National Narratives in Mexico: A History

If history is written by the victors, then as the rulers of a nation change, so too does the history. Mexico has had many distinct periods of history, demonstrating clearly that the tale changes with the writer. In National Narratives in Mexico, Enrique Florescano examines each historical vision of Mexico as it was interpreted in its own time, revealing the influences of national or ethnic identity, culture, and evolving concepts of history and national memory. Florescano shows how the image of Mexico today is deeply rooted in ideas of past Mexicos-ancient Mexico, colonial Mexico, revolutionary Mexico-and how these ideas can be more fully understood by examining Mexico's past historians. An awareness of the historian's cultural perspective helps us to understand which types of evidence would be considered valid in constructing a national narrative. These considerations are important in modern Mexican historiography, as historians begin to question the validity of Mexico's "collective memory." Enhanced by more than two hundred drawings, photographs, and maps, National Narratives in Mexico offers a new vision of Mexico's turbulent history. Nancy Hancock has recently completed the translation of eight bilingual books written or edited by her husband on the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Raúl Velázquez, a gifted and versatile artist, has dedicated several years to drawing and reproducing a wide variety of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican artwork. Enrique Florescano, a preeminent Mexican scholar, has written more than a dozen books on Mexico and is the editor of two book series on Mexican culture and history. His works previously translated into English include Memory, Myth, and Time in Mexico and The Myth of Quetzalcoatl.