"Lo dicen los periódicos": la Ciudad de México en los años veinte

Abstract

This article reflects on how Mexican modern press allows its readers to become inhabitants or visitors of Mexico City, which works many times not only as a geographical destination, but mainly as the Utopia of the postrevolutionary peace. But it also shows them how vices that capital city entails are penalized, fortifying as well the idea of the city as Distopia. "It is the best moment to live in the city", but at the same time, "city corrupts", and corruption is penalized because order is needed. Mexico City’s representation in 1920’s El Universal Ilustrado traces an interdisciplinary route that incorporates other directions to the traditional Porfirian city. Salvador Novo’s and Arqueles Vela’s articles, illustrated by Andrés Audiffred or Jorge Duhart, stand out among other less radical representations by picturesque chroniclers and Gustavo Casasola’s photos. The ambivalence of these utopian and dystopian proposals may be part of the critics of modernity: intellectuals locate themselves between challenge and comprehension, the necessity of evaluation and warning, celebration and praise.

Keywords

• salvador novo and arqueles vela
• jorge duhart and andrés audiffred
• gustavo casasola
• el universal ilustrado
• mexico city in the 1920s