Object Details
- graphic artist
- Crane, Alan
- Description
- This scene of the Toluca market was depicted by Alan Crane in 1946. Housed in the Graphic Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History, it is one of a series of lithographs of Mexican landscapes and genre scenes he printed during the 1940s. The growth of the tourist industry, rebounding after WWII, created a market for images of an idyllic Mexico—peaceful, scenic, and premodern. The elements of everyday life shown here—the densely packed stands of the ceramics vendors, the pulquería (a cantina that serves pulque, the fermented juice of the maguey plant), and the traditional dress of the marketeers—were as foreign to the urbanized Mexican American youth in Los Angeles, El Paso, and San Antonio as they were to American tourists seeking a memento of "Old Mexico." The generations of youths who grew up in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were fundamental in negotiating the language, aesthetics, and political vision that would constitute the contemporary culture of Mexican Americans. These young men and women, many of whom were war veterans as well as industrial and agricultural workers, created empowering images of Mexican Americans as they defined new roles for themselves as activists during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
- Description (Spanish)
- Esta escena del mercado de Toluca es una estampa de Alan Crane pintada en 1946. Pertenece a la Colección de Artes Gráficas del Museo Nacional de Historia Americana, parte de una serie de litografías que grabó durante la década de 1940 en las que representa paisajes de México y escenas de género. El crecimiento de la industria turística, en recuperación después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, abrió un mercado para las imágenes del México idílico—pacífico, escénico y premoderno. Los elementos de la vida diaria que aquí se observan—como los puestos atiborrados de cerámicas de los vendedores, la pulquería (cantina que sirve pulque, jugo fermentado de la planta de maguey) y la vestimenta tradicional de los mercaderes—eran tan ajenos para los jóvenes urbanos mexicoamericanos de Los Ángeles, El Paso y San Antonio, como lo eran para los turistas americanos que buscaban un recuerdo del "Viejo México". Las generaciones de jóvenes que crecieron durante las décadas de 1930, 1940 y 1950 fueron esenciales en la negociación del lenguaje, la estética y la visión política que constituiría la cultura contemporánea de los mexicoamericanos. Estos jóvenes, muchos de los cuales eran veteranos de guerra y trabajadores fabriles y agrícolas, crearon imágenes que fortalecieron a los mexiconamericanos en la definición de su nuevo rol de activistas durante las luchas por los derechos civiles de las décadas de 1950, 1960 y 1970.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Mrs. Alan H. Crane
- 1946
- ID Number
- GA.23825
- catalog number
- GA.23825
- accession number
- 306563
- Object Name
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Other Terms
- print; Planographic; Lithograph
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- ink (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 24.6 cm x 34.8 cm; 9 11/16 in x 13 11/16 in
- place made
- United States: New York, New York
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
- Cultures & Communities
- Mexican America
- Art
- Title (Spanish)
- Mercado de Toluca
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Latino
- Tourist trade
- Record ID
- nmah_785425
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-be9d-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
