Creating Mexican consumer culture in the age of Porfirio Diaz, 1876-1911

Abstract

A rapidly accelerating consumer culture increasingly defined Mexican urban society during the rule of Porfirio Diaz, 1876-1911. The significance of this global process at a national level can best be understood within the context of the economic and cultural modernization drive of the Porfirian regime. It manifested itself in a growing domestic consumer market and manufacturing base, an evolution of retailing and advertising forms, and the social and cultural implications of these developments. This consumer culture helped to define the visual and social reality of Mexico City and other cities, influencing architecture, street life, and other public as well as private spaces of urban Porfirians. Equally importantly, its presence permeated public discourse, with consumer goods, institutions, and values providing the vocabulary and metaphors many used to help explain and understand the rapid changes that characterized their lives. In other words, goods and the language of goods gave shape and form to the abstract condition of modernity in which Porfirian Mexicans lived. Using both written and visual sources, this dissertation outlines the form, institutions, and several of the major actors creating this consumer culture. This includes tracking the rise and evolution of the cigarette industry, advertising, department stores, and modernizing crime during the Porfiriato.