Abstract

HERNANDEZ SUAREZ, Diana. Between Commercial Networks and Aesthetic Neutrality: Laura Méndez de Cuenca's Revista Hispano-Americana. Bibliographica [online]. 2024, vol.7, n.1, pp.133-168.  Epub June 14, 2024. ISSN 2594-178X.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iib.2594178xe.2024.1.479.

This article has the double purpose of analyzing, on the one hand, the editorial features of the early issues of Laura Méndez de Cuenca’s Revista Hispano-Americana (1895-1896), based on its material and political configuration; and, on the other, it reflects on the late 19th century visual culture in an advertising publishing company specialized in political and commercial themes, where aesthetic, artistic, and literary considerations were used to construct a commercial image of the Mexican and Central American region. The technologies of the gaze used by the magazine served both for self-promotion and as platforms for the modern domestication of political behaviors, bodies, and nature, with the open intention of promoting a liberal picture over the “reality” of the Spanish Americas to attract investors who would develop and civilize the region through the exploitation of human and natural resources.

Keywords : Illustrated press; technologies of the gaze; aesthetic neutrality; intellectual networks; 19th-century commerce.