Portrait of a Young Painter

"The last several years have revealed the start of a remarkable ferment among historians of postrevolutionary, and especially of post-1945, Mexico....Mary Kay Vaughan’s beautifully written, masterful new book, Portrait of a Young Painter, is situated precisely at the interstices of this historiographical revisionism."

- Eric Zolov (Hispanic American Historical Review)

"Mary Kay Vaughan’s Portrait of a Young Painter is an extraordinary contribution to the literature on the Latin American sixties.... It will be mandatory reading on the sixties, an era of transforming subjectivities worldwide."

- Valeria Manzano (American Historical Review)

"Scholars will gain much from reading this smartly written, imaginative study. Skillfully revealing the complex, multilayered worlds that ZÚÑiga inhabited, Vaughan opens the door to a greater understanding of Mexico's 1960s youth rebellion. This powerful analysis will contribute significantly to the field, but also should point to new ways of writing history."

- Stephanie J. Smith (The Americas)

"Vaughan’s book suggests that the roots of political resistance in Mexico can be profitably explored at the level of individual subjectivity, and her work should influence future scholarship by Mexicanists and historians of youth movements in Latin America and beyond."

- Rachel Grace Newman (Journal of Latin American Studies)

"Mary Kay Vaughan’s biography of Mexican painter Pepe ZÚÑiga is a labor of love and friendship."

- Robert M. Buffington (EIAL)

“Vaughan writes a lively, inspired, and extremely detailed cultural history of Mexico City’s urban culture between 1940 and 1970. . . . She writes with empathy, intelligence, and humor.”

- Rubén Gallo (Latin American Research Review)