Review of Mexico in Transition by Byron Crites

Book Reviews
Miller, Marilyn G. (2004) Rise and Fall of the Cosmic Race: The Cult of Mestizaje in Latin
America , University of Texas Press (Austin), xii + 202 pp. $55.00 hbk, $19.95 pbk.
This clear and accessible study of the discourse of mestizaje in twentieth-century Latin
America provides a welcome addition to a densely-populated scholarly fi eld. Miller ’ s
approach is new and praiseworthy: she offers a book that introduces readers to the
broad debates about mestizaje that have occurred among artists and intellectuals in
Latin/o America, with secondary attention to the debates among Latin Americanist
scholars in the US academy. Because she anchors these debates in several regional case
studies, Miller provides a general historical overview that also includes useful discussions
of specifi c artists and socio-historical contexts. These case studies illustrate
Miller ’ s main argument, namely, that although pro- mestizaje discourse has historically
been used to proclaim the existence of a singular Latin American identity, the wealth
of local refl ections on mestizaje itself belies such claims to unity. The Rise and Fall of
the Cosmic Race is written in the spirit of pluralism, as it seeks to uncover the multiplicity
of voices that have contributed to the discourse of mestizaje . Miller does not
over emphasise the religious metaphor of the project ’ s title; indeed, a stronger focus
on the idea of a ‘ cult ’ would have run the risk of misleading some readers into thinking
that belief in the mestizo is akin to religious belief (an interesting possibility that
has yet to be explored), and that its adherents were self-constituted as a group (they
were not). Beyond affi rming the existence of their multiplicity, Miller does not submit
these voices to a single overarching thesis or idea. She writes, ‘ the most prevalent
characteristic of a historiography of lo mestizo is its lack of uniformity and, indeed,
its pervasive susceptibility to contradictions ’ (p. 2).
The ‘ Introduction ’ does a very good job of synthesising this complex material.
Subsections are largely chronological, introducing the reader fi rst to the nineteenthcentury
foundations of the discourse of mestizaje , focusing on Simón Bolívar and José
Martí; then to Fernando Ortiz ’ s fundamental notion of transculturation; and fi nally
moving on to the contemporary scene, drawing from writers as disparate as Fernando
Vallejo and Gloria Anzaldúa in order to drive home the point that the discourse of
mestizaje is very much alive. An excellent excursus on Bakhtin, meanwhile, argues that
the basis for mestizaje as an aesthetic theory lies in his poetics of hybridisation. Miller ’ s
account is very persuasive, although it could also be argued that Lukacs too serves as
touchstone for the theories of literary mestizaje developed by Antonio Cornejo Polar
and Angel Rama.
The subsequent chapters are dedicated to a closer examination of artists and intellectuals
in the contexts of their respective national traditions. Chapter One addresses
José Vasconcelos ’ s notion of the ‘ cosmic race ’ and Chicana/o appropriations of the
idea. Chapter Two examines Caribbean discourses of mulatez in Cuba, Puerto Rico,
and, more briefl y, the Dominican Republic, primarily through an analysis of the poetry
of Nicolás Guillén, Luis Palés Matos, and Manuel del Cabral. Chapter Three offers a
very interesting analysis of the discourse surrounding Argentine tango. Miller argues
here that contemporary notions of tango are the product of a process of ‘ whitening ’
that hides the African roots of the form. Chapter Four turns to a discussion of Brazilian
novelist Jorge Amado ’ s Tenda dos milagres (1969), exploring Amado ’ s role in the
© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Society for Latin American Studies
154 Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 26, No. 1