Making Cinelandia: American Films and Mexican Film Culture before the Golden Age

In the 1920s, as American films came to dominate Mexico's cinemas, many of its cultural and political elites feared that this "Yanqui invasion" would turn Mexico into a cultural vassal of the United States. In Making Cinelandia, Laura Isabel Serna contends that Hollywood films were not simply tools of cultural imperialism. Instead, they offered Mexicans on both sides of the border an imaginative and crucial means of participating in global modernity, even as these films and their producers and distributors frequently displayed anti-Mexican bias. Before the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Mexican audiences used their encounters with American films to construct a national film culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, Serna explores the popular experience of cinemagoing from the perspective of exhibitors, cinema workers, journalists, censors, and fans, showing how Mexican audiences actively engaged with American films to identify more deeply with Mexico.


Author: Laura Isabel Serna
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 03/28/2014
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780822356530

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2014 pg. 454

About the Author
Laura Isabel Serna is Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.