Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora

by Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández

In Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández challenges machismo—a shorthand for racialized and heteronormative Latinx men's misogyny—with nuanced portraits of Mexican men and masculinities along and across the US-Mexico border. Guidotti-Hernández foregrounds Mexican men's emotional vulnerabilities and intimacies in their diasporic communities. Highlighting how Enrique Flores Magón, an anarchist political leader and journalist, upended gender norms through sentimentality and emotional vulnerability that he both performed publicly and also expressed privately, Guidotti-Hernández documents compelling continuities between his expressions and those of men enrolled in the Bracero program. Braceros—more than 4.5 million Mexican men who travelled to the United States to work in temporary agricultural jobs from 1942 to 1964—forged domesticity and intimacy, sharing affection but also physical violence. Through these case studies that reexamine the diasporic male private sphere, Guidotti-Hernández formulates a theory of transnational Mexican masculinities rooted in emotional and physical intimacy that emerged from the experiences of being racial, political, and social outsiders in the United States.

352 pages, Hardcover

Published June 23, 2021

Reviews

[Kandace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating study that brings together two disparate archives and provides a compelling and richer analysis of Mexican masculinity. I was most intrigued by Guidotti-Hernández's readings of the photographs of braceros against the ways they have typically been read to uphold nationalistic expectations of suffering and migration. An important study and I'm glad it was written and published.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book: its two sections provide interesting, unique, provocative looks at how gender roles played out (were queered?) in diasporic communities of Mexicans in the US, the Magonistas (Enrique Flores M, in particular) and the Braceros. I LOVE THIS BOOK WITH THE FOLLOW REZYS

Minor quibbles: there are always risks when a non-specialist attempts Mexican history. In this case, there are some errors, including clunky factual errors and an at times emergent uncertainty or vagueness regarding Mexican history, eliding the weakness with brusque statements.
EG: Writes that Porfirio Díaz's term in office ended in 1907! It's funny when non-specialists do Mexican history! Looking at you, UC and Duke presses. There's an important image given two dates.

This whole transnational turn where the question, hey IMA DO MEX HIST what book can I read in English about the Mexican Revolution? (This author states there were three revs. I have heard any number up to five different revolutions) posed to former grad school cohort. No, you cannot go wrong picking up HART, MACLACHLAN, et al. But not to use them as copyediting factchecking encyclopedias. What's worse is that it is increasingly harder to take such books seriously. All these American Studies and Mexic@nx and English profs tilting their lances at molinos de aire! Like settler colonialism and consumer cosmetics! lol. Just because you are Mexican American, does not imbue you with Mexican history! (Not referring to this fantastic empathetic and sensitive author, who herself makes some compelling observations about the treatment of ethnic Mexicans in the US by Mexican Americans in her conclusion). This lucid interpretation of REALITY can be experienced anywhere anytime in the US southwest.

And the continuing classic MISUNDERSTANDING AND OUTRIGHT IGNORANCE OF POLITICAL HISTORY OF MEXICO when the author states that Carranza and Madero (weirdly out of order of succession) belonged to the PRI! BOTH WERE LONG DEAD BEFORE EVEN THE PREDECESSOR PARTIES TO THE PRI WERE FORMED BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! JUANABEE historians of Mexico: WIKIPEDIA

Then, the queering. Is two men possibly drunk stabbing really possibly a demonstration of affection? HA! Is a single stabbing some Freudian penetration? Yes. But then so is opening a can of peaches. come on. And subjectifying looks, poses, hand placement, are stretched as is the ability to determine someone's racial heritage (one, a brown skinned Mexican, another, a light skinned mestizo, ETC from old b/w photos!!!!). I mean THAT IS DRAWING SOME MAJOR INFERENCES FROM A PICTURE! Anyway, I think that they're the same, that is MEXICANO. I enjoyed reading it, not TOO groan-inducing, but man the jargon. It is weighty, intrusive, and mind boggling.

This is a great scholar, with interesting angles of analysis, but man! Take a night course!

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting look at constructs of mexican masculinity in America. I am still somewhat skeptical of some of the research and reasoning of the author as they seem to have a connection to the topic (specifically the Bracero program) that tends to bleed into her analysis and it didn’t seem to go as far as i think it could’ve. I have a methodological quibble with this work as at one point she literally cites a conversation she had with her grandfather (i checked a footnote with an online obituary to make sure) which while not damning does make me question how reliable she is and her ability to approach the topic completely historically. Interesting but when we discussed the latter half of the book in class it seemed lacking