Radio, State Formation, and National Identity in Mexico, 1920–24

The expansion of radio broadcasting in the 1920s significantly impacted societies around the world. In Mexico this development was especially telling because it coincided with the first attempts to consolidate state power following the most violent stage of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). In addition, the first years of radio contributed to Mexico’s cultural revolution, a state-sponsored and urban-based initiative that helped to inspire a flowering of arts and technology. This essay looks at those who created and institutionalized radio (the government, foreign and domestic commercial entities, engineers, and artists), as well as those who listened. Specifically, I examine the first four years of radio development under the presidency of Álvaro Obregón (1920-1924), a time when radio went from a communications and entertainment apparatus of enthusiasts to an enterprise operating under ever stricter government regulation. Even though the new government was relatively weak, it nevertheless managed to play an important role in regulating and controlling radio from the medium’s inception in Mexico. In part, the government’s success was due to the state’s practice of collaborating with private radio entities in Mexico and the U.S., while at the same time forming regulations and international policies that promoted and consolidated state authority. As the state became more secure, so did its control on broadcasting. However, the artists and writers whom radio influenced, and who in turn helped popularize radio, sometimes held perspectives considerably different from those of state educators, thus making the new medium a forum for contending views of national culture. Like many of these intellectuals, most radio listeners appear to have been more interested in the global aspects of radio than state attempts to form a national identity.  Early national media formation in Mexico was thus not a monolithic project but rather a construction of multiple perspectives and interests.