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Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire Paperback – November 1, 2014

by Jason Ruiz (Author)

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When railroads connected the United States and Mexico in 1884 and overland travel between the two countries became easier and cheaper, Americans developed an intense curiosity about Mexico, its people, and its opportunities for business and pleasure. Indeed, so many Americans visited Mexico during the Porfiriato (the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, 1876–1911) that observers on both sides of the border called the hordes of tourists and business speculators a “foreign invasion,” an apt phrase for a historical moment when the United States was expanding its territory and influence. Americans in the Treasure House examines travel to Mexico during the Porfiriato, concentrating on the role of travelers in shaping ideas of Mexico as a logical place for Americans to extend their economic and cultural influence in the hemisphere. Analyzing a wealth of evidence ranging from travelogues and literary representations to picture postcards and snapshots, Jason Ruiz demonstrates that American travelers constructed Mexico as a nation at the cusp of modernity, but one requiring foreign intervention to reach its full potential. He shows how they rationalized this supposed need for intervention in a variety of ways, including by representing Mexico as a nation that deviated too dramatically from American ideals of progress, whiteness, and sexual self-control to become a modern “sister republic” on its own. Most importantly, Ruiz relates the rapid rise in travel and travel discourse to complex questions about national identity, state power, and economic relations across the U.S.–Mexico border.

Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire

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Product Details

Paperback: 293 pages
Publisher: University of Texas Press (November 1, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0292753837
ISBN-13: 978-0292753839
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Drawing on the vast body of documentation and representation left by American travelers to Mexico, Ruiz argues that these travelers helped shape a form of U.S. cultural and economic imperialism distinct to Mexico. (New Books on Latin American Studies)

About the Author

Jason Ruiz is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Jason Ruiz Page

Jason Ruiz is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where is affiliated faculty with the Program in Gender Studies and the Institute for Latino Studies. He teaches courses in Latino studies, race and representation, border studies, and popular culture. Ruiz's first book, Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire was published by the University of Texas Press in January 2014. He has also published in the Radical History Review, American Studies, Journal of Transnational American Studies, Aztlan, and elsewhere. In addition, he is the co-editor of Radical History Review #100 (Winter 2007), Queer Twin Cities (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), and Radical History Review #123 (forthcoming).

Professor Ruiz is currently researching his second book, Searching for Mañana, which examines American enclaves in Latin America from the turn of the twentieth century to the present.

http://americanstudies.nd.edu/faculty-and-staff/jason-ruiz/