Reviews for Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico

The average rating for Theaters of Conversion: Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial Mexico based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-14 00:00:00 Gordon Celliers (7/10) English is Broken Here is kind of a curious melange of forms centering around the experience of race in America, chiefly Fusco's own experience as a Cuban-American. It follows in the tradition of This Bridge Called Our Back, mixing forms in order to appreciate multiple perspectives, the complexity of intersectionality, and the general concept of difference. Formally, it's quite interesting, much more so than your standard academic monograph. I will admit that I found the more theoretical sections, as well as Fusco's personal reflections on her background, to be the most engaging. A lot of the book is dedicated towards modern art that deals with race, and it may just be my lack of interest in visual art, but I found it pretty dull. A lot of it seems less like analysis and more like promotion for Fusco and her friends. Your experience will probably differ -- the book's contents are varied enough that htere's sure to be something you're interested in and something you're not.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-02 00:00:00 Bobby Clark These "Notes" are actually very well-researched and argued essays on the state of race and culture in the United States. The book pivots on Fusco's own personal experiences -- in one of the more memorable chunks I read for a graduate seminar, she describes the performance art project she undertook the year the 500th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" was celebrated, in which she traveled the world in a golden cage, posing as a member of a newly discovered primal race (the audience responses are mortifying) -- but they read as surprisingly undated capsules of the contradictions majority culture necessarily imposes upon minority culture. Lots of talk here of racism, stereotyping, white supremacy and the limitations of "multiculturalism" as it was practiced in the early 1990s. I hope I'll have the chance to read the book in full -- sometime after the snarling upcoming Master's qualifying exam...