Interrupting the Effects of the Bureaucracy in Mexico and in Mexican Studies

Session Submission Type: LASA Section Presentation

Abstract

Bureaucracy seems at once invisible, a form without meaning in itself, and pervasive: it determines the university structure in which academics are trained and train others. Historical documents show that bureaucracy in Mexico has a form of its own, and language that continues to favor an elite power class, even when fostering such a class goes against purported governmental goals. Rebecca Janzen’s presentation examines the roots of bureaucratic rhetoric. Tamara Williams’ work proposes that the long poem as a genre could counter overwhelming Mexican bureaucracy and resulting dehumanization. Carolyn Fornoff’s work on film examines film that ridicules the typically uninspiring bureaucrat. Roberto Cruz Arzabal invites us to think about piracy as an academic practice that can avoid the bureaucracy entirely.

Sub Track

• Section Sessions

Session Organizer

• Rebecca Janzen, Bluffton University

Chair

• Emily A Hind, University of Florida

Individual Presentations

• Mennonites, Mormons and Ejidatarios Interrupt Bureaucratic Procedure in Chihuahua (1930-1985) - Rebecca Janzen, Bluffton University

• Poetry as Disruption in Contemporary Mexico: Julian Herbert’s Album Iscariote and Hugo García Manriquez’s Anti-Humboldt - Tamara R Williams, Pacific Lutheran University

• Poking Fun at Protocol: Bumbling Bureaucrats in Mexican Film - Carolyn Fornoff, University of Pennsylvania

• Piracy as Form: Disruptions of Bureaucratically Correct Mexican Studies - José Roberto Cruz Arzabal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México