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This chapter contextualizes the historical, political, and ideological trajectory through eras of prehispanicity, colonization, independence with burgeoning forms of nationalism and indigenismo, leading to a period of revolution in the early twentieth century. Focusing on the postrevolutionary period, particular emphasis is placed on issues of ethnicity, race, nationalism, indigenismo, and mestizaje. The role of governmental institutions, and artists, intellectuals, and politicians working in an official capacity through state organizations is discussed, specifically centering on education and anthropology, the Secretariat of Education (SEP), Misiones Culturales (Cultural Missions), José Vasconcelos, and Manuel Gamio. Elements of folklore, music, dance, and theater are outlined, with particular reference to the regional, folkloric, synthetic, and open-air theater movements, the magazine Mexican Folkways, and two events of 1921, Noche Mexicana (Mexican Night) and the Exhibición de Artes Populares (Exhibition of Popular Arts).

Chapter Seven deals with the period known as the Golden Age (1940 to 1968), contextualizing this with an overview of state policies regarding indigenismo, folklore and folklórico, and the role of government institutions such as INAH and INI. Two films, The Three Caballeros (Disney) and Maclovia, and the book A Treasury of Mexican Folkways are the focus of analysis in considering national and international dissemination. Discussion of the Lake Pátzcuaro region encompasses the burgeoning array of events using the Dance of the Old Men for local, private and political occasions; the initiation of hotel performances; the Festival of Music and Dance for Night of the Dead; and the role of the pedagogical institute CREFAL Finally, didactic and pedagogical regional dance publications and events, and the influence of the Ballet Folklórico de México are discussed.

Chapter Four analyzes the roles of women to locate their contributions squarely within Mexico’s vibrant cultural and radical political scenes during the 1930s and 1940s. To insert the crucial work of women artists into Mexico’s history of radical politics, and to understand better how women practiced their art while participating in revolutionary change throughout the post-revolutionary era, this chapter focuses on Frida Kahlo, Francis Toor, Aurora Reyes, Anita Brenner, among others. This chapter also explores the manners in which women artists and intellectuals moved beyond traditional gendered stereotypes to assume positions within the vanguard of radical politics and revolutionary change, especially throughout the 1930s and 1940s. And lastly, chapter 4 further analyzes women and the PCM from the late 1930s through the 1940s.

Chapter Four opens with a brief overview of the P'urhépecha region, and a discussion of the practices of day and night of the dead, and dances of old men prior to nationalist appropriation. Using a framework of appropriation, commodification, display, and theatricalization, and focusing on the shift from local to national in the 1920s, this chapter discusses: the visit of state officials to witness Night of the Dead on Janitzio and the subsequent publication of photos and texts in the academic journal Ethnos and the populist magazine Mexican Folkways; the first theatrical events in which the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead were staged in Mexico City; the Teatro Regional event of the Fiesta of Song and Dance in the P'urhépecha town of Paracho, and the roles of musicologist Rubén M. Campos and Jarácuaro villager Nicolás Bartolo Juárez.