The Two Voices of Porfirio Díaz: State, Audible Fictions, and a Letter to Edison (Mexico-United States, 1907-1910).

During the last years of the Porfirian government, two recordings circulated with the alleged voice of President Díaz. In a record included in a 1907 Columbia Phonograph Company catalogue, the orders of the leader were captured during the battle fought on April 2, 1867 in Puebla, between the french troops and the Juarista army. In reality, it was a performance recorded in a phonograph and bicycle workshop by a group of popular actors and musicians. At the same time, a cylinder produced by the Edison Company in 1909 contained a letter from Díaz addressed to Thomas Alva Edison. Through these phonograms and other sonic, visual, and handwritten sources, I demonstrate the relevance of recorded sound for studying the diplomatic and commercial relations between the US government and the Mexican State, as well as some of the strategies of subaltern sectors to participate in daily battles for the memory of the nation. Don Porfirio's voices reveal a privileged field of social tensions, between truth and fiction, which allows the political and popular history of Mexico to be rewritten from other methodological possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]