"Es Siempre Preferible la Carpa a la Pulquería": The Construction of Poverty in the Music of the Carpas Shows in Mexico City, 1890-1930

TL;DRAbstract

Carpas - or canvas tent shows - were variety shows performed in itinerant or improvised theaters. These shows were one of the most popular forms of entertainment during the first half of the twentieth century in Mexico City. According to dominant ideas extant during the late Porfiriato the carpas and their musical repertory compromised the refinement and good taste the elites wanted to project onto the city. Yet, authorization to install the informal theaters not only remained, but even increased at the end of the nineteenth century and during the years prior to the Mexican Revolution. In spite of the aggravations they caused to the city's image, these musical shows were presumably tolerated by virtue of their beneficial social function among those who legislators referred to as the "lower classes." As the years passed, the notion of "poorness" mapped onto these shows was adopted by journalists, intellectuals, historians of the carpas and by the carpas community themselves as an essent

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