Portrait of a Young Painter: Pepe Zúñiga and Mexico City’s Rebel Generation by Mary Kay Vaughan (review)
Through her innovative biographical approach, Mary Kay Vaughan once again expands the boundaries of history. In Portrait of a Young Painter, Vaughan has produced an original study that radiates joy, exuberance, and love of life. Beyond opening a window into the life of the intriguing artist Pepe Zúñiga, Vaughan’s study offers an important addition to the historiography of Mexico, the role of culture within society, the youth movement and protests, poverty and the family, Mexico City’s art scene, and much more. In her analysis of the formation of post-1940 Mexico and the 1968 student protests, Vaughan emphasizes the rise of a creative and often rebellious youthmovement that questioned capitalism and traditions. In this manner Vaughan reveals not only the ways in which young people participated in the shaping of historical processes, but also how historical actors negotiated competing discourses. Here she moves beyond traditional notions of cultural history to include an analysis of memory and subjectivity in the construction of Zúñiga’s narrative.