Bajo el manto de un sarape: colores y conciliaciones internacionales a través de un objeto de arte popular
Textiles, as any other cultural artifact, weave history and creativity. This paper records the history of a sarape form Saltillo, that has hitherto kept the secrets of its singularity , not only related to its manufacture technique and design, but, particularly to a political, social and diplomatic dimension: it was witness to the cultural conciliation between  Mexico and the United States of America during the 1930´s. Like the warp and woof in this textile, the approach of these two nations interwined of ideas and acts; one of them was that of Dwight and Elizabeth Morrow in acquiring this textile featuring unusual values.
The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican: Cultural Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1920-1935
The histories of Mexico and the United States have been intertwined since the beginning of their existence as independent nations. Diplomatic relations were established in 1822 and were maintained despite occasional ruptures, and economic links were forged early in the 19th century and became increasingly important with the passage of time. Beginning about 1900 the expanded international role of the United States brought increased attention to the cultures of other peoples, and an important aspect was a growth of interest in Latin America. By 1910, Spanish language classes were offered in American secondary schools, and because of substantial economic investments the American community in Mexico consisted of nearly 21,000 residents. Reviewing two books with Mexican themes in 1929, Waldo Frank saw them as heralds of "a campaign of an aesthetic, emotional, intellectual infiltration" of the United States by Mexico. Frank was referring to a flowering of cultural relations between the United States and Mexico that began in the 1920s and matured in the mid-1930s. The term "cultural relations" is used here to designate connections, both personal and institutional, that exposed artists and intellectuals in each country to developments in art, music, literature, and archaeology in the other. One result of these relationships was unprecedented exposure to all facets of Mexican culture in the United States, either in original form or as filtered through the consciousness of US interpreters. Delpar describes the development of cultural relations as well as the conditions in both countries that made it possible. These include the early enthusiasm of American liberals and leftists for the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the rise of cultural nationalism in Mexico and the United States, and the admiration of American neoromantics for "authentic" peoples and cultures such as might be found in Mexico. By drawing attention to the cultural link between the neighbouring republics at a time of creative ferment in both, this book complements studies of diplomatic and economic relations.
Urban Identities and Catastrophe: Izmir and Salonica at the End of the Ottoman Empire*
Two huge fires dramatically influenced the urban development of Salonica and Izmir, in 1917 and in 1922, respectively. These catastrophes occurred after the Ottoman Empire fell, and Salonica and Izmir had shifted into new national contexts. The fires mainly destroyed the districts that were transformed during the late‐Ottoman period. These districts became the cosmopolitan façades of modern Izmir and Salonica. The post‐fires' tabula rasa provided an opportunity for Greek and Turkish politicians and European planners to change the urban identity of both cities. Moreover, the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 transformed their multicultural societies also. Reconstruction plans had been thought to de‐Ottomanize and remove the previous idea of the towns and their multiplicity, interpreting new cultural and nationalist feeling. Here, I emphasize how modernity was interpreted before and after the fires, and point out contradictions between ideological aspects of planning and how the first urban districts were built during the 1920s.