230312 Film Exhibition and Cinema-going in the Mexican-Texas Border 1900-1960: The cases of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo (S) (SoSe 2023)

This class provides a historical overview of the development of film theatres in Laredo, Texas (USA) and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas (MEXICO) two sister cities located on the U.S.A.-Mexican border, as well as their film programming, from the early to the mid-20th century. The module provides a political economic analysis of the historical control of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo cinemas by regional and national circuits, as well as the unique characteristics of their theatres and their programming patterns of Hollywood and Mexican films. Based on the cities border conditions and their historical economic and cultural integration, the class discusses the peculiarities and implications of the ownership of cinemas and their Mexican and American films programming as well as other entertainment modalities like drama plays, opera, concerts, live comedy shows, and the like. From the first years of film exhibition in the 1900s to the popularity of national films during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, the module discusses the similarities and the differences in exhibition and programming patterns between the two cities. Also, it looks at unique border peculiarities like the organization of US entertainment and film exhibition events in Nuevo Laredo’s venues as well as the advertising of Nuevo Laredo’s theaters in the local newspaper of the American side. The memories of cinema-going in the 1940s-1960s of residents in both sides of the border are also discussed, focusing on the coexistence of memories of both Mexican and Hollywood films and film stars.

Bibliography

Lozano, J. C. (2019). Exhibiting Films in a Predominantly Mexican-American Market: The Case of Laredo, Texas, a Small USA-Mexico Border Town, 1896-1960. In D. Biltereyst, R. Maltby & P. Meers (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to New Cinema History (pp. 254-268). Routledge.

Lozano, J.C., Meers, Philippe & Biltereyst, D. (2018). Going to the movies in the 1930s-1960s in a small Mexican American border town: Memories of cinemagoing and of U.S. and Mexican films in Laredo, Texas (pp. 155-170). In Daniela Treveri, Danielle Hipkins, and Catherine O’Rawe (Eds.), Rural Cinema. Exhibition and audiences in a Global Context. Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN: 978-3-319-66343-2. http://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-319-66344-9.