Associate Professor of Anthropology Mónica Salas Landa’s book Visible Ruins: The Politics of Perception and the Legacies of Mexico’s Revolution received a stellar review in the Hispanic American Historical Review by Colby Ristow, who calls her analysis of economic nationalism in Poza Rica a “tour de force of archival research and ethnography.” Ristow says,
With a nimble understanding of the subtle mechanics of power, she explores the indifference of working-class residents of Poza Rica, coping with a decayed infrastructure and a visibly toxic environment; the activism of largely Indigenous families displaced by archaeological excavations, seeking restitution and some of the benefits of the burgeoning cultural tourism industry; and the tales of extraordinary violence in the vanilla fields of Papantla, left unrevived in the nearby heritage theme park and uncaptured by the cameras of a half century of anthropologists. These are fascinating and often moving stories, handled with admirable sensitivity, creatively organized, and placed perfectly to bring the aesthetic dimension of state building (and its discontents) into sharper relief.
Taken together, the montage of ruins forms a vivid mosaic of northern Veracruz, past and present. Salas Landa’s approachable style and sophisticated analysis take us beyond the study of “nationalist aesthetics” (p. 6), skillfully illustrating both the perpetual fragility and the remarkable durability of Mexico’s aesthetic revolutionary project and the strange dictatorship with which it is associated.
Kudos, Prof. Salas Landa!