Conspicuous Consumption and the Performance of Identity in Contemporary Mexico: Daniela Rossell's Ricas y famosas

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Notes

 1 The photographer's editing processes cannot be overlooked here: it is possible that images not taken in domestic settings were excluded from the publication.

 2 Ruben Gallo suggests that the project would have been more effective if the images had been presented alongside details of the sitters' identities as a kind of political expose. See Gallo, New Tendencies in Mexican Art, 68. Anny Brooksbank Jones approaches Rossell's images in terms of the tensions between personal and national imaginaries, and situates them in relation to both nationalist discourses and contemporary narratives, arguing for their coexistence rather than a replacement of the old by the new; see Brooksbank Jones, Visual Art in Spain and Mexico.

 3 See article titled ‘Ricas, famosas e irritadas’ in La Jornada, 30 August 2002, for a rare interview with Rossell.

 4 For a full chronology of the media scandal see Gallo, New Tendencies in Mexican Art.

 5 See article in Reforma (Hernández 2002).

 6 For a full account of these events see Dawson, First World Dreams.

 7 For more on the relationship between the conflict in Chiapas and identity discourse see Bartra, Blood, Ink and Culture, chapter titled ‘Tropical Kitsch in Blood and Ink’, and Thelen, ‘Mexico's Cultural Landscapes’.

 8 The application of multiculturalist discourse to postcolonial societies is extremely problematic. Charles R. Hale has theorised the development of new political space for the articulation of indigenous cultural rights as ‘Neoliberal multiculturalism’; see ‘Does Multiculturalism Menace?’

 9 Guadalupe Loaeza has also focused on conspicuous consumption and feminine identity in contemporary Mexico. Her 1993 novel Compro, luego existo focuses on a group of fictional characters who benefitted greatly from the period of growth during the Salinas sexenio.

10 The associations that come with the virgin of Guadalupe and La Malinche have often served to justify oppressive gender roles, and to construe any attempt at liberation from these roles as a betrayal against the nation. However, there have been many significant re-appropriations, particularly by Chicana feminists. See Norma Alarcon 2003. Traddutora, Traditora: A Paradigmatic Figure of Chicana Feminism. In Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspective, edited by Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti and Ella Shohat, pp. 278–97.

11 Poole uses the term ‘visual economy’ over visual culture, emphasising networks of exchange over shared meanings and community (1997: 8).