This panel represents the continued efforts of a binational research group of scholars from Mexico and the United States of America whose work has consistently focused on discussing the many historical dimensions of memory, public spaces, cultural heritage, and boundaries from a binational standpoint. The proposed four case studies included in this proposal explore a variety of approaches to the public dimensions of the social, historical, and cultural ties that bind groups across national, ethnic, class, gender, and disciplinary lines with a specific focus on the US and México. Each paper focuses on the public dimensions of four elements that are crucial for understanding people’s and community’s everyday history: popular culture expressions, myths & legends, material culture, and places.

According to French sociologist Henri Lefebrve, public and semi-private places, real and imagined, represent the spatialized production of ideas, values, and memories that individuals and the state attach to them. Individual and collective understandings of spaces, for example, have the power to “transform space into place,” capable of shaping and reshaping the cultural landscape of communities in both Mexico and the U.S.A. Historian Jerome de Groot affirms that the study of public or popular texts invoke multiple historiographies and demonstrate our need to think about public and popular aspects of the past in new, emerging locales out of the U.S.A. We are proposing a panel based on analyzing and illustrating the methodologies of public history as applied to primary documents, experiences, practices, places, and monuments which have left marks in public memories as iconic images, elements of the material culture, or the physical environment in different locations. By identifying some common theoretical, conceptual, and methodological frameworks for analysis, this panel seeks examining our topics with the specialized audience at the AHA, expecting our group to discussing ways to expand our approaches and engage broader audiences.