Networked Promises, Cyborg Fears: Communication Infrastructure and Postrevolutionary Reconstruction in El Universal Ilustrado

Abstract: This essay traces the cultural debates on communication and infrastructural development in 1920s Mexico City, during the early years of postrevolutionary reconstruction. Specifically, it dwells on the weekly cultural supplement El Universal Ilustrado and its coverage of networked infrastructure projects such as the expanding telephone network, the magazine's investments in commercial radio, and governmental "innovations" in traffic systems. The essay dwells on an eclectic archive of articles, advertisements, comical poetry, art, and photography, as well as opinion columns and chronicles by young avant-garde estridentistas like Arqueles Vela and Adela Sequeyro. In general, the magazine tended to frame the development of "networked infrastructure" (Graham and Marvin) as a "promising" (Larkin) innovation necessary for Mexico's recovery, insofar as capitalist development could reintegrate Mexico politically and economically. However, the magazine's eclecticism also welcomed voices that dwelled critically on capitalist modernization. Therefore, along with infrastructure's "promise," I analyze three cyborg figures that express contradictions surrounding modernization: the female telephone operator, the radio listener, and the traffic agent. Overall, the essay explores the role an influential urban periodical and the Estridentismo avantgarde had in shaping conflictive imaginaries of networked infrastructures and urbanization in postrevolutionary Mexico City.