Popular Mexican Masculinity and American Culture in the 1920s: Migrants and Fifis

This essay examines the discourse around Mexican masculinity in the 1920s by looking at the figures of the repatriated migrant and the urban dandy of the period, the fifi. Using evidence from print culture, popular literature, and other sources, it explains how these masculine figures provoked anxieties about sexuality, work, and public space, as well as concerns about how to integrate American mass culture into revolutionary Mexican society. Though many observers saw repatriated migrants and fifis as potentially destructive to Mexico's body politic, others crafted cultural narratives that described how to integrate men's encounters with American culture into modern Mexican masculinity. Keywords: masculinity; gender; Mexico; 1920s; migrants Este ensayo examina el discurso sobre la masculinidad mexicana en la decada de 1920 a partir de las figuras del migrante repatriado y el galan urbano de la epoca, el fifi. Utilizando evidencia derivado de periodicos y revistas, la literatura popular y otras fuentes, explico como estas figuras masculinas provocaron ansiedades en torno a la sexualidad, el trabajo, el espacio publico asi como preocupaciones sobre como integrar la cultura popular de los estados unidos a la sociedad mexicana revolucionaria. Aunque muchos observadores vieron a los migrantes repatriados y los fifis como potencialmente destructivos para el cuerpo politico de Mexico, otros elaboraron narrativas culturales que describieron como integrar los encuentros de los hombres con la cultura de los estados unidos a la masculinidad mexicana moderna. Palabras clave: masculinidad; genero; Mexico; decada de 1920; migrantes
In July 1924, Mexico City's major newspapers reported that male students from the National Medical School and the National Preparatory School had attacked several 'pelonas'--Mexico's version of the flapper--dousing them [...]