Through her innovative biographical approach, Mary Kay Vaughan once again expands the boundaries of history. In Portrait of a Young Painter, Vaughan has produced an original study that radiates joy, exuberance, and love of life. Beyond opening a window into the life of the intriguing artist Pepe Zúñiga, Vaughan's study offers an important addition to the historiography of Mexico, the role of culture within society, the youth movement and protests, poverty and the family, Mexico City's art scene, and much more. In her analysis of the formation of post-1940 Mexico and the 1968 student protests, Vaughan emphasizes the rise of a creative and often rebellious youth movement that questioned capitalism and traditions. In this manner Vaughan reveals not only the ways in which young people participated in the shaping of historical processes, but also how historical actors negotiated competing discourses. Here she moves beyond traditional notions of cultural history to include an analysis of memory and subjectivity in the construction of Zúñiga's narrative.

In addition to archival documents, Vaughan masterfully draws on oral interviews, bringing to life Zúñiga's world, as well as the voices of family members, friends and neighbors, artists, and intellectuals. Although Vaughan's affection for the artist and those who surrounded him engages the reader, she clearly understands her position vis-à-vis her subjects. She carefully interrogates the elements that shaped her relationship with Zúñiga, including the complications of memory. Vaughan also looks to “new biography,” which, unlike traditional biography, is “less interested in a person for his or her unique contribution to history or the arts and more interested in how an individual life reflects and illuminates historical processes” (p. 5). Vaughan's study of Zúñiga deftly does just that: through her richly painted textual portrait, she presents the vibrantly colorful interiors of Mexico City and the changing historical events of Mexico's political, social, and artistic world that shaped Zúñiga and other youth of his generation.

After an introduction that presents the theories that structure the study, Vaughan moves forward from the time of Zúñiga's childhood to the student protests of 1968, with a final chapter on Zúñiga as a mature artist. In developing the book, she explores four processes shared by Zúñiga and the youth of this era: 1) a mid-twentieth-century emphasis on children's welfare through radio shows, health campaigns, churches, schools, textbooks, sports, and other means; 2) entertainment and the mass media; 3) the “domestication of violent masculinity”; and 4) “the formation of a critical public of youth” (p. 8).

A creative soul, Zúñiga evidenced a desire to attain “freedom to be himself” that runs through the narrative. Although Zúñiga's father fueled his son's love of painting in some sense by introducing the family to the wonderful world of radio and the movies, he nonetheless insisted that Zúñiga find conventional work as a tailor or in electronics repair. After all, the family, originally from Oaxaca and of Zapotec heritage, was of modest means. Still, in 1958 Zúñiga enrolled in a drawing class at the La Esmeralda painting school, which was founded in 1942 by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and others. There, a new world of art and friendships opened for the young artist. Once he entered the school full time in 1962, Zúñiga rethought aspects of his identity, and at this point his painting produced “a more intense sensation of being alive” (p. 168).

In 1964 Zúñiga was commissioned to paint for the opening of the new Museo de Antropología, and during the next few years he regularly exhibited his paintings and won prestigious prizes for his work. In 1972 he received a scholarship to study in Paris. Upon his return, Zúñiga, by then an accomplished painter, assumed a position as a professor at La Esmeralda, where he became director (1991–1993). Throughout, he continued to create paintings that expressed his unique sense of identity, sexuality, and creativity.

Scholars will gain much from reading this smartly written, imaginative study. Skillfully revealing the complex, multilayered worlds that Zúñiga inhabited, Vaughan opens the door to a greater understanding of Mexico's 1960s youth rebellion. This powerful analysis will contribute significantly to the field, but also should point to new ways of writing history.