Lindo y Querido: Nationalism, Latin American Modernity, and the Contested Terrain of the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games

Abstract

My dissertation illustrates the intertwining of sport, culture, and politics between the Olympic platform and the cultural politics surrounding the legitimacy of the imagined community of México. The México City 1968 Olympic Games marks an unparalleled case study of the lengths and challenges that a post-colonial nation experiences in their attempts for legitimation, modernization, and acceptance on the world stage. Exploring the Olympic journey of México, from the bidding process, hosting, and reception (internal and external) to the present-day memories and legacies, illustrate how a post-colonial nation navigates international relations and engages with the socio-political forces of nationalism, modernity, and globalization. My dissertation and work are grounded in the broader literature of cultural and political sociology. Culture is a central focus of my research, and I care to understand the real material consequences of political decisions made by leaders in México and the West. Within these traditions, I pay special attention to and study ideas, knowledge, and popular culture as they operate as fields of contested terrain. I engage with symbolic interactionism at the macroscale to help situate the cultural-political work being done by elites with Goffman’s work of presentation of self/stigma helping understand how Mexican elites navigated Mexico’s stigmatized image. In this instance, nation-states are social actors whose government leaders operate in meaningful interaction on behalf of their citizens. Drawing from historical methods, semiotics, textual analysis, site analysis, visual analysis, and extensive secondary literature help paint a nuanced picture of an event that impacted not just Méxican and Olympic history but also global history. Situating the research in the multifaceted context of the Cold War and the Grand Historical Narrative was key. I argue that nations’ stigma and impression management elucidate how nation-states participate in symbolic interactionism to distract, alter, and change their spoiled identities by interacting in key institutional spaces such as the Olympics. México City 1968 is an example of a post-colonial participating in rather than being a recipient of nationalism, modernity, and globalization and demonstrates how their participation was or was not legitimated.