Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Introduction
Dime de qué te ríes,
y te diré quién eres.
What do the theory of humour, Mexico in the 1970s, and visual culture have in
common? All are part of this thesis. Nevertheless, the twist in this research is that it is
not simply about humour, or history, or comics and cinema. Instead, it draws them
together to show how humour is used as a language to portray a certain reality, and to
express criticism and discontent. We will see how scholars from a variety of disciplines
have studied humour in order to understand what it expresses and how it might help a
society – or a member of it –to portray the faults that exist there: that which causes
discomfort, which they are aware of, and which should be corrected. For this research,
humour is observed in two media, comics and cinema. These media belong to a specific
time and place, Mexico from1969 to 1976, the most intense period of the Guerra Sucia.
Scholars have studied the arts and culture during this period because although the
Mexican government was waging a secret campaign against its detractors, in public the
president, Luis Echeverría, spoke of the tolerance of the authorities, and their ability to
cope with criticism. This was part of what he called the apertura democrática. Since the
democratic opening directly influenced the arts, culture, and means of communication,
scholars have shown an interest in observing how it impacted the production and
contents of media such as comics and cinema.
The originality of this research lies in its analysis of theories and perspectives
about humour which help us understand the mood of the population in relation to the
political and social reality of Mexico at that time. What this work does is to point to
how the analysed sources expressed political and social concerns through humour, and
what those concerns were. It is also a reflection on the reasons for asserting these