Ciudad de Mexico y La Habana: imagenes y representaciones urbanas en torno a la violencia y la memoria

Abstract

This dissertation examines literary and cinematographic representations of Mexico City and Havana from the late 20th to the early 21st centuries (1985-2005). The discussion is organized around two main themes: urban violence and the role of memory in the construction of contemporary city images. The corpus I study includes works by writers Ignacio Solares, José Emilio Pacheco, Gonzalo Celorio, Ana Clavel, Antonio José Ponte, Karla Suárez, Ena Lucía Portela, Ronaldo Menéndez and Leonardo Padura and filmmakers Alejandro González Iñárritu, Julio García Espinosa and Fernando Pérez. By focusing on the city as a space of conflict and as a site of memory, this project investigates how these works dialogue with the contexts and societies in which they were produced and demonstrates how notions of identity, community and belonging are (re)defined or negotiated within these cultural texts. Through a close analysis of their visual and textual representations, I propose that while the works participate in the construction of common images of these two cities, they revise and subvert stereotypical or preconceived perceptions thus offering complex and intimate portraits of Havana and Mexico City's daily life at the turn of the century.