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Abstract: In this article, I explore the creation of the Mexico pavilion that opened in 1982 at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center theme park in Orlando, Florida. I show how designers created a representation of Mexico intended to be recognizably authentic to EPCOT Center visitors by drawing on established touristic images of Mexico in the United States. I then discuss Disney's decision to hire Mexican American artist Eddie Martinez to oversee the design of the pavilion's main attraction, a boat ride through Mexican history and culture. Specifically, I examine Martinez's involvement in the Goez Art Studio and Gallery in East Los Angeles to explain how Mexican Americans gained cultural authority as interpreters of Mexico in the United States. Finally, I show how the pavilion reflected ways in which Mexican Americans read and reconstructed established visions of Mexico in the United States, particularly in relation to pre- Columbian cultures.
Every year over eleven million people visit the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, making it the United States' third and the world's sixth most-visited theme park in 2014 (TEA/AECOM 2015, 12). Conceived of as a "permanent world's fair," the park opened as EPCOT Center in 1982. It is divided into one section called Future World featuring technology-themed pavilions, and another called World Showcase with pavilions representing eleven different countries. Roughly six million of Epcot's visitors venture into World Showcase's Mexico pavilion, which takes the shape of a pre-Columbian temple and features Mexico-themed dining and retail, and a boat ride through Mexican history and culture.1 Opening with EPCOT Center in 1982, the Mexico pavilion has provided tens of millions of people with a simulated trip south of the border and continues to serve as a particularly elaborate and high-profile representation of Mexico in the United States.
In this article, I examine the ways in which the creation of the Mexico pavilion reflected how images of Mexico had been shaped in the United States in the decades prior to its opening. I explore how Mexico's postrevolutionary nationbuilding project was tightly interwoven with the country's promotion as a tourist destination in the United States. This dynamic produced a series of images of Mexico likely familiar to EPCOT Center visitors that were used by...