Patricia Ybarra's ethnographic study of the small state of Tlaxcala (Mexico) stretching from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first, analyses the role of theatre and performance in history writing within this society and culture, looking in particular at its relationship with Spanish colonization and, more recently, with neoliberal economic policies and practices. The primary subjects of study are various stagings of the Spanish conquest, ranging from historical plays, missionary narratives, fiestas and mural art to tourist performances, political events and contemporary evocations of Tlaxcalan identity as Mexican in relation to the westernized Mexico City. The monograph would have not been as successful if it had pursued the well-trodden path of outlining the identity politics of an indigenous society. However, Ybarra consciously chooses not to tidy up the messy relationship between culture and capital in Mexico, and is wary of romanticizing her subject by uncritically affirming its special position in Mexican history or reading into its cultural products narratives of resistance and opposition. This makes her approach methodologically responsive and responsible, as well as making the subject accessible to those unfamiliar with Mexican history and theatre. Theoretical reference points for the work are Michel de Certeau, particularly visible in the book's emphasis on local history, and its use of de Certeau's distinction between strategies and tactics; Diana Taylor's notion of repeated gestures and scenarios; and Hayden White, whose insistence on the close relationship between historiography and dramatic narrative constitutes an important pillar for Ybarra's own interpretations of Tlaxcalan history writing. The close readings of playtexts with historical references and well-researched intertextual links are much more convincing than the descriptions of statues in the city square, tourist pamphlets and impressions of political rallies, which tend to be too associative and random at times.

The book argues that the theatrical and political performances of conquest in Tlaxcalan history oscillate between resistance and complicity. They should not be read as simple representations of the nation state oppressing the indigenous minorities, nor should they be seen as serving a revolutionary, oppositional politics. Ybarra analyses the legacy of a paradoxical view which implies that Tlaxcala is both exemplary and exceptional in Mexican history, presenting this society as a showcase, on the one hand, of the real Mexico, and glorifying it, on the other, as unique and different to all other parts of the country. Rather than contesting or verifying these claims, the study attempts to unsettle each of them in detail. It identifies acts and performances that can be seen as both oppositional and complicit, and thus situates the Tlaxcalans on the ground of being ‘neither powerless nor powerful, but making do somewhere in the middle’ (p. 201).