Elena Jackson Albarran, a professor of history and Latin American studies, dives deep into the role of children in shaping cultural capital across the Americas. She discusses how child artists and refugees influenced hemispheric politics during the Good Neighbor era. Exploring themes of nationalism, she highlights the narratives surrounding Spanish children in Mexico and their impact on identity formation. The conversation also touches on children as empowered agents within diplomatic and cultural projects, challenging notions of innocence imposed by society.
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Infantilization Shapes Latin America View
Infantilization frames Latin America as a lesser, immature region needing guidance.
Understanding childhood concepts helps explain these imperialistic justifications.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Spanish Children as Diplomatic Symbol
Mexico hosted 455 Spanish Civil War refugee children framed as orphans needing protection.
This reversed colonial roles, presenting Mexico as a caring parent replacing Spain's authority.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Children's Political Savvy in Mexico
Spanish refugee children directly wrote to President Cárdenas asking for improvements in their conditions.
They understood and leveraged their special political status in Mexico to their advantage.
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In 'Good Neighbor Empires', Dr. Elena Jackson Albarran explores the role of children in hemispheric politics during the Good Neighbor era. The book examines how perceptions of children as innocent and underdeveloped influenced views of Latin America. It investigates instances where Latin American children saw themselves as modern participants in inter-American relationships. Through case studies like child artists in Mexico and child refugees from Spain, the book reveals facets of cultural exchange and political dynamics. The book ultimately uncovers the complexities of identity, power, and cultural production in the Americas.
A class of child artists in Mexico, a ship full of child refugees from Spain, classrooms of child pageant actors, and a pair of boy ambassadors revealed facets of hemispheric politics in the Good Neighbor era. Good Neighbor Empires: Children and Cultural Capital in the Americas (Brill, 2024) by Dr. Elena Jackson Albarran explores how and why culture-makers in the Americas tuned into to children as producers of cultural capital to advance their transnational projects. In many instances, prevailing conceptions of children as innocent, primitive, dependent, and underdeveloped informed perceptions of Latin America as an infantilized region, a lesser "Other Americas" on the continent. In other cases, children's interventions in the cultural politics, economic projects, and diplomatic endeavors of the interwar period revealed that Latin American children saw themselves as modern, professional, participants in forging inter-American relationships.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
New Books in Public Policy