Visual and literary representations in dialogue: chaos in socials and marginals sectors in Mexico’s and Cuba’s Costumbrismo

Abstract

Costumbrismo in Latin America had a very important social function: to unify the nation and create a sense of identity within the geographical territory of specific countries. However, not all the representations followed the same mold. In Mexico, Claudio Linati made a series of lithographs accompanied by articles published under the title Trajes civiles, militares y religiosos de México in 1828. In some cases, it’s possible to perceive that the lithography does not play a harmonious role with the Costumbrismo articles: there are elements that suggest a chaotic and violent behavior in some marginal social and cultural types of eighteenth-century Mexico. This Costumbrismo, keeping the social and temporal distance, converses in a suggestive way with some lithographs about Cuba by Victor Patricio de Landaluze, and, also, with the articles that accompany these works in the book Tipos y costumbres de la Isla de Cuba by Bachiller y Morales and Landaluze. The thematic line that places a dialogue in both expressions is the hint of violence and chaos in marginal sectors.
This work analyzes on the aforementioned topics through lithographs and the articles and seeks to relate two different geographical areas of Costumbrismo, noting their similarities and differences.