Viva la historieta

Mexican Comics, NAFTA, and the Politics of Globalization

Bruce Campbell

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2011
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781617035456
• Subtopic: Mexican History
• Index: Literature

¡Viva la historieta! critically examines the participation of Mexican comic books in the continuing debate over the character and consequences of globalization in Mexico. The focus of the book is on graphic narratives produced by and for Mexicans in the period following the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an economic accord that institutionalized the free-market vision of relationships among the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Eight chapters cover a broad range of contemporary Mexican comics, including works of propaganda, romance and adventure, graphic novels, a corporate "brand" series, didactic single-issue books, and a superhero parody series. Each chapter offers an examination of the ways in which specific comics or comic book series represent Mexico's national identity, the US's influence, and globalization's effects on technology and economics since the passage of NAFTA.

Through careful attention to how recent Mexican comics portray a changing nation, author Bruce Campbell reveals a contentious range of perspectives on the problems and promises of globalization. At the same time, Campbell argues that the contrasting views of globalization that circulate widely in Mexican historietas reflect a still unsettled relationship between Mexico and its superpower neighbor.

Table of contents

• Cover
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• 1 INTRODUCTION: Reading the Politics of Globalization in Mexican Comics
• 2 GRAPHIC POLITICS: Political Elites, Globalization, and “lo Popular”
• 3 LOST IN THE BLUE EYES OF THE NORTH: El Libro Vaquero Envisions the U.S. Side of the Border
• 4 NEOLIBERALS ALSO CRY: El Libro Semanal and the U.S. Cultural Model
• 5 EMPIRE AT WORK: Comic Books and Working-Class Counterpublics
• 6 MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT: La Familia Burrón and the Politics of Modernization
• 7 CAPITALISM’S HERO: Las aventuras del Dr. Simi
• 8 OPERACIÓN BOLÍVAR: The Work of Art in the Age of Globalization
• 9 EL BULBO VS. THE MACHINE: Graphic Artistry as Superpower
• CONCLUSION
• WORKS CITED
• INDEX