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How was Mexican style furniture introduced in Britain?
There are many curious anomalies in the development of the British furniture trade and surely the introduction of Mexican furniture must be one of them. Just how the furniture style from a country with no social, economic or cultural links with Britain came to be so popular here is difficult to pinpoint.
The Republic of Mexico is the USA’s southern neighbour. Originally populated and governed by indigenous civilisations such as the Maya and the Aztecs (none of whom had Mexican blanket boxes!) it was invaded by the Spanish and in 1521 became a Spanish colony. This situation was to last for exactly 300 years, until 1821, when Mexico regained its independence.
After three centuries as a Spanish colony it is not surprising that the country acquired many of the trappings of its European rulers. These included obvious elements such as the language but also less obvious features such as the style of furniture - perhaps even Mexican blanket boxes. Studying Spanish Colonial furniture will show it has many similarities to that of Mexican furniture. Perhaps the greatest difference is that the Mexican furniture makes greater use of exposed metal hinges and metal fittings designed to show off the country’s skills in metalworking.
At independence in 1821, Mexico’s territory included Texas, California, Wyoming, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. These were lost to the USA during the course of the 19th Century and, as if this weren’t bad enough, in the 1860s the country was again invaded and colonised by a European power, this time the French.
Spanish or Mexican blanket box?Why is this relevant to Mexican blanket boxes in the UK? Well there are two potential explanations for Mexican furniture in the UK. The first, and most plausible, is that during the 1960s Britain was introduced to the delights of cheap overseas package holidays. For the first time, ordinary people could afford to travel abroad for their holidays and not just by coach or train but by air – previously a method of travel reserved only for the very wealthy.
Many of these tourists travelled to Spain for their holidays and once there, the enjoyment of the place and its surroundings might perhaps have spawned a desire for Spanish style furniture on returning home. The fact that many bungalows were built in the 1970s with Spanish-style architectural features and archways between, for example, living and dining rooms, lends some credibility to this idea. Of course Spanish style furniture and Mexican style furniture are very similar, so it would not have taken long for an enterprising business to have sourced low cost Mexican furniture – including Mexican blanket boxes – for importation.
Cultural ImperialismAn alternative explanation might be that of what is termed American cultural imperialism. American tourists visiting Mexico brought Mexican furniture (perhaps even Mexican blanket boxes) back to furnish their own homes. This, together with the fact that less than 100 years previously, many parts of America had still been Mexican, would have created a Mexican-influenced interior to many American homes.
In Britain during the 1950s and 1960s almost anything American in terms of culture and style was so influential that American ‘Mexican’ interiors would have been copied from films and TV – so bringing Mexican furniture to Britain.