544. The German perspective of Mexico from three travelers: Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and Adolf Reichwein (1898-1944)

Abstract

This paper examines the cultural changes evident in the works of three German travelers to Mexico (Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and Adolf Reichwein (1898- 1944). Each of these travelers compiled information collected during their trip, sometimes through exploration and scientific practice and at other times through cultural observations of the territory. Their methods included a written narrative combined with the production of a visual language of maps, photographs and motion picture film. Thus, this work examines German interests in Mexico through the perspective of these travelers who crossed the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The subjective experience of these Mexican travels took place in relation to local circunstances as wel as global contexts and influences from both Europe and the United States that actively shaped Mexico in the nineteenth and early tweentieth centuries