Material Artifacts, Gender, and Power: Atala Apodaca Anaya’s Autograph Album

This paper draws on notions of the "new biography" that emerged in the 1990's, particulary the shift to the actor-centered perspective and the analysis of the albums as material artifacts of memory.  Through reconstructing the life of Atala Apodaca Anaya´s (1884-1977)--anticlerical teacher and revolutionary propagandist--, I examine the intersection of various processes operative during the Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1917), and the years of post-revolutionary process of state formation (1920-1940).  I look at the church-state struggle, changes in the labor force, increasing literacy rates, female school enrollments, and the emergence of new forms of corporate power.  In this paper, I explain my use of her autograph album as a material artifact for illuminating these processes.  An artifact of fragmented memory, the album does not contain her voice but her choice of others she chose to represent her and her achievements.    I examine how their discourses change overtime in tandem with the changing nature of political power in Mexico from the 1910s through the 1970s.