Historia patria and the construction of the mestizo nation in Porfirian Mexico: the Fiestas del Centenario , 1910

Abstract

My contribution to the Special Edition seeks to examine two key aspects of the ideological underpinnings and cultural presumptions of the liberal project of state-and nation-building as interpreted by the elective dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz in Mexico (1876-80, 1884-1911), and its specific manifestation in the commemorative Fiestas del Centenario - the official celebration of the first centenary of Mexican independence from Spain - in September 1910. The article focuses, first, on the manifestation of a triumphalist liberal version of historia patria, and, second, on the projection of a distinct mestizo identity for Mexico's ethnically diverse citizenship as key components in the construction of Mexican national identity.