SLL40810

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to
- display an in-depth knowledge of the Mexican Revolution;
- analyse and compare the images and texts produced about the Revolution from Mexico and the US;
- engage critically with the appropriate primary and secondary works;
- express and defend critical opinions through seminar discussions;
- produce a critical analysis, in an appropriate register and style.

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1
Introduction to the Mexican Revolution in History and Culture: historical events, cultural legacies, afterlives in Mexico and the US.

Week 2
The Mexican Revolution in photography and engraving: The Casasola Archive, Tina Modotti and José Guadalupe Posada.

Week 3
The Revolution on film e.g.: The Life of General Villa (1915) and Fernando de Fuentes’s Revolutionary Trilogy as well as Hollywood fare: Viva Zapata (1952) The Wild Bunch (1969)

Week 4
Revolutionary women as presented on film e.g.: La Cucaracha (1959), Enamorada (1946), La Generala (1970).

Week 5
Revolutionary art and nation building. The muralists: Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros.

Week 6
Literature of the Revolution 1: Los de abajo (The Underdogs) (1915) by Mariano Azuela.

Week 7
Literature of the Revolution 2: Insurgent Mexico (1914) by John Reed.

Week 9
Corridos (revolutionary ballads) and corrido culture on the Mexico-US border.

Week 10
The Mexican Revolution reimagined through Chicano art and activism.

Week 11
Memorialisation of the Revolution in Mexico and the US: monuments, statues and contemporary commemorative events.

Week 12
Wrap up: module discussion and assessment preparation.

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

This module will be taught via lectures and small group seminars. Students will be asked to read selected materials in advance of class in order to stimulate lively conversation. Attendance at all classes is essential.

AI usage: amber (you may use generative AI for this assignment for certain purposes only under the guidance of your module coordinator and within academic integrity guidelines).

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Literature

Primary sources:

Pellón, Gustavo, The underdogs: pictures and scenes from the present revolution: a
translation of Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo with related texts, Hackett Publishers, 2006.
Reed, John, Insurgent Mexico, Appleton and Company, 1914.
Criticism:
Altenberg, Tilmann, Imagining the Mexican Revolution: Versions and Visions in Literature
and Visual Culture. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013.
Bradley, Dermot, ‘The Thematic Import of Los de abajo’, Forum for Modern Language
Studies, 15, 1979, 14-25.
Tormos Bigles, Edgardo F., ‘La mula por la cámara: John Reed, Paul Leduc y el cuerpo
espectral en el tiempo revolucionario’, Chasqui, 50.1, 2021, pp. 205-224 (JSTOR).
Eyzaguirre, Luis B. El héroe en la novela hispanoamericana del siglo XX, Hispania 59.1:
1976.
Griffin, Clive, Azuela: Los de abajo, Critical Guides to Spanish Texts, Grant and Cutler
1993.
Larkin, Audrey, ‘The Mexican Revolution in Word and Image’, Chasqui, May 2023, 52. 1,
pp. 109-124.
Leal, Luis, Mariano Azuela, Twane’s World Authors Series, 1971.
Parra, Max, Writing Pancho Villa's revolution: rebels in the literary imagination of Mexico,
Univ. Texas Press, 2005.
Portal, Marta, Proceso narrativo de la Revolución Mexicana, Espasa Calpe, 1980.
Sommers, Joseph, After the Storm, Univ. New Mexico Pres, 1968.

History of the Revolution

Aguilar Camín, Héctor and Meyer, Lorenzo, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution, Univ.
Of Texas Press, 1993.
Benjamin, Thomas, La Revolución: Mexico’s Great Revolution as Memory, Myth and
History, Univ. Texas Press, 2000.
Carranza, Luis E, Architecture as revolution: episodes in the history of modern Mexico, Univ.
Texas Press, 2010.
Frazer, Chris, Bandit Nation: A History of Outlaws and Cultural Struggle in Mexico, 1810-
1920, Univ. Nebraska Press, 2006.
Gilly, Adolfo, The Mexican Revolution, New Press People’s History, 2005
Hamnett, Brian, A Concise History of Mexico, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999.
Holloway, John and Peláez Eloí na (eds.), Zapatista: Reinventing Revolution in Mexico, Pluto
Press, 1998.
Joseph, Gilbert. M. and Henderson, Timothy. J (eds.), The Mexico Reader: History, Culture,
Politics: ‘Zapatistas: documents of the new Mexican revolution.’ Duke, 2002.
Knight, Alan, The Mexican revolution. Volume 2, Cambridge Latin American Studies, 1986.
___________, ‘The myth of the Mexican Revolution’, Past & Present, no. 209, pp. 223-273,
2010.
Linhard, Tabea Alexa, Fearless Women in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil
War, Univ. Missouri Press, 2005.
Macias, Anna, Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940, Greenwood
Press, 1982 (online). See especially Chapter 2: ‘Women and the Mexican Revolution’, 1910-
1920 pp. 25-57.
McLynn, Frank, Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution, Jonathan Cape,
2000.
Olcott, Jocelyn, Vaughan, Mary Kay and Cano, Gabriela, Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics
and Power in Modern Mexico, Duke Univ. Press, 2006.
O'Malley, Ilene V, The myth of the revolution: hero cults and the institutionalization of the
Mexican state, 1920-1940, Greenwood, 1986.
Poniatowska, Elena, Las soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution, El Paso, Cinco
Puntos Press, 2006.
Resendez, Fuentes, Andres, ‘Battleground Women: Soldaderas and Female Soldiers in the
Mexican Revolution’, The Americas, 51.4: 1995 (JSTOR).
Rius, La Revolucioncita mexicana, Grijalbo, 2012 (uploaded to Brightspace)
Salas, Elizabeth, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History, Univ. Texas Press,
1990.
_______, ‘Soldaderas: New Questions, New Sources, Women's Studies Quarterly, 23.3/4,
Rethinking Women's Peace Studies, 1995, pp. 112-116 (JSTOR).
“The Role of Women in the Mexican Revolution.” Mexican Revolution. Available
at http://iscmexicanrevolution.weebly.com/index.html (accessed on 11/09/2024).
Womack, John, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, Vintage, 2008.

Film

Primary Sources:
de Fuentes, Fernando (dir.), The revolution trilogy [videorecording]: 3 films / by Fernando de
Fuentes: Vámonos con Pancho Villa (Motion picture) (1936), Prisoner 13 (1933), El
Compadre Mendoza (1934).
Fernández, Emilio (dir.), Flor silvestre (1943), Enamorada (1946), La cucaracha (1959)
Ibáñez, Juan (dir.) La generala, (1971).
Kazan, Elia, (dir.), Viva Zapata, (1951).
Leone, Sergio, (dir.) Duck, You Sucker! (1971).
Pekinpah, Sam (dir.), The Wild Bunch (1969).
Rodriguez, Roberto, (dir.), La bandida, (1962).
Zacarias, Miguel (dir.), Juana Gallo (1961).

Film Criticism:

Avila, Jaqueline, Cinesonidos: Film Music and National Identity During Mexico's Época de
Oro, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2019 (online).
Berg, Charles Ramirez, Latino images in film: Stereotypes, Subversion, Resistance, Univ.
Texas Press, 2002.
--------, The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Films,
Univ. Texas Press, 2015.
Frayling, Christopher, Sergio Leone: Something to do with Death, Faber, 2000.
---------, Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone, Harry Abrams, 2005.
Hershfield, Joanne, ‘Screening the Nation’ in Vaughan, Mary Kay and Lewis, Stephen E.
(eds.), The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940,
Duke Univ. Press, 2006, pp.259-278.
Keller Cardenas, Gary, Good Bandits, Warrior Women and Revolutionaries in Hispanic
Culture, Bilingual Review Press, 2010.
King, John, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America, Verso, 2000.
Landy, Marcia, "Which Way Is America?": Americanism and the Italian Western Author(s),
boundary 2, 1996, 23.1, pp. 35-59.
Pick, Zuzana M, Constructing the image of the Mexican Revolution: Cinema and the
Archive, Univ. Texas Press, 2010, 1st ed.
Roddick, Chloe in BFI (online), ‘Deep Focus: The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema’, Sight
and Sound Magazine, July 2019. Available at: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-
sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/deep-focus-golden-age-mexican-cinema. Downloaded
07/09/24.
Swanson, Philip, ‘Remember the Alamo? Mexicans, Texans and Americans in 1960s
Hollywood’, Iberoamericana, 11.24, pp. 85-100, 2011.
Tierney, Dolores, Emilio Fernandez: Pictures in the Margins, Manchester University Press,
2007.
Toxqui, Áurea, ‘“That Mariachi Band and That Tequila”: Modernity, Identity, and Cultural
Politics in Alcohol Songs of the Mexican Golden Age Cinema’ in Matthews, Michael
and Neufeld, Stephen (eds.), Mexico in verse: a history of music, rhyme, and power, Arizona,
University Press, 2015 (online).

Muralism

Alvarez, Beatriz, ́Learn About the Mexican Muralism Movement ́, 2023,
https://www.pbs.org/articles/learn-about-the-mexican-muralism-movement, downloaded 08-
09-24.
Azuela, Alicia, Kattau, Colleen and Craven, David, ‘Public Art, Meyer Schapiro and
Mexican Muralism’, Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1994, pp. 55-59 (JSTOR).
Folgarait, Leonard, Revolution as Ritual: Diego Rivera's National Palace Mural, Oxford Art
Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1991), pp. 18-33 (JSTOR).
Hennessy, Alistair, ‘Artists, Intellectuals and Revolution: Recent Books on Mexico’, Journal
of Latin American Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1971, pp. 71-88. (JSTOR)
Indych-López, Anna, ‘Mural Gambits: Mexican Muralism in the United States and the
"Portable" Fresco’, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 89, No. 2, 2007, pp. 287-305 (JSTOR)
Souter, Gary, Diego Rivera: Su arte y sus pasiones, Parkstone, 2018.
Newman Helms, Cynthia and Banks Downs, Linda, Diego Rivera: A retrospective, Norton
and Company, 1998.
Rivera, Diego, My art, my life: An autobiography, Dover Publications, 1992.
Rochfort, Desmond, Mexican muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros, Lawrence King, 1997.
--------, The murals of Diego Rivera, Journeyman, 1987.
--------, ‘The Sickle, the Serpent and the Soil: History, Revolution, Nationhood, and
Modernity in the Murals of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro
Siqueiros’ in Vaughan, Mary Kay and Lewis, Stephen E. (eds.), The Eagle and the Virgin:
Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940, Duke Univ. Press, 2006, pp.43-57.
Romero, Héctor Manuel, El México de Diego Rivera: crónicas capitalinas, Panorama
Editorial, 1992.
Siqueiros, David Alfaro, ‘Art and Corruption’ in The Mexico Reader (Gilbert. M. Joseph and
Timothy J. Henderson, eds.) pp., 492-499.
Waddell Bailey, Joyce, ‘Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949): Formative Years in the
Narrative Graphic Tradition’, Latin American Research Review , Vol. 15, No. 3, 1980, pp.73-
93 (JSTOR).

The Revolution in Printmaking and Photography

Ades, Dawn, McClean, Alison, Campbell, Laura and McDonald, Mark (ed.), Revolution on
Paper: Mexican Prints, British Museum Press, 2009.
Cardoso y Aragón, Luis, ́Las calaveras de José Guadalupe Posada ́, Artes de México, No. 67,
Dí a De Muertos: Risa Y Calavera: Segunda edición (2011), pp. 36-41 (6 pages) (JSTOR).
Congden, Kristin, ́Making Merry with Death: Iconic Humour in Mexico’s Day of the Dead,’,
Of Corpse: Death and Humor in Folklore and Popular Culture, 2003, pp. 198-220 (JSTOR).
Folgarait, Leonard, Seeing Mexico Photographed: The Work of Horne, Casasola, Modotti,
and Álvarez Bravo, Yale Univ. Press, 2008.
Katz, Friedrich, The Face of Pancho Villa: A History in Photographs and Words, Cinco
Puntos Press, 2007.
Lear, John, Picturing the Proletariat: Artists and Labour in Revolutionary Mexico: 1910-
1940, University of Texas Press, 2017.
Legrás, Horacio, ‘Seeing Women Photographed in Revolutionary Mexico’, Discourse, Vol.
38, No. 1 (Winter 2016), pp. 3-21 (JSTOR).
Mraz, John, ‘Photographers of the Mexican Revolution: The Myth of the Casasolas’,
Literature and Arts of the Americas, Issue 80, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2010. (JSTOR).
--------------, Photographing the Mexican Revolution: commitments, testimonies, icons,
University of Texas Press, 2012.
Noble, Andrea, Tina Modotti: Image, Texture, Photography, Univ. New Mexico Press, 2000.
___________, ‘Photography, Memory, Disavowal: The Casasola Archive’ in Images of
Power: Iconography, Culture and the State in Latin America (eds. Andermann, Jens and
Rowe, William), Berghahn, 2004.
___________, Photography and Memory in Mexico: Icons of Revolution, Univ. Manchester
Press, 2010.
___________, ‘Zapatistas en Sanborns (1914): Women at the Bar’, History of
Photography Volume 22, 1998 - Issue 4. (JSTOR).
Purdy, Bria, ‘Tina Modotti, The Eye of the Revolution’, At the Museum, Speciwoman
(Undated).
Stavans, Ilan, ‘José Guadalupe Posada, Lampooner’, The Journal of Decorative and
Propaganda Arts, 1990, Vol. 16 (Summer, 1990), pp. 54-71 (JSTOR).
Tejeda, Roberto, ‘Tenures of Land and Light: Casasola, Revolution, and Archive’ in
National Camera: Photography and Mexico’s Image Environment, Univ. Minnesota Press,
2009 (online).
Tibol, Raquel, and Franzen, Cola, ‘The Casasola Archive, Pedro Meyer, And Argentinian
Photographers in The Río De Luz Collection’ Aperture, Fall 1998, No. 153, pp. 12-25
(JSTOR).

Chicano art, history and culture and the Revolution

_______________, Erickson, Pat, Villeneuve, Pat, Chicano Art for Our Millenium, Bilingual
Press, 2004
‘¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now.’ 2021,
available at: https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/chicano-graphics, downloaded, 08/09/25.
Carlos A. Corté s, ‘Meet the Artists of ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of
Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now’.
https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/chicano-graphics/online/jose-guadalupe-posada.
Castro, Rafaela C., ‘La Adelita: Mexican Revolution Woman Soldier’, pp. 2-3, in Chicano
Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of Mexican
Americans, Oxford, Univ. Press, 2001(online).
Douglas, Susan, Icons within Chicano and Chicana Art, 2016
https://modernlatinamericanart.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/icons-within-chicano-and-
chicana-art/, Downloaded 08-09-24.
Flores, John, The Mexican Revolution in Chicago: Immigration Politics from the Early
Twentieth Century to the Cold War, Univ. Illinois Press, 2018.
Francisco Jackson, Carlos, Chicano and Chicana Art: ProtestArte, University of Arizona
Press, 2009.
Keller Cardenas, Gary, Triumph of our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American
Art, Bilingual Press, 2005.
Turello, Dan, The Mexican Revolution and its Lasting Legacy on American Art and Culture,
Library of Congress Blogs, 2020. Available at: https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2020/11/the-
mexican-revolution-and-its-lasting-legacy-on-american-art-and-culture/, downloaded,
07/09/24.
Zapata, Claudia, ‘From Recycling to Revolution: Alternative Media in Chicanx Protest Art;
2021, Smithsonian (online), Available at: https://americanart.si.edu/blog/recycling-
revolution-alternative-media-chicanx-protest-art, downloaded, 07/09/24.

Corridos and the Revolution

Arrizón, Alicia, "Soldaderas" and the Staging of the Mexican Revolution”, The Drama
Review (1988-), 42.1,1998), pp. 90-112 (JSTOR).
Flores, Richard, R, ‘The Corrido and the Emergence of Texas-Mexican Social Identity’, The
Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 105, No. 416 (Spring, 1992), pp. 166-182 (JSTOR).
González, Anna Marco, ‘La novela de la Revolución Mexicana y el cancionero popular:
confluencias’, Anales de la Literatura Hispanoamericana, 48, 2019 (online on OneSearch).
González, Aurelio, ‘Caracterización de los héroes en los corridos mexicanos’, Caravelle,
Héros et Nation en Amérique Latine,1999, pp. 83-97 (JSTOR).
Héau, Catherine, ‘The Musical Expression of Social Justice: Mexican Corridos at the End of
the Nineteenth Century’ in Struggles for Social Rights In Latin America, Routledge, 2003
(online).
Herrera Sobek, Maria, The Mexican Corrido: A feminist analysis, Indiana Univ. Press, 1990.
Inez, Cardoso Freeman, ‘Jose Ines Chavez Garcia: Hero or Villain of The Mexican
Revolution?’, Bilingual Review / La Revista Bilingüe, 18.1, 1993, pp. 3-13 (JSTOR).
Lamadrid, Enrique R., ‘"El Corrido de Tomóchic": Honor, Grace, Gender, and Power in the
First Ballad of the Mexican Revolution’, Journal of the Southwest, 41.4, 1999. pp. 441-460.
(JSTOR).
Parra, Max, ‘Pancho Villa y el corrido de la revolución’, Caravelle (1988-),88, ‘Chanter le
bandit. Ballades et complaintes d'Amé rique latine’, 2007, pp. 139-149. (JSTOR).
Stock, Jennifer, ‘“La Adelita” Becomes an Archetype of the Mexican Revolution’, in Global
Events: Milestone Events Throughout History, (Vol. 3: Central and South America.), 2014
(online on OneSearch).
Wood, Andrew, J, ‘With guitars in their hands and revolution in their hearts: Corridos of the
Mexican revolution’, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, 4.1. 1998. (JSTOR).

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