Oaxaca at the Crossroads: Managing Memory, Negotiating Change [Hardcover]

Holo S (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2004

The role of museums in creating national and local cultural and political identities.

This detailed examination focuses on the artists and museums of Oaxaca, Mexico: a city and province celebrated worldwide by tourists, collectors, and art historians for its polished black pottery, colorful carvings of animals, fine textiles, world class museums and galleries, archaeology, and famous contemporary artists. Selma Holo looks in particular at how individuals and groups at national, regional, and local levels use museums to advance a particular view of history and identity. She clearly explains the way Mexico's pre-Columbian past has been represented, who has contested it, who holds the rights to Oaxaca's archaeological treasures, who has the authority to narrate the country's cultural history, who creates new museums and new mythologies about national and local identity, and many other intriguing subjects. 30 b/w illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Selma Holo is director of the University of California's Graduate Museum Studies Program and director of the Fisher Gallery. Author of Beyond the Prado: Museums and Identity in Democratic Spain, she lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian (December 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588341879
• ISBN-13: 978-1588341877
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,310,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oaxaca at the Crossroads, January 12, 2005

By 

Paul (Ottawa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oaxaca at the Crossroads: Managing Memory, Negotiating Change (Hardcover)

Selma Holo's Oaxaca at the Crossroads is of special interest to art specialists, but it can also be of interest to amateurs like me who enjoy local museums and appreciate their social importance.

Holo's previous book - Beyond the Prado - showed how the government of Spain granted autonomy to local museums as part of a campaign to convince the regions that they could maintain their cultures within Spain. In Mexico, the regions are more revolutionary than separatist. The government of Mexico grants local museums autonomy in an effort to maintain social peace.

Oaxaca at the Crossroads is not just about museums. It's also about the people of Oaxaca - the artists and the artisans, the managers of the cultural institutions, and the other people whose lives are affected by the arts.

One of the most interesting chapters describes how artists participate in the Oaxacan tradition of service to the community. The most successful Oaxacan artists have used their money and influence to protect public places in the community; create museums, libraries, and other institutions; and provide opportunities for education, work, and enjoyment by the artists, artisans, and other citizens of Oaxaca.

One of the most moving chapters analyzes Monte Alban - an archaeological site with pyramids that has become an open air museum. The archaeologists, tourists, government officials, and local residents have interacted with each other and with the environment in ways that are often harmful. It's debatable whether the people of the region have really benefited by abandoning agriculture and moving to the site to sell Oaxaca-style objects that are often not made in Oaxaca or even in Mexico. There's no doubt that the increase in tourism on the site and the growing population in the vicinity have resulted in serious degradation of the site and its surroundings. Throughout this chapter, we understand and sympathize with the desires and the needs of the disparate groups in this conflict.

The Oaxaca region's rich cultural heritage is a magnet for art specialists. Oaxaca also entices the amateur with its many varied attractions. By no means a travel guidebook, Oaxaca at the Crossroads nevertheless provides a wealth of information for travelers - including armchair travelers - who are interested in regional art and local museums.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oaxaca Odyssey, July 26, 2005

By 

Linda Reuben (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oaxaca at the Crossroads: Managing Memory, Negotiating Change (Hardcover)

Selma Holo's Oaxaca at the Crossroads is a fascinating look at how the locals in Oaxaca shape their cultural institutions and vice versa. For anyone interested in the art, history and politics of museums in Mexico, this book is an auspicious place to begin the journey. Holo investigates not only how community museums function at the community level, but how they influence and shape policy making at the national level. While this book is not for the faint of heart, it does promise to reward both the academic and lay person.