Response to Meagan

I think this is a very interesting topic. The concept of cultural appropriation is very complex, be it between cultures or, in this case, countries. As you pointed out, Porter's intent was not malicious, but that doesn't change the fact that it does, as you say, exoticize the culture.

You've got lots of possibilities for this paper, and I think it will be very interesting. Here are some questions that came to mind. If these are off topic, disregard, but these are some thoughts that I had:

What are the consequences of Katherine Anne Porter's exoticizing of Mexico? Looking at it historically, was there any resentment or criticism of it in her time? What are the far-reaching consequences? For example, did it contribute to our current view of the Mexican revolution?

What are the modern equivalents? White college kids wearing Che Guevara shirts? American tourism in Latin American countries that are impoverished outside of tourist towns? Ex pats in Nicaragua who are mostly there for the surfing?

(For that matter, is it only exoticizing when it's a dominant culture absorbing the dialect and/or customs of another culture, such as white suburbanites adopting hip-hop lingo or American-run restaurants offering foreign cuisines? But that's another paper altogether.)

Do you feel that Porter truly felt as though Mexico was hers, or do you feel she had some doubt about her place within the culture and tried to work through that doubt in her stories?