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<p>My dissertation, <“>Transcending Borders: The Transnational Construction
of Mexicanness, 1920-1935,<”> examines the conflicting attitudes towards "Mexicanness"
or <italic>mexicanidad</italic> both in Mexico and the United States, an area that,
Jos<é> Lim<ó>n, conceptualizes as "Greater Mexico." Beginning with an
analysis of the Mexican postrevolutionary state's construction of nationalist culture,
I argue that the transnational invention of Mexicanness through the circulation of
the Aztec artifact reveals the possibilities for people of Mexican descent to reclaim
public space and cultural citizenship on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. I examine
the construction of Mexicanness through an analysis of the limitations of Mexican
post-revolutionary literary production in generating a clear vision of Mexican nationhood
as well as the possibilities for nation building offered by public spaces such as
the museum and the monument (an outdoor museum). Tracing the cultural manifestations
of Mexican nationhood as expressed by the state and by people of Mexican descent is
essential to understanding how the nation is practiced and thus intimately intertwined
with the practice of citizenship. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of the Aztec
artifact's various incarnations as an archaeological artifact, created artifact, and
spurious artifact, I contend that the artifact represents an alternative text for
the study of nationalism in its ability to narrate a national identity ultimately
shaped beyond Mexico's geographical borders.</p>
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