Digital Activism in the Mexican Nations

Digital Activism in the Mexican Nations analyzes Mexico’s rich history of digital activism, which is among the most vibrant of any country in the Hispanic world. The book begins with a discussion of the Zapatista uprising of 1994—which is widely understood as the first digital social movement in the history of the world—and ends with a discussion of the digital strategies of migrant communities trekking through Mexico into the present.

Conceptualizing (digital) activism as a type of performance, the book opens a dialogue with Brecht’s binary of cathartic and transformative performance. As such, it suggests that activist movements centered on expressive manifestations of emotion tend to stifle a social movement’s revolutionary potential by stifling their ability to resonate with potential allies outside their community. At the same time, it argues that the most successful digital social movements seek strategies to build connections with allies who can help them to shift state policy.