Listening to Porfirian Mexico: Sound, Culture, and Modernity

Abstract

Listening to Porfirian Mexico: Sound, Culture, and Modernity explores how sound andlistening shaped the experience of modern life in Mexico during the Porfiriato (1876–1911). The dissertation argues that the modernization of Mexico was heard as much as it was seen, and that struggles over mechanical sound, public noise, and acoustics reveal how people understood their place in a rapidly changing world. The study is organized around three case studies that trace different layers of the Porfirian soundscape. The first examines itinerant sound devices, street organs, phonographs, and other machines, that altered everyday life in the city. Their presence sparked debates over noise, technology, and modernity, as officials sought to regulate what was heard in public space. The second turns to the commercial recording industry, showing how phonograph companies, distributors, and performers built a market for recorded sound that linked Mexico to global circuits while shaping local tastes and cultural identities. The third focuses on the acoustics and regulation of theaters, especially the Teatro Nacional and the Palacio de Bellas Artes, where questions of architecture, technology, and state power converged in the management of listening itself. Together, these chapters reveal how sound was entangled with issues of class, politics, and cultural authority. By listening to the Porfirian soundscape, the dissertation reframes our understanding of modernization in Mexico, highlighting the ways sound technologies and acoustic environments mediated the relationship between state power, cultural life, and everyday experience.