Cultural diplomacy and conflict: Mexico and Italy in the radical years of Cárdenas and Mussolini (1936-1940)

Abstract

This essay analyses the diplomatic relations between Mexico and Italy from 1936 to 1940, when the policies of Cárdenas and Mussolini reached their most radical phase. Mexico became a key space for containing the spread of Nazi-Fascism, with the United States supporting Cárdenas’ socialist reforms, giving Mexico an unprecedented significance for Italy. The analysis is based on the review of nearly 700 documents, cross-referenced with studies in this field, which document Mussolini’s failed cultural policies in Mexico, a sector that served as his main tool for generating political and diplomatic consensus. The papers, preserved in the Historical Diplomatic Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (in Italian, ASDMAECI) in Rome, were mostly written by Count Alberto Marchetti di Muriaglio, Italy’s extraordinary envoy to Mexico for seven years (1935–1942). He reported key events in a frank, direct, and critical tone towards his ideological opponents. The goal is to reconstruct the spirit of the time through typical propaganda-related sectors such as the press, education, literature, and art, from the perspective of a fascist official. These years mark the epilogue of frustrated hopes for political and commercial hegemony on the continent, disguised as culture, which Mussolini sought to promote with the ship Nave Italia in 1924, without success in Mexico.