Revolutionary Print Media of Latin America: Global South Solidarity, 1920-1970

Taking advantage of the mobility of printed materials via the international postal system, cultural producers forged relationships across the Global South in addition to those with the U.S. and Europe. Studies of Latin American transcontinental solidarity often focus on the 1960s. My exhibition “Revolutionary Print Media of Latin America: Global South Solidarity, 1920-1970,” takes an expanded view, tracing the roots of these movements from anti-imperialist rhetoric and coverage of revolution in China in the 1920s to support of African independence movements and protest of interventionism in the 1960s. My selection of imagery and texts reveals the ways in which Latin American artists played an integral role in the development of revolutionary thought and connections with their peers in Asia and Africa. Drawing exclusively from University Library System collections, the objects in the exhibition illustrate how decolonial thinking developed over fifty years of print media. As such, they present rich opportunities for stimulating discussions and new research avenues.

The exhibition is on view in the Hillman Library Archives & Special Collections Gallery from Fall 2022 through Spring 2023. This exhibition and its LibGuide examine revolutionary political movements during a period in which artists and writers increasingly promoted cultural and political ideas in print media. Latin American culture magazines, poster portfolios, and catalogues from ULS collections demonstrate how artists and intellectuals articulated their commitments to revolutionary politics and built support for these efforts. It is housed in an unstaffed gallery that students, staff, and faculty from across the university can visit at all hours of the day and week. To support a range of audiences’ guided browsing, I communicated key information about this content through extensive labels. With the support of a Humanities Engage Curricular Development Grant, I developed a module around the exhibition for the Fall 2022 iteration of Prof. Josten's HAA 0520, Art & Politics in Latin America, emphasizing how students from diverse backgrounds could connect with the exhibition's content, and hosted bilingual visits from Hispanic Languages & Literatures.

I engage with the public humanities by translating my research to the exhibition format, providing an accessible model for the broader University of Pittsburgh community. The makers of the objects on display sought to build bridges across continents and ethnicities. By locating and displaying examples of solidarity between Latin America, Africa, and Asia, this project highlights political and cultural actors from a range of contexts, thereby giving the exhibition’s audiences opportunities to connect with the work. My curatorial choices were driven not only by intellectual inquiry, but by a consideration of inclusivity. I also made an effort to select materials relating Global South postcolonial political movements with connected civil rights and antiwar movements in the United States, where the exhibition is located. The project is primarily oriented toward an audience of University of Pittsburgh students and its goal is to broaden their perspectives and spark interest in further study.

Installation view of “Revolutionary Print Media of Latin America: Global South Solidarity, 1920-1970,” Archives & Special Collections Gallery, Hillman Library, University of Pittsburgh