Description
Book SynopsisLynn Stephen examines the writing of Elena Poniatowska, showing how it shaped Mexican political discourse and provides a unique way of understanding contemporary Mexican history, politics, and culture.
Trade Review“
Stories That Make History brings us one of Mexico's most admired anthropologists examining the impact of one of Mexico's most prominent public intellectuals. A cross between Susan Sontag and Joan Didion, Elena Poniatowska has been one of the central chroniclers of Mexican social, cultural, and political life. Lynn Stephen shows us the powerful influence Poniatowska has had in shaping our understanding of modern Mexican history.” -- Jocelyn Olcott, Professor of History, Duke University
“The fortuitous pairing of perhaps Mexico's most beloved, enduring, and influential writer with one of its most prolific and accomplished international scholars of social and cultural movements gives rise to an extraordinary collaboration. This engrossing volume will be required reading for anyone seriously interested in Mexican journalism and literature, history and history-making, and the formation of social memory.” -- Gilbert M. Joseph, coeditor of * The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics *
"Stephen enriches each chapter with extensive interviews with Poniatowska (whom she describes as a good friend) and the writer’s close associates. . . . Setting aside the skepticism characteristic of postmodern social science, Stephen wholeheartedly embraces Poniatowska’s engaged and immersive style of reporting and its contributions to building a 'strategic emotional political community' of social justice advocates who identify with the victims of Mexican history." -- Richard Feinberg * Foreign Affairs *
"Stephen illustrates Poniatowska’s unique position of being both a participant and an activist, a duality present in her
crónicas, which has placed her in a position of privilege, one she uses to critically inform her predominantly working-class readers. As an accomplished author and public intellectual,
la Poni’s firsthand accounts of important historical events in Mexican history fill a lacuna in which state-sponsored violence or government neglect were the official and inadequate responses. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals." -- C. A. Hernandez * Choice *
"
Stories That Make History will appeal to anthropologists, sociologists, historians of Latin America and, in terms of use in the classroom, it would work well with fourth year undergraduate students and graduate students more broadly." -- María L. O. Muñoz * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. On Testimony, Social Memory, and Strategic Emotional Political Communities in Elena Poniatowska's Crónicas 1
1. Mexico City's Growing Critical Public: News and Publishing, 1959–1985 31
2. The 1968 Student Movement and Massacre 60
3. A History We Cannot Forget: The 1985 Earthquake, Civil Society, and a New Political Future 110
4. Engaging with the EZLN as a Writer and Public Intellectual 151
5.
Amanecer en el Zócalo: Crónica, Diary, and Gendered Political Analysis 197
6.
¡Regrésenlos! The Forty-Three Disappeared Students from Ayotzinapa 228
Conclusion: Telling Stories, Making History 247
Notes 257
Bibliography 281
Index 303
