Illustrating American Power and Privilege: Images of Mexico as the Other in Albert S. Evans’s Our Sister Republic: A Gala Trip Through Tropical Mexico in 1869-70

After the U.S.-Mexican War, internal power struggles weakened the Mexico, and France forcefully established a government in 1862. In 1867, the United States (U.S.) invoked the Monroe Doctrine and placed military and political support behind exiled Mexican president Benito Juárez. This political action pressured France to withdraw from Mexico and demonstrated how the U.S. exercised on-going hegemony over Mexico. This paper argues the images and text in Albert S. Evans’s Our Sister Republic: A Gala Trip Through Tropical Mexico in 1869-70 misrepresented Mexico to justify American imperialism. Through the lens of postcolonial theory, the images are closely examined and analyzed for what they reveal about U.S. relations with Mexico.