Mexican post-revolutionary cultural institutions excelled at implementing Mexican art and popular arts as key elements in cultural diplomacy. However, while there is abundant research regarding these arts and their inclusion in international exhibitions during the first part of the twentieth century, there is little research on their role in international cultural diplomacy during the second half of that century. In the first part of this article I present a historiographical appraisal of the 1968 Mexican Cultural Olympiad and the resolutions of the “First Latin American Seminar on Popular Arts and Crafts” sponsored by UNESCO in Mexico City in 1965. In the second, I examine the case of U.S. participation in the “Exposición Internacional de Artesanías Populares” (International Exhibition of Popular Arts), which was part of the 1968 Cultural Olympiad’s programme – largely neglected by the historiography of the XIX Olympics – to explain how popular arts were made to perform as agents of cultural diplomacy in Mexico and the U.S. during the Cold War. In addition, I argue that U.S. participation in this exhibition also reveals negotiations and redefinitions of the concepts of handcraft and arte popular, and the economic and social situation of their makers in the United States.

中文翻译：

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手工艺作为文化外交：1968年墨西哥文化奥运会与美国参加国际流行艺术展

墨西哥革命后的文化机构擅长将墨西哥艺术和流行艺术作为文化外交的关键要素。然而，尽管在 20 世纪上半叶对这些艺术及其在国际展览中的参与进行了大量研究，但对其在 20 世纪下半叶国际文化外交中的作用却鲜有研究。在本文的第一部分，我介绍了对 1968 年墨西哥文化奥林匹克运动会的史学评价和 1965 年联合国教科文组织在墨西哥城主办的“第一届拉丁美洲流行工艺美术研讨会”的决议。第二部分，我考察了美国参加“Exposición Internacional de Artesanías Populares”（国际流行艺术展）的案例，这是 1968 年文化奥林匹克项目的一部分——在很大程度上被第 19 届奥运会的历史编纂所忽视——解释了冷战期间流行艺术如何作为文化外交的代理人在墨西哥和美国进行表演。此外，我认为美国参加此次展览也揭示了手工艺和流行艺术概念的谈判和重新定义，以及它们的制造商在美国的经济和社会状况。