and political reality of Mexico is explored, revealing a transnational framework that supposes intersections, understandings, mistakes, sympathies and rejections, outlining an “otherness” that is partly familiar and partly distant and elusive.
