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Mexico’s Participation in Universal Expositions
Since it became an independent country, Mexico has sought to actively participate in all international initiatives that explore possible solutions to humanity’s main challenges. Mexico has been present in 29 universal expositions around the world, in which it has participated actively with the presentation of viable proposals for solving the main problems of environmental, urban and social nature.
The country’s first official participation in a universal exposition took place in Philadelphia. Mexico’s role was in response to its need to express itself as an independent nation. During this exhibition, the liberal government of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada was determined to show the world that despite the recent war against the United States and the ensuing loss of the territories of Texas, New California and New Mexico (2 million 400 thousand square kilometers), the national identity was intact.
Lerdo de Tejada affirmed that to refuse the United State’s invitation would have been a defeat, since deserting the struggle would have meant confessing powerlessness and Mexico would have been seen as unworthy of featuring among cultured nations. And the fact is that at that time, not taking part in a universal exposition was tantamount to isolating oneself from progress and being marginalized from the international trade circuit.
Some years later, under Porfirio Díaz’s mandate, Mexico participated in the universal exposition of New Orleans 1884, in which it showed a different face from that which had distinguished it throughout the 19th century: that of progress. With a pavilion built of iron and steel, known as the “Mexican Alhambra”, the Mexican government gave a glimpse of a country endowed with major mineral resources, such as silver, and raw materials such as sisal, and also showed that it was open to investors interested in channeling their capital into mining or agriculture.
However, it was at the Paris universal exposition of 1889 that Mexico displayed its most ambitious participation. The country created a monumental “Aztec Palace” in which, in addition to presenting a more modern and cosmopolitan vision of Mexico and including the rigor of numbers and statistics to give evidence of national progress, it highlighted the patriotic symbols and displayed its pride in its pre-Hispanic roots. The Palace was decorated with both the works of the famous sculptor Jesús Contreras, which represented different indigenous deities, and examples of the country’s mineral wealth, geographical and geological maps, and a wide variety of agricultural products.
Mexico’s presence in Paris was a resounding success. The country earned a place among the so-called civilized nations. Europe recognized the material and economic progress of Mexico which, considered a country of cosmopolitan indigenousness, had unsuspected pre-Hispanic wealth and fitted perfectly into the modern era of the late 19th century.
In 1890, Mexico once again visited Paris, while in 1893 the country participated in the Chicago universal exposition. At the beginning of the new century, Mexico attended the universal expositions of Buffalo (1901) and St. Louis, Missouri (1904). At each of them, the government hoisted the flag of pre-Hispanic indigenousness with the same success.
In 1922, Mexico’s participation in the universal exposition held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, served to show the ideological concepts contributed by the Mexican Revolution of 1910. During the Seville Ibero-American exposition of 1929, the Mexican pavilion showed pre-Hispanic reminiscences, although with a chiefly pro-Hispanic message, while at the same time underlining the qualities and potential of being a hybrid nation.
Since then, Mexican presentations at universal expositions have evolved into displays of technology and avant-garde projects to improve the quality of life in big cities, although without losing sight of its characteristic sign: the country’s pre-Hispanic heritage.
Likewise, with the progress of communications, universal expositions took on a different meaning. They ceased to be venues for international recognition to become places of world coexistence. The change of century gave rise to expectations of a better future. Now universal expositions are the showcase of hope and continue to vindicate modernity.
In recent years, Mexico has stood out in universal expositions such as Seville 1992 and Lisbon 1998, in which the central theme of its pavilion was “Between Oceans”. In 2000, Mexico participated in Expo Hannover and, five years later, the country presented itself at Aichi 2005 Universal Expo, which theme was “The Wisdom of Nature”. At Aichi 2005, Mexico’s pavilion was called “Interweaving Diversity”, it welcomed almost 2.5 million visitors and obtained two substantive awards, among them, one of the eight gold medals in the competition “The Wisdom of Nature”.
There is no doubt that, at both expositions, Mexico was one of the main actors and showed the world an inventory of the means at its disposal as a nation, as well as its advances and future prospects, although always with a strong sense of nationalism in which the identity and the pride of being Mexicans have a prominent place.
