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Daniela Spenser Edit Profile

educator researcher author

Daniela Spenser is a Mexican researcher, educator, and author. She is a professor at Centro de Investigaciones у Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social in Mexico City.

Background

Daniela Spenser was born on January 19, 1948, in Prague, Czech Republic. She is the daughter of Kurt Groll and Ruth Tosková.

Education

In 1972 Daniela Spenser received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of London. In 1987 she obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Mexico City. In 1994 Spenser gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Career

From 1973 to 1977 Daniela Spenser was a field researcher at Instituto Mexicano del Café in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1980 he became a research fellow at Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1993 Spenser was a professor of history at the Ibero-American University (Universidad Iberoamericana) in Mexico City, Mexico. From 1993 to 1994 Daniela worked as a professor of history at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1994 she served as a professor of history at the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México).

She has published several books, including The Impossible Triangle: Mexico, Soviet Russia, and the United States in the 1920s (1999). Her edited books include La Internacional Comunista en Mexico: Los primeros tropiezos (2006), En busca de una nacion soberana: Las relations internacionales de Mexico, siglos XIX y XX (2006), and Espejos de la guerra fria: Mexico, America Central y el Caribe (2004). In 1976 she was also a contributor of photographs to Danzas v Fiestas. Her research focuses on the history of communism and the Cold War in Mexico and Latin America.

Achievements

  • Daniela Spenser is best known as the author of The Impossible Triangle: Mexico, Soviet Russia, and the United States in the 1920s. Her works received high praise from critics.

Works

Views

Based on documents from the archives of several nations - including reports by former Mexican diplomats in Moscow that have never before been studied - Spenser analyzes the Mexican government’s motivation for establishing relations with the Soviet Union in the face of continued imperialist pressure and harsh opposition from the United States. After explaining how Mexico established diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union in 1924 in an attempt to broaden the spectrum of its alliances after several years of uneven relations with the United States, Spenser reveals the troubling nature of the relationship that ensued. Soviet policy toward Mexico was characterized by a series of profound contradictions, varying from neglect to strong involvement in Mexican politics and the belief that Mexico could become a center of world revolution. Working to resolve and explain these contradictions, Spenser explores how, despite U.S. objections to Mexico’s relations with the Soviet Union, Mexico continued its association with the Soviets until the United States adopted the Good Neighbor Policy and softened its stance toward Mexico’s revolutionary program after 1927.

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Membership

Daniela Spenser is a member of the Mexico Academy of Sciences and Latin American Studies Association.

Interests

  • photography, sports

Connections

Daniela Spenser is divorced. She has a son, Daniel Yanes.

Father:
Kurt Groll Tuskov

Mother:
Ruth Tosková

Son:
Daniel Yanes