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This research focuses on the study of Mexican comics and films from 1969 to 1976. It uses the language of humour to understand how these media expressed contemporary social and political concerns. After reviewing theories of humour and proposing an eclectic theory to analyse visual sources, three different comic books and four films were examined in order to gain an understanding of the issues that troubled the society at the time. This eclectic theory considered academic approaches from a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, linguistics, psychology, and others. The theory of humour proposed in this thesis can be used to study humorous visual expressions from other cultures and historical times. Thus, one of the novelties of this research is the proposal of an eclectic theory of humour to study visual culture. A second original contribution of this thesis is that it proposes an approach to social history through the analysis of two relevant cultural manifestations: humour and visual culture. This work also invites us to reflect on Mexican society during the presidency of Luis Echeverría Álvarez, as well as the circumstances of the mass media and the arts, both of which enjoyed some freedom in what was called the apertura democrática. Nevertheless, since some topics were still prickly and difficult, humour helped society discuss them, kept them on the social agenda, and acted as a safety valve to express the discomfort of the members of society. Finally, this thesis considers social manifestations, such as humour, as sources through which to study culture and history; it highlights the relevance of the cultural legacy of comics which have been considered as a sub-cultural product; and it shows how we can use films to discover something new about a specific time and social group.

In the decades following the Revolution, government officials and industrialists attempted to strike a balance between preserving a unique national identity and asserting Mexico's place in global affairs as a competitive, modern nation. Veneration of the aviators' bravery and technological mastery cut across political and cultural boundaries, setting standards for the model citizen of a modern world. The symbolic figure of the pilot proved an adept vessel for disseminating the values championed by the country's ruling party. Aviators validated the technological determinism that underpinned the government's development philosophy to domestic audiences, while projecting an image of strength abroad. This study explores the spectacle of aviation in cultural events including film, airshows, goodwill flights, and state-sponsored funerals, connecting the history of aviation to often-conflicting discourses of Revolutionary nationalism and modern cosmopolitanism that were espoused by both national and regional elites.

A imprensa insurgente encomendada por Miguel Hidalgo e por José Morelos, durante o movimento de independência da Nova Espanha, marcou uma ruptura com a imprensa oficial no início do século XIX. Ao levantar os problemas sociais do Vice-Reino e estratégias para combatê-los, configurou um novo espaço de debate político que respondia prioritariamente às urgências de notícias da guerra e à publicação de constantes manifestos em que se justificava a causa separatista. Analisar o desenvolvimento dos impressos durante a independência constitui um mecanismo para compreendermos a formação de espaços de sociabilidade num momento de debate intenso sobre a formulação de uma identidade mexicana. Os jornais revolucionários podem ser lidos, a partir desta perspectiva, não apenas como um lugar de discussão, mas como um elemento que se vincula a outras instâncias de ação social e estabelece uma comunicação a fim de formar opiniões políticas. / The insurgent press demanded by Miguel Hidalgo and José Morelos, during the independence movement of New Spain, established a rupture with the official media from the early 19th century. When putting through the light the social problems of the Vice-Reign and the strategies to fight against it, a new space for political debate was created, answering mainly to the urgency of the news from the war and the publication of constant manifests in which the independence is a mechanism for us to understand the formation of places for sociability in a moment of intensive debates on the construction of a Mexican identity. The revolutionary newspapers can be read, through this perspective, not only as a place for arguments, but also an element connected to other social practices and establish a communication with the mission to create political opinion.

A imprensa insurgente encomendada por Miguel Hidalgo e por José Morelos, durante o movimento de independência da Nova Espanha, marcou uma ruptura com a imprensa oficial no início do século XIX. Ao levantar os problemas sociais do Vice-Reino e estratégias para combatê-los, configurou um novo espaço de debate político que respondia prioritariamente às urgências de notícias da guerra e à publicação de constantes manifestos em que se justificava a causa separatista. Analisar o desenvolvimento dos impressos durante a independência constitui um mecanismo para compreendermos a formação de espaços de sociabilidade num momento de debate intenso sobre a formulação de uma identidade mexicana. Os jornais revolucionários podem ser lidos, a partir desta perspectiva, não apenas como um lugar de discussão, mas como um elemento que se vincula a outras instâncias de ação social e estabelece uma comunicação a fim de formar opiniões políticas. / The insurgent press demanded by Miguel Hidalgo and José Morelos, during the independence movement of New Spain, established a rupture with the official media from the early 19th century. When putting through the light the social problems of the Vice-Reign and the strategies to fight against it, a new space for political debate was created, answering mainly to the urgency of the news from the war and the publication of constant manifests in which the independence is a mechanism for us to understand the formation of places for sociability in a moment of intensive debates on the construction of a Mexican identity. The revolutionary newspapers can be read, through this perspective, not only as a place for arguments, but also an element connected to other social practices and establish a communication with the mission to create political opinion.

The works of Carlos Fuentes are well known for their thematics of History, how the past continues to influence the present despite mechanisms of historical omission, oblivion, or repression. This dissertation offers a spectral reading of a selection of Fuentes’ works—La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962), Aura (1962), Cambio de piel (1967), Terra nostra (1975), and Una familia lejana (1980)—that represents his vision of Mexican, Latin American, and Transatlantic history. A spectral reading refers to the hidden or indirect ways that the past continues to manifest in the present as specters, ghosts—unconscious and unwitting remembrances of repressed or unknown material that elude conscious recollection but continue nonetheless to linger and impede healthy progress. Concepts from trauma theory and psychoanalysis thus provide a framework for this critical approach. Fuentes’ representations of history often comprise violent events that resonate as ghostly presences haunting contemporary society. Our reading makes use of concepts such as Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok’s “crypt” and “phantom” as well as Marianne Hirsch’s “postmemory” in order to show how historical traumas and violent events are transmitted across generations as a spectral inheritance. Through this theoretical lens, a spectral reading sheds new light upon Carlos Fuentes’ use of cyclical time, doubling, narrative experimentation, and intertextuality that function together to represent the effects of violent history as a spectral legacy on individual, family, national, regional, and global scales. The works studied in this dissertation’s six chapters represent distinct moments of Fuentes’ narrative production. Despite the works’ various forms of representation—realist, Gothic, modern, postmodern—, their common thread is the timeless burden of historical violence and trauma. Fuentes presents a pessimistic vision of the ways in which contemporary society ineffectively bears or disavows this burden. The works thus show a possibility for embracing the Other and engaging in the task of working through trauma, although this potential reconciliation remains constantly thwarted. History, according to Fuentes, remains trapped in a purgatory of violence. Yet the hope can be gleaned, however, that the reader may take up this healing labor. While full reconciliation continues to elude us, engagement with the ghosts of the past is a healthy first step.

The novel Sudden death /Muerte súbita written by Álvaro Enrigue is analysed in this study, using the theoretical contributions of Werner Wolf and Irina Rajewsky, the typology of intermediality, and the model of modalities and modes of media elaborated by Lars Elleström.         The aim of this study lies, first on the blending of different media within the novel, the question of pictorial narrative, and argues that images narratives can generate the diegesis in Álvaro Enrigue's book. Second, to analyze how the mentioned intermedial relations to the paintings can create a meaning in the novel.       The novel by Enrigue relates some paintings of the Italian painter Caravaggio such as The calling of St. Matthew, Marta and Magdalena, Judith beheading Holofernes and Basket of fruits that have become important in creating the understandings the History of Mexico and the History of Spain. This intermedial study of the work of Enrigue "Sudden death" has shown that words have the power to represent images as well as give us the possibility of expanding the visuality of the media that are present in a literary text.

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After the Mining Code of 1884, Zacatecas residents saw the mining industry encroach on their water sources and menace the public health of the city. The Code allowed for the privatization of land by foreign nationals, denouncements of mines, and water rights to local sources. Municipal officials and residents soon faced a shortage of drinking water and firewood as severe drought settled in the region, along with a devastating monetary crisis. Residents voiced public health concerns with cholera, floods, and abattoirs and pushed for investment in water infrastructure, rabies vaccines, and drainage projects. Miners established unions to represent their claims in injuries and to have silicosis-tuberculosis recognized as an occupational disease. Using public and private archives, newspapers, union documents, and government correspondence, this study demonstrates how municipal officials and mining companies understood public health and occupational health, and to what extent residents tolerated the industry's hold on water. While the historiography of the city emphasizes the economics of colonial silver mining, this study examines the social and environmental links between the industry and the city as mining companies blocked union activity and water management efforts.