In the interwar period and immediately following World War II, the U.S. government promoted a vision of a modern, progressive, and democratic Latin America and worked to cast the region as a partner in the fight against fascism and communism. This effort was bolstered by the work and products of many institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Constructing Latin America offers a nuanced look at ways MoMA’s carefully curated treatment of Latin American architecture promoted U.S. political, economic, and cultural interests. He argues that MoMA’s blockbuster shows, including Brazil Builds (1943) and Latin American Architecture since 1945 (1955), deployed racially coded aesthetics and emphasized the confluence of “Americanness” and “modernity” in a globalizing world.
Caught in a web of international politics and cultural diplomacy, modern architecture in Latin America became a tool to present the region as a knowable and consumable land. Behind this image, del Real argues, was MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. Working in collaboration with the U.S. government and corporations, as well as the region’s elites and national governments that sought closer relations with the United States, the museum’s architecture department sought to deliver a modern, progressive, and democratic Latin America. Delving into the heated debates of the period and presenting never-before-published internal documents and photos from the museum and the Rockefeller Archives, del Real is the first to fully address MoMA’s role in U.S. cultural imperialism through its exhibitions on Latin American art and architecture.
https://haa.fas.harvard.edu/people/patricio-del-real