Celluloid Diplomacy between Mexico and the United States: The Mass Media, Paranoia and Image-mongering (1896-1946)

In this article, Francisco Peredo Castro looks at a specific aspect of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, namely how Mexico (and Latin America) have been depicted in American-made films, Mexico’s diplomatic response and how we have taken the initiative, more so than other nations on the continent, to address this phenomenon. At certain moments in the past, during World War II for instance, Mexico was clearly unable to achieve a balance in its diplomatic relations and this was reflected in the films of the time, which “sacrificed” the image of our allies (mainly France) in the interests of the United States, the ally that had proven to be most hostile to Mexico, not just economically or in terms of territorial expansion, but in the way its movie industry had portrayed Mexico internationally since the days of silent films right up to the advent of talking films. Some countries involved in the war even went so far as to express their concern via diplomatic communiqués addressed to the Mexican government and Foreign Office over the distribution and screening in Mexico of films that portrayed them in a negative light and that could be construed as propaganda. Drawing on an extensive collection of film and other cultural records, such as literature, diplomatic and journalistic documents (which are quoted extensively for the benefit of the reader), the author aims to illustrate how historic and audiovisual archives necessarily complement one another. His findings reveal a seemingly intangible diplomacy —that of journalistic and audiovisual messages— that often had a greater impact than official diplomacy, which, while plagued with tokenisms, formalities and political correctness on paper, had more in common with the ambiguous, contradictory or blatantly aggressive cultural discourse of the media when we read between the lines.