Cultural Studies in Mexico

This text provides a genealogy of Cultural Studies in Mexico while attempting to distinguish between “studies of culture” and Cultural Studies proper. It reviews major themes in Mexican Anthropology (particularly its obsession with identity), the contributions of chroniclers and essayists, and Communication Studies and their Latin American variants, concluding with questions that have been raised by recent proposals to approach Mexican Cultural Studies from the standpoint of postcolonial criticism. Here, studies of race, culture beatified as “suspicion,” and conquest as a Latin American structure emerge as central concerns for critical Cultural Studies in Mexico.