CONTENTS

 

 

 

This Thursday: Vanessa Freije Presents “On-the-Ground Labor with Outer-Space Technologies: Workers at Mexico’s Tulancingo Satellite Earth Station”

 

A group of young men posed in front of antenna at the Tulancingo Satellite Earth Station


“On-the-Ground Labor with Outer-Space Technologies: Workers at Mexico’s Tulancingo Satellite Earth Station”

Vanessa Freije (University of Washington)
Thursday, August 7 at 2:00 pm EDT / 1:00 pm CDT / 11:00 am PDT

In early 1968, construction began on the Tulancingo Satellite Earth Station—the first of its kind in Latin America. Located two hours northeast of Mexico’s capital, the station featured two imposing, rotating antennas that would establish Mexico’s first connection with a NASA satellite. Constructed for the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, the station transmitted and received color television programs, as well as telephone and telegraph signals, from Latin America and Europe.

Most Mexicans would not experience the benefits of satellite communications for nearly two decades, but for hundreds of technicians and engineers who worked at the Earth Station, the 1968 satellite connection changed their lives. Based in archival research and over forty interviews with satellite technicians and engineers in Mexico, this presentation explores how working with satellite technologies shaped the lives and subjectivities of Tulancingo-based workers.

Vanessa Freije is an Associate Professor of International Studies. Her research examines the history of information and media politics in Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico. Her book, Citizens of Scandal: Journalism, Secrecy, and the Politics of Reckoning in Mexico, was published in October 2020 with Duke University Press and was awarded the American Historical Association’s Eugenia M. Palmegiano Prize in the History of Journalism. The book examines how media scandals shaped social imaginaries and forged new modes of political engagement from the 1960s through the 1980s. 

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 221 803 629 604

Passcode: E74ZN227

 

Dial in by phone

+1 256-715-9946,,12118491# United States, Huntsville

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 121 184 91#

 

 

 

 

Join Us on August 14th for “Looking Up and Looking North: Outer Space Imaginaries in Mexico,” a Seminar by Anne W. Johnson

View of North America from space focusing on Mexico and the United States.

“Looking Up and Looking North: Outer Space Imaginaries in Mexico”

Anne W. Johnson (Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City)
Thursday, August 14 at 2:00 pm EDT / 1:00 pm CDT / 11:00 am PDT

Porfirio Díaz memorably lamented, 'Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.' The ambivalence historically felt by many Mexicans toward its dominant northern neighbor has also made itself felt in the context of the space race. In this talk, Anne W. Johnson reflects on the historical role of NASA in diverse Mexican narratives about the human exploration of outer space, showing how the agency has traditionally functioned both aspirationally and critically as a symbolic condensation of power, technology, and the future.

Anne W. Johnson is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She received her MA and PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Theater Arts from Brown University. She is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers, level 2. Her research interests include the social study of science and technology, the anthropology of the future, performance studies, historical memory, and material culture, and she has published books, chapters, and journal articles in these fields. Her current project, based on ethnographic research with the Mexican Space Agency, a university space instrumentation laboratory, and a series of art collectives, revolves around Mexican imaginaries of outer space and the future.

Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 216 425 950 62

Passcode: wr37EZ6f

 

Dial in by phone

+1 256-715-9946,,496643439# United States, Huntsville

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 496 643 439#

 

 

 

More Upcoming Seminars in the “Aerospace Latin America: A History” Series

Don’t miss the remaining seminars in the “Aerospace Latin America: A History” series. Here’s what’s coming up each Thursday in August and September.

AUGUST 7

Vanessa Freije (University of Washington)
“On-the-Ground Labor with Outer-Space Technologies: Workers at Mexico’s Tulancingo Satellite Earth Station”

AUGUST 14

Anne W. Johnson (Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City)
“Looking Up and Looking North: Outer Space Imaginaries in Mexico”

AUGUST 21

Alejandro Martin Lopez (Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas, University of Buenos Aires)
“Under an Entanglement of Skies: A Cultural Astronomy Approach to Our Relationship with the Cosmos”

SEPTEMBER 4

Brett A. Houk (Texas Tech University, Lubbock) and
Amy E. Thompson (The University of Texas at Austin)
“Lidar and Landscape Legacies in the Maya Lowlands: Insights from Belize”

SEPTEMBER 11

Sebastián Díaz Angel (Postdoctoral Researcher, CLIMASAT project, Institut d'Història de la Ciència, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)
“Cold War and Satellite Diplomacy: The First Panamerican Symposium on Remote Sensing (Panama City, 1973)”

SEPTEMBER 18

Sean T. Mitchell (Rutgers University–Newark)
“An Ethnographic History of Brazil’s Spaceport”

SEPTEMBER 25

Brad Massey (NASA History Office)
“Satellites, Sterilized Flies, and the Screwworm Scourge: NASA, la Comisión Nacional del Espacio Exterior, and the Mexican-American Screwworm Eradication Campaign, 1972–1980

 

_________________________________

 

NASA History Office

Office of Communications

 

history@mail.nasa.gov

www.nasa.gov/history

Facebook  â€¢  X  â€¢  Flickr