Sex and Love in Porfirian Mexico City

Exploring the sexual lives of the poor and working
class in turn-of-the-century Mexico



This social
history explores the romantic and sexual lives of the poor and working class in
Mexico City during the rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to 1911. By
analyzing sexually based crime cases and stories in the penny press, Michael
Matthews sheds light on everyday struggles, joys, and desires. Matthews argues
that lower-class individuals had more liberated sexual lives than their
wealthier counterparts, influenced by the city’s growth and cultural changes.

In this book, Matthews
examines how Mexico City’s expanding infrastructure, increasing factory work,
and new leisure and entertainment activities shaped courtship and sexual
practices. He delves into the world of tenement buildings and street life to
reconstruct days defined by love and desire, romance and rape, seduction and sex
work, and promises kept and broken. Matthews connects the sexual culture of the
poor to the changes taking place as the Mexican state modernized and underwent
tremendous capitalist growth and development.

Sex and Love in
Porfirian Mexico City
provides insights into how social and economic developments shaped cultural
norms surrounding honor, marriage, morality, and parental authority during this
period. It will spur new reflections on the possible influence of lower-class
culture on modern-day romance and sexual values.