The cinematographical activities of José and Rafael Calderón: a case of omission in the history of Mexican regional and transnational cinema

Abstract

Through this article, we will give an account on the trajectory of distributors and exhibitors José and Rafael Calderón, from the state of Chihuaha, in the north of Mexico, in an interest to inquire about regional and transnational cinemas in that country. We will start from a problematic around the relevance given by cinema studies on phenomena associated with the geocultural centers, that in this case send us to the city of México. Based on it, we will show that although during last years there were advances about this historiographical perspective in several publications on regional and transnational cinemas, the figure of these northern entrepreneurs have been usually omitted, even despite the great influence they had in the development of Mexican cinematographical industry in general, and in the transnational links stablished with United States through the foundation of cinema theaters and the distribuition of Mexican cinema in that country.