Tourism and the Selling of Settler Colonialism in New Mexico

Location

King Building 127

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-27-2019 3:00 PM

End Date

4-27-2019 4:20 PM

Abstract

This project examines the contemporary tourism industry in New Mexico in order to understand how histories of settlement are used to create the cultural landscape of tourism. The tourist industry composes a large share of the New Mexico's economy, and relies heavily on the state's history of settlement and Indian cultural heritage as products of tourist consumption. Through visual and textual analysis of contemporary tourist literature, my project seeks to explore if and how tourism in New Mexico is replicative and reproductive of settler colonialism. Ultimately, my analysis suggests that tourism functions as a form of re-enactment of settler colonialism by positioning tourists as explorers, discoverers, and ultimately, settlers of New Mexico.

Keywords:

tourism, american west, indigenous studies, whiteness studies, cultural geography, american history

Notes

Session V, Panel 15 - National | Identity
Moderator: Ann Sherif, Professor of Japanese

Major

Comparative American Studies

Advisor(s)

Gina Pérez, Comparative American Studies

Project Mentor(s)

Gina Pérez, Comparative American Studies
Wendy Kozol, Comparative American Studies
Pablo Mitchell, History
Charmaine Chua, Politics

April 2019

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Apr 27th, 3:00 PM Apr 27th, 4:20 PM

Tourism and the Selling of Settler Colonialism in New Mexico

King Building 127

This project examines the contemporary tourism industry in New Mexico in order to understand how histories of settlement are used to create the cultural landscape of tourism. The tourist industry composes a large share of the New Mexico's economy, and relies heavily on the state's history of settlement and Indian cultural heritage as products of tourist consumption. Through visual and textual analysis of contemporary tourist literature, my project seeks to explore if and how tourism in New Mexico is replicative and reproductive of settler colonialism. Ultimately, my analysis suggests that tourism functions as a form of re-enactment of settler colonialism by positioning tourists as explorers, discoverers, and ultimately, settlers of New Mexico.