INTRODUCTION. The Broken Monument, or Failure as a Source of Knowledge

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. INTRODUCTION. The Broken Monument, or Failure as a Source of Knowledge 1
5. PART 1. THE CONQUEST: ‘‘THE PAPER WARRIOR’’ AT THE SOURCE
6. CHAPTER 1. Education and Entropy in Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s War to Stop Time 21
7. PART 2. VISIONS OF A NEW NATION
8. CHAPTER 2. Compromised Free Markets in El Periquillo Sarniento: Teachers, Albureros, and Other Shouters 49
9. CHAPTER 3. Alexander von Humboldt’s Work on Mexico, Cultural Allegory, and the Limits of Vision 81
10. PART 3. THE REVOLUTION OF 1910
11. CHAPTER 4. José Vasconcelos and the Necessities of Failure 113
12. PART 4. AT THE LIMITS: THE 1960S AND THE BORDER
13. CHAPTER 5. The Threats of Collapse in Cambio de piel (or Fuentes the Frail) 143
14. CHAPTER 6. Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Bordering on Madness and Performing Liminality 165
15. CONCLUSION. General Santa Anna’s Leg and Other Failings 186
16. Notes 195
17. Works Cited 219
18. Index 233