INTELLECTUALS, BLACKNESS, AND INTER-AMERICANISM IN MEXICO AFTER 1910 Theod

373 Pages·2013·4.17 MB·English

by  Theodore Cohen

ABSTRACT

Title of Dissertation: IN BLACK AND BROWN: INTELLECTUALS,
BLACKNESS, AND INTER-AMERICANISM IN
MEXICO AFTER 1910

Theodore Cohen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013

Dissertation directed by: Professor Mary Kay Vaughan
Department of History

“In Black and Brown” examines how blackness and Africanness became constituent
elements of Mexican culture after the Revolution of 1910. In refuting the common claim
that black cultures and identities were erased or ignored in the post-revolutionary era, it
argues that anthropologists, historians, (ethno)musicologists, and local intellectuals
integrated black and, after 1940, African-descended peoples and cultures into a
democratic concept of national identity. Although multiple historical actors contributed to
this nationalist project, three intellectuals—composer and ethnomusicologist Gerónimo
Baqueiro Foster (1898-1967), anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán (1908-1996), and
city of Veracruz poet Francisco Rivera (1908-1994)—most coherently identified
Africanness in Mexican history and culture. As these state and local intellectuals read
ethnographic texts about African cultural retentions throughout the Western Hemisphere,
they situated these cultural practices in specific Mexican communities and regional
spaces. By tracing the inter-American networks that shaped these identities, “In Black
and Brown” asserts that the classification of blackness and Africanness as Mexican was
in conversation with the refashioning of blackness, Africanness, and indigeneity across
the Americas and was part of the construction of the Western Hemisphere as a historical,
cultural, and racial entity. More broadly, it questions the commonplace assumption that
certain nations of the Americas are part of the African Diaspora while others are defined
as indigenous.
IN BLACK AND BROWN: INTELLECTUALS, BLACKNESS, AND INTER-
AMERICANISM IN MEXICO AFTER 1910

By

Theodore Cohen

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2013

Advisory Committee:

Professor Mary Kay Vaughan, Chair
Professor Ira Berlin
Professor Eyda Merediz
Professor Karin Rosemblatt
Professor Daryle Williams
© Copyright by
Theodore Cohen
2013
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To Joanna
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Acknowledgements
Since “In Black and Brown” takes so much space tracing intellectual genealogies,
it seems only natural that I sketch my own. I have been lucky to work with countless
brilliant scholars, welcoming archivists, generous friends, and understanding family
members who have always given me more comments, intellectual encouragement, and
emotional support than I ever could have imagined. There are not enough words to
express the thanks that they deserve. In unique ways, each and every one of them has
improved this dissertation.
In Mexico and the United States, many people and institutions supported my
research. Without the archivists who provided me with documents and helped me
navigate through archival collections, I would not have this dissertation. At times, I think
they incredulously wondered why I wanted to peruse such a wide and seemingly
unrelated set of sources. Yet everyone at the the Archivo General de México, the
Coordinación de Arqueología Técnica of the INAH, the Comisión Nacional para el
Desarrollo de los Pueblo Indígenas, the Archivo Municipal de Veracruz, the Schomburg
Library, the Northwestern University Archives, the Smithsonian Institute’s National
Anthropology Archives, and the Columbus Memorial Library at the Organization of
American States always went out of the way to assist me. Several archivists went beyond
the call of duty. Herlinda Mendoza Castillo sat with me while I poured over the
Gerónimo Baqueiro Foster archives at the CENIDIM. At the Special Collections of the
Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, Claudia Jasso and Tania Martin Becerril
always graciously offered to help me find what I needed and even fulfilled the dream of
every historian: they let me go into the archive storage room to see what it contained.
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Most of all, I must thank Maria del Rosario Ochoa Rivera of the Archivo Municipal de
Veracruz. As she helped me navigate the archives of her grandfather Francisco Rivera,
she has become a wonderful friend. Also thank you to the Editorial Miguel Angel Porrúa,
the Association for the Study of African American Life & History, the Instituto Nacional
de Bellas Artes/CENIDIM, the Missouri Historical Society, and the Municipal Archive of
Veracruz for granting me permission to reproduce maps and images in “In Black and
Brown.”
Many scholars—including Adriana Naveda, Kevin Yelvington, Alejandro
Madrid, Sagrario Cruz, Félix Báez-Jorge, and Alberto Hernández Sánchez—helped me
navigate life in Mexico as well as specific archives in Mexico and the United States. Tore
Olsson kindly found and copied Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán’s file at the Rockefeller
Archive Center for me. Drew Wood helped orient me in the city of Veracruz and put me
in contact with Rosario; those few email conversations shaped this project more than he
ever could have thought. Much of this archival work was kindly funded by the
Conference on Latin American History, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the Latin American
Studies Center at the University of Maryland, and especially the History Department at
the University of Maryland. Finally, many people provided suggestions and asked
probing questions when I presented various aspects of this project at the American
Historical Association, the Middle-Atlantic Conference of Latin American Studies, the
University of Maryland History Graduate Student Association, the Smithsonian Institute,
the Washington Area Symposium in the History of Latin America, and the Tepoztlán
Institute for the History of the Americas.
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While I am unsure when I exactly decided to become a Mexican historian or a
scholar of the African Diaspora, I know that the time I years at Yale University, the
University of Virginia, and especially the University of Maryland were instrumental in
making me the scholar I am today. At Yale, Gil Joseph and Seth Fein pushed me to think
about Mexican history and transnational history in so many innovative ways. I find
myself constantly referring back to the provocative ideas that they posed for me. My
research on Mexico and its relationship to inter-Americanism certainly owes so much to
both of them.
Thank you to the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African
Studies at the University of Virginia. Everyone affiliated with the Institute—but
particularly Debbie Best and Cheryll Lewis—has given me the time, support, and space
to think about my research and write my dissertation. The Woodson Institute provided me
with the opportunity to converse with so many brilliant scholars of the African Diaspora.
All of the Woodson Fellows from 2011 through 2013 were always willing to read and
provide comments on unwieldy chapters. Elina Hartikainen and Rebecca Keegan Van
Diver deserve special thanks; they read more poorly written chapters on Mexican history
than they probably ever thought they would. Thank you also to Deborah McDowell,
Lawrie Balfour, Roquinaldo Ferreira, Brian Owensby, Daniel Chávez, Herman Bennett,
and Bryan McCann for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in my
chapter workshops. All of your insights into my work not only pushed me intellectuals
but forced me to grapple with the boundaries of historical analysis and the strengths and
weaknesses of interdisciplinarity.
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There are so many people at the University of Maryland’s History Department
who have helped to improve “In Black and Brown.” Fellow graduate students—Sarah
Walsh, Shane Dillingham, Reid Gustafson, Daniel Richter, and Will Burghart—have
read, heard, and edited various iterations of this project and given so much precious
feedback and support. Professors David Sartorius and Elsa Barkley-Brown helped me
develop my own ideas about the African Diaspora. Finally, thank you to Barbara
Weinstein for asking questions about race and nation in Latin America that have helped
to shape some of the underlying issues in “In Black and Brown.”
I must wholeheartedly thank my entire dissertation committee: Mary Kay
Vaughan, Karin Rosemblatt, Daryle Williams, Ira Berlin, and Eyda Merediz. They have
each brought their own perspectives to my project and helped me think about Cuban
culture and history, slavery in the Americas, the African Diaspora, and Mexican history.
From reading all sorts of drafts to discussing the intricacies of Mexican anthropology
with me, Karin has been so instrumental in shaping my research. Her knowledge of
Mexican indigenismo brought new discursive and cultural dimensions to this project—
and her interest in the relationship between race and space have left an indelible imprint
on this dissertation. I cannot thank Mary Kay, my advisor, enough. She encouraged me
and did so much to help me craft this project. Without her knowledge of Mexico and her
seemingly infinite connections abroad, I do not think I could have completed “In Black
and Brown.” Her diligence, persistence, and enthusiasm were invaluable. The
conversations that we have had over the years have not only animated this project but
also my entire outlook on Mexican history, culture, and society. I would not be the
historian I am today if it was not for her.
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My family has supported me through this entire process. They have listened to me
talk about my project—and a daring few have even read a little of it. They have distracted
me from my work when it became too much and encouraged me both when my research
was going well and when it was not. As a child, I never thought I would be a historian. If
it was not for the fact that my parents always encouraged me to do what made me happy,
I probably would not be finishing a dissertation. Alas, I probably would not have started
it. Finally, to Joanna: thank you. She has endured this project as much if not more than I
have. I chose this path. She did not. Yet, with unwavering confidence in my abilities and
the hope that this ordeal would briskly (or at least eventually) come to an end, she has
unconditionally supported me. I could not have completed “In Black and Brown” if it
was not for her.