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Death and its commemoration have long been integral to Mexican culture. From pre-Hispanic rituals, through colonial Catholic rites, to nineteenth-century satires by Guadalupe Posada, the trope of death has weighed heavily on perceptions of the nation's evolution. Recent times have magnified this unusual obsession. From Octavio Paz's perorations on its central role in Mexican self-identity to the recent orgy of drug cartel massacres, which saw severed heads and cadavers posted as trophies, and the revived and popularised worship of Santa Muerte, it has demarcated Mexican cultural life from other countries. Few tourist venues exploit memory so coarsely as the 'mummies of Guanajuato', for example. The nineteenth century reignited this secular compulsion, as half of the nation's territory was snatched by Mexico's upstart northern neighbour. the United States, boosting nostalgia and defensive reclamation of heroes who defended what remained of the nation's honour and identity. The rule of Porfirio Díaz offered an opportunity to reassert a badly damaged sense of origins. Matthew D. Esposito's work concentrates on the political manipulation of national myths and heroes through the stage management of funerals, the 'pantheonisation' of the remains of defenders of the nation, the construction of monuments and memorials, and the co-option of the masses into the process of nation-building.
The book traces various themes. The 'modernisation' of main cities brought the incorporation of new outlooks and techniques into the burial process; notoriously, the electrification of the capital's tram system was adapted for elaborate hearses, which impressed...