The Disintegration of Community
analyzes the social and cultural writings of Jorge Portilla (1919−1963) in order to demonstrate the continued relevance of his thought. Carlos Alberto Sánchez and Francisco Gallegos situate Portilla's
otros ensayos
—a series of essays originally published with his more widely known
Fenomenología del relajo
—at the center of the contemporary debates on the politics of social and cultural identity, the nature of community, and the political role of affect and moods. Sánchez and Gallegos address questions as timely today as they were for Portilla: What drives the impulse toward political nationalism? What sustains the myths that organize our political lives? Under what conditions do communities disintegrate? To answer these questions, the authors seek to think
with
Portilla by analyzing his writing and to think
after
Portilla by bringing his critical spirit to bear on the present. An appendix with original English translations of Portilla's three
enables the reader to do the same.