7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

1/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how

Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to redefine

democracy in Mexico.

Juan Carlos Snchez Sierra, PhD

Posdoctoral Research Fellow, UNAM-CEIICH

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

2/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

The Realm of this research

History of contemporary opposition journalism based on the discourses it

promoted

A snapshot of the Mexican cultural field in the 1960s

Measure the pulse of left-leaning discourses expressed in both political and

cultural journalism

Research Question. What was the reaction of leftist political and cultural

journalists to the publication and aftermath of Lewis LHS in Mexico?

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

3/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

Hypothesis

Academics, journalist and intellectuals in Mexico used his

core findings cast inLos Hijos de Sanchezas a platform toconfront an authoritarian political regime in order to claim a

democratic transformation

1960s cultural and left-leaning journalism served as anembryonic alternative public sphere that used Oscar Lewis

research as a standpoint for setting a political agenda

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

4/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

Empirical material

Poltica (1960-1967)

La Cultura en Mxico (1963-1966c)

Methodological Approach:

Critical Discourse Theory (CDA) (Cfr. Fairclough; van Dijk)

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

5/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

The context of discourse production

Crisis of the revolutionarypublic sphere

The hegemony of la gran prensaproduction of narratives on revolution lost appeal

in the public

Political and cultural journalism (not excluding categories) grasped an opportunity to

denounce the 1917 achievements of revolution as out of track.

In the 1960s cultural and left leaning journalism served as an embryonic public

sphere

Journalists and intellectuals used OscarLewis research as a standpoint for setting a

political agenda

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

6/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

Poltica (1960-1967)

(Dir, Manuel Marcu)

Political orientation. Editorial Line.

Contributors

Attempt to call for a

renovation of the meaningof revolution.

Prosecuted by government

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

7/22

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

8/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

La Cultura en Mxico

(1963-1966c )

Dir. Fernando BenitezJos

Pages Lergo.

Contributors:

Arts, Literature, essay,

debates, cinema.

All portrayed with a political

light.

Political eclecticism

Revisionism in the left

Radical stances, but expressed

in a warm intellectualist

position

(La maffia et al, its heyday)

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

9/22

La Maffia in the 1960s

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

10/22

La Maffia in the1960s

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

11/22

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

12/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

Poltica

Poverty was not anew topic for theeditorial board

Among others, N.Bassols wrote an

analysis on povertyand its roots. April1961

Cinema andcensorship. Oct1962, regarding the

royalties andcopyrights for thefilm on Lewis book.Starred by SofiaLauren and directedby Vittorio di Sicca.

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

13/22

Debate on poverty andcensorship of FCEpublishing house wastriggered. Feb 1965.

The government decideto interfere in FCEsAutonomy, and withsome signals ofxenophobia and theusual repressiveattitude removedArnaldo Orfila Reynalfrom the editorial

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

14/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis

ethnography helped to redefine democracy in Mexico.

Lewisetnography isdiscussed as a form offoreign intrusion,presenting a falseimage of the country

The book was a excusefor governmentsdenial on the issue.

Poltica started toquestion legitimacy ofpolitical institutions forfailing to the majorityof Mexican population.

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

15/22

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

16/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

E. Poniatowska Interview.

Attempt to portrayLewis work as a piece ofart, a novel, a piece ofMexican neorealism

Her interest on sexualtopics, pushed Lewis toclarify that the topic isnot relevant, and itcannot be seen asnatural by themorbosa interpretationmade by its readers.

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

17/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

La Cultura en Mxico

The book was regarded as aliterary curiosity

Aspects of language,popular distress, and

imagery of poverty wereexploited in a artistic vein.

Intellectuals found theproblem of poverty as agood mechanism tonegotiate with thegovernment the future of

intellectual influence,without endangering itsrhetoric beyond usual limitshistorically tolerated.

Silva Herzog wrote anassessment on the issue; itwas a rather official

opinion for the epoch

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

18/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar

Lewis ethnography helped to redefine democracy in Mexico.

Further essays highlight the relationbetween misery, the perpetuation ofits cycle, and how exclusion becameinstitutionalized

Several issues tackled the problem,but suggestions for solutions wereabsent

The culture of poverty became aconceptual tool to explain the culturalissues in Mexico. Predominant topicuntil 1966, when a final balance ofALM government was made. (In the

light of GDO displays of force at publicuniversities and against intellectuals)

The final balance, No 138, was rathermild to the president leaving, and didnot established a position of theintellectuals to sustain in face of the

new appointed successor. (GDO)

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

19/22

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

20/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

For discussion

The publication o LHS became a good justification for leftist journalists,to bring into the spotlight unconformities in their relation to politicalinstitutions (PRI-crowded)

It give us a glance of how in the 1960s the emergence of an alternativepublic sphere happened

Helps to distinguish the return/rediscovery of intellectuals to a topicthat bolstered the voices against the regime

Established a clean-cut distinction between the nationalist discourse,and more cosmopolitan perspectives on how to rule culture inMexico

Editorial field expanded to new alternatives to FCE (JM / Siglo XXI) thatopened up political debates with a variety of new scopes of analysis

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

21/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

For Discussion Two different approaches to the problem.

Cultural / Political = fragmentation of opposition

Both created a sense of communion gathering strength to resist governmentrepression, but formally there was not convergence

Despite that common goal, both versions exclude each other regarding what typeof contention should be necessary (Struggle Vs Negotiation)

The fractures that emerged in this period accelerated the division of left leaningjournalism between

nationalists / cosmopolitanisms.

This divide shaped intellectual sectors in the years that brought about theemergence of the student movement.

A claim for democracy, but based on a different notion of what type of alternativepublic sphere should be fostered.

7/28/2019 Lewis. in the Making of an Alternative Public Sphere

22/22

In the making of an alternative public sphere, or how Oscar Lewis ethnography helped to

redefine democracy in Mexico.

Provisional Conclusions

Despite the chasm that divided both styles of journalism, they contributed to buildan alternative public sphere, suspicious of the hegemonic voice of the granprensa.

The booming years of such discussions on the direction of the nation and the lostpath of a revolutionary ideal prepared Mexican youth and the growingreadership- for a new relation to the government

Even though cultural and political journalism perpetuated paternalist andcondescendence as natural approaches to the underclass in Mxico, opposition

journalism established a ground for a critical examination of government, politicalculture.

The form how la maffia referred to people in poverty and the form how culturebecame a status marker and discourse to exclude a wide range of social sectors isa subject matter that requires further research.