Latin American Popular Culture since Independence: An Introduction, Second Edition

This unique reader offers an engaging collection of essays that highlight the diversity of Latin America's cultural expressions from independence to the present. Exploring such themes and events as funerals, dance and music, letters and literature, spectacles and monuments, and world's fairs and food, a group of leading historians examines the ways that a wide range of individuals with a variety of motives attempted to forge identity, turn the world upside down, mock their betters, forget their troubles through dance, express love in letters, and altogether enjoy life. Drawing on a rich array of case studies, this text introduces the complexity of motives behind and the diversity of expression of popular culture in Latin America.

William H. Beezley received the Ohtli medal from the Mexican government in 2017 in recognition of his contributions to the nation's history and culture. He teaches at the University of Arizona, USA and is the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Latin America. He is the author of Judas at the Jockey Club, Mexican National Identity: Memories, Innuendos, and Popular Culture, and such fundamental anthologies as A Handbook of Mexican History and Culture and The Oxford History of Mexico He has authored or edited over twenty-five additional books, including Mexico--the Essentials, Oxford History of Mexico. Mexicans in Revolution, Latin American Popular Culture: An Introduction, and the volumes of The Human Tradition in Latin America. His books have been translated into Spanish and Mandarin.