Jennifer Jolly is an associate professor of art history at Ithaca College. Her essays on David Alfaro Siqueiros and Josep Renau have been published in edited volumes and the Oxford Art Journal.
[Jolly's] thorough study on the Mexican town of Pátzcuaro reveals
just how constructed geographic identities are through an attention
to the players and politics involved in promotional
projects...Jolly’s study reminds us that when we visit a charming
colonial town or a rustic Indigenous village market, we enter
spaces that have been extensively edited, that are anything but
natural or neutral...While Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico
provides a compelling way of understanding modern Mexico, its
approach is of value for implementation elsewhere in Latin America
and beyond...While complex and nuanced in its articulation, this
book reminds us of something quite simple: that images and spaces
in the service of statecraft wield incredible power, but this power
remains open to negotiation and contestation.
*Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture*
Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico is a much welcomed addition to
Mexican regional history…[Jolly] brings to light how the periphery
informed nation-state building.
*The Public Historian*
Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico makes important contributions
to our understanding of 1930s Mexico, tourism development, art
history, and the role of cultural policy in nation building. The
book is essential for scholars interested in these fields and
accessible for graduate and advanced undergraduate students.
*Hispanic American Historical Review*
A fascinating journey into art and tourism in Pátzcuaro...a welcome
contribution to our understanding of regional art institutions and
monuments, the interdisciplinary study of Mexican nation- and
region-formation during the 1930s, and most importantly, the
emergence of domestic tourism in postrevolutionary Mexico.
*The Americas*
Jolly's acute book is successful in giving us a comprehensive view
of the mechanisms by which the image of Pátzcuaro was created
through a process of power engineering...Creating Pátzcuaro,
Creating Mexico demonstrates how history, art, and tourism can be
combined and serve as a technology of governance.
*caa.reviews*
Through her consideration of visual culture, Jolly links the
regional to the national (and the national to the regional), and
thus effectively illuminates the ways in which the molding of
Pátzcuaro's local identity contributed to Mexico's nation building
overall. Jolly offers a significant study, but her colorful
discussion of Pátzcuaro's art, murals, architecture, and streets
ensure a lively read as well.
*American Historical Review*
As a compelling account of the creation of a particular historical
and cultural narrative for Pátzcuaro in the context of building a
national Mexican identity, Jolly's book constitutes both an
excellent scholarly contribution and a fascinating and insightful
story well worth reading.
*Monthly Review*
[A] magisterial study of cultural patronage and the construction of
regional identity in Pátzcuaro...one of the most interesting new
books on the history of modern Mexican art to appear in the past
several years...It will long stand as the definitive account of
this particular time and place...Jolly’s book sets a high bar for
future scholars who seek to excavate the histories of these and
other sites, where regional differences remain resilient,
notwithstanding the forces of industrialisation and
globalisation.
*Bulletin of Latin American Research*
Jolly’s study makes a useful contribution to research on and
understanding of postrevolutionary nation-building and tourism in
terms of the immense ideological power of public art, memorials,
monuments and statues in Mexico.
*Journal of Latin American Geography*
[A] wonderful book…Richly illustrated...Jolly skillfully highlights
the connections between the regional and the national…[and]
skillfully interrogates elite ideas about Indians and race as
Pátzcuaro’s indigenous past and present were propped up as tourist
attractions.
*Latin American Research Review*
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