Children of the Mexican Miracle: Childhood and Modernity in Mexico City, 1940--1968
Ford, Eileen Mary
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/84691
Description
Title
Children of the Mexican Miracle: Childhood and Modernity in Mexico City, 1940--1968
Author(s)
Ford, Eileen Mary
Issue Date
2008
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Cynthia Radding
Department of Study
History
Discipline
History
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
History, Latin American
Language
eng
Abstract
"During the era labeled the ""Mexican Miracle,"" the child population grew each decade, in sheer numbers and as a percentage of the total urban population. The city was affected by the increasingly large presence of children and the urban milieu informed the generation of children raised in the decades leading up to the important watershed moment of 1968. State education---through the kindergarten movement and its social outreach programs, new school construction campaigns, and the development of standardized obligatory textbooks---increased the presence and power of the Mexican state. Yet, the state was forced to share power with the church and with the influence of various domestic and foreign cultural productions for children. The church reached children through lay organizations and children's magazines as it adapted to the increasing presence of secular culture. Mass entertainment designed specifically for children, like Walt Disney films and Cri-Cri radio broadcasts, educated children and, in the process, expanded the definition of childhood to include more sectors of society. Finally, print media provided a forum to discuss the rights and needs of children in Mexican society. This discourse of childhood allowed room for dissent and for critiques of the Mexican state and, by extension, the ruling party."
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