Date
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Presenter 1: Vanessa Freije, University of Washington, "Imaginaries of Satellite Technology in Hidalgo, Mexico”

  • Summary. In 1985, Mexico became the ninth country in the world to put a satellite into orbit. Launched nearly three decades after the so-called global space race began, government officials heralded a new era of “information sovereignty.” Not only would the country presumably be freed from imperialist control over communications, some described the satellite system as “rescuing [rural people] from marginality” by connecting far-flung communities seemingly overnight.[1] The rapid development of communications technology over the previous decades had raised pressing questions about the role that information should play in society: In whose hands was information safe? What did it mean to democratize information and whom did it benefit? These were questions that were debated in elite Mexican newspapers, academic circles, and halls of power. But the meanings and consequences of these new technologies were also acutely experienced and contested locally.
  • In this paper, I will examine how local imaginaries of technology, modernization, and communication were shaped by the space satellite. Nearly two decades prior to Mexico’s satellite launch, the first satellite earth station was installed in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, just north of the Federal District. This station formed part of a broader government effort to increase the country’s broadcasting potential for the 1968 summer Olympics. The earth station would enable the Olympic Games, hosted by Mexico, to be broadcast live around the world for the first time.

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Presenter 2: Mikael Wolfe, Stanford University, "Visual and Aural Aesthetics of the 1970 Ten million-ton Sugar Harvest in Cuba”

  • Summary. This presentation explores some of the visual and aural aesthetics of Cuba’s mass mobilization for the 10 million-ton sugar harvest of 1970. In November 1963, just over a month after Hurricane Flora struck eastern Cuba and caused unprecedented devastation to the eastern half of the archipelago, Fidel Castro announced that the country would produce at least 10 million tons of sugar in 1970. This would surpass the previous record of 7.2 million tons set in 1952 and be far above the highest yield since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. In addition to massive investments in agricultural machinery, irrigation, fertilizers, and transportation, the Cuban government also produced billboards, posters, print advertisements, and television broadcasts, to mobilize the population to achieve the ambitious goal, which fell short at a still record 8.5 million tons. There was even a popular musical band called “Los van van” based on the government slogan “Los 10 millones van” (the 10 million tons move forward), a band which virtually all Cubans to this day know about. How these visual and aural aesthetic dimensions of the 1970 sugar harvest influenced this mass mobilization is the focus of the presentation.

[1] “SCT: el Morelos I rescatará de la marginación a los mexicanos,” El Universal, December 8, 1986.