Carlos Fuentes Books

Famous Hispanic novelist writes broad brush cultural and political history of the connection between Spain and Spanish America--the "New World" of the subtitle.

He shows how the three threads of Spanish history in 1492--feudalism fighting toward central monarchy, Christianized Europe fighting against the Islamic outpost on the Iberian peninsula, and the three peoples of the Book--Jews, Christians, and Muslims--fighting for survival and cultural footholds in the rebirth of knowledge in the Rennaisance--played out on the projected Utopia of the "New" World.

Good high-level framework for studying South and Central American history.

Reading this book, helped me see how close to each other we all are. How the Islamic culture and arts are part of the Hispanic world. For instance, a great percent of the words that we use in Spanish derived from the Arabic language. It's a great read!!

I was reading my book again to study for one of my tests and I realized that I am missing some pages and some pages are out of order. Is there something that I can do to obtain a full copy that is in order?

This book is the English translation of El Espejo Enterrado, by Mexican writer and diplomat Carlos Fuentes. It consists of 399 pages divided into 5 parts and 18 chapters which describe the history of the Spanish speaking people from their Cretan and Greek roots, through their development during the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Imperial Period, all the way to modern Spain and South America.

The book also includes 5 two page tables titled The Monarchs of Spain and showing detailed genealogical information on the families that ruled Spain from 970 ad to the beginning of the 20th century (not included in the Spanish version published by Taurus-Bolsillo 1992), as well as a large number of beautiful black and white and color illustrations (also not included the Spanish version published by Taurus-Bolsillo 1992). I missed such information, when reading the Spanish version, particularly the illustrations, because the author refers to them in the text, often with very detailed descriptions.

The book ends with the credits, acknowledgements, and index.

El Espejo Enterrado is listed as an essay, although it probably should be classified as a history book. Yet it is more than that, because Carlos Fuentes is more than an essayer or a historian. He is a multifaceted artist who sees and describes reality in a more comprehensive as well as captivating manner than the average essayer or historian would. Hence he does not just give the description of the events that shaped the history of the Spanish speaking people, he makes them interesting, he makes the reader want to learn more. For example, by discussing the individuals whose thoughts and actions influenced the decisions of the Spanish speaking people (e.g., Jean Jacques Rousseau and Napoleon); by relating the major world events from which those related to the Spanish speaking people developed (e.g., the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution); or by describing the works of some of the major Spanish speaking artists (e.g., Don Quixote, La Vida Es Sueno, Las Meninas, La Maja Desnuda). Hence with this book, you will learn more than the history of the Spanish speaking people, you will meet some of the great thinkers of the Western world, you will be reminded of the history of the Western world, you will learn about the products of the most illuminated minds of the Spanish speaking world. You will also discover about many word origins, (how many among you reading this review know the meaning of the word Saragoza, the origin of the name Malinche, the identity of the woman from whom California got its name, the reason why the Mexicans call the turkey guacolote). And you will acquire an awful lot of useful information which would otherwise not be easily available all in one book, for example, the real significance of Goya's painting Saturn Devouring his Children".

If you are educated in the history and artistic expressions of the Western World and interested in Spain and South America, you will not be able to put this book down until you come to the end. In actual fact, you will probably wish that you never came to the end.

The countries of Latin America have collectively had a long and tortured history; starting with the wars between the great native empires, the arrival of Columbus and the Spaniards, and finally US imperialism throughout the 20th century. Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, Latin Americans are more conscious than ever of their past, the contributions both native and European to it, and the state of their current economies, societies and culture. Part of this awakening and collective consciousness is the rise of prominant authors born and raised within the Hispanic world. One of these is Carlos Fuentes from Mexico, who in this book examines the origins and evolution of Latin American peoples, countries, and cultures. Paying attention to the influences from Spain, Portugal, France, various current and ancient native tribes, and now the US, this book shows how modern Hispanic culture came together in ways often violent, haphazard and chaotic. Rarely was one person in charge of this process; rare are the works that dominated this evolution. Outside of the Catholic Church, Latin America knows no equivalent of Sun Tzu's Art of War, Homer's epic poems, or the US Constitution. The author then tries to distill what is best about Latin American culture, and in doing so, points a way forward for Hispanics throughout the Western Hemisphere. Overall, a great book to understand this region of the world, its past, its present, and its probable future.

The photographs were excellent -- just looking at them makes you want to know and like these people.

The narrative brought me up short. I'm one of those (apparently) rare individuals who believe American values aren't so bad that we should feel grateful to foreigners who come here and teach us how to live.

Most Americans feel a certain sense of good fortune for having been born in the United States. The narrative in this book leaves the impression that "Americanos" don't think America is so great, have no intention of "being assimilated" (in other words, becoming Americans), and feel they by rights already own the place anyway.

I'm no xenophobe, but this book left me with a strong bad impression. Maybe I should have given it 5 stars. Maybe it's a book every American ought to read carefully.

Edward James Olmos has done alot of WOnderful things in his career. and this Project is one of them.it's very Important to Show the World The Beauty of the Latino World.every culture deserves the right to be seen and heard at full Zenith.everybody wants a better Future and to Be Respected.This Book is very much like the book i have of African-AMericans in America the Many different shades of us and the many visions.it's important to Know the World around You.

After being honored with the presence of Mr. Olmos at the Penn State University this past November, I have only grown to respect what our culture has done and continues to do. This book exemplifies what we were, what we are, and what we are to become. I have only pride in my heart and a joy in my sould for what we have been capable of doing in this the United States of America. I hope that everyone has a chance to look at this book and, like I did, see themselves in these pages.

As the largest growing ethnic group in the United States, Latinos/Hispanics have made inroads in many fields due to their strength, organization, and family values. Although differences among Latinos are as common as differences in other groups distinguished by a common language root (e.g., Slavs, Arabs, Romance languages speakers, etc.) the common struggle of all nationalities that are found in this classification is the same: success.

Edited by one of the greatest activists and advocates for Latinos all around the world, actor Edward James Olmos, "Americanos: Latino Life in the United States" is a collection of beautiful photographs and stories of Latinos throughout the United States. From Mexican-Americans in California to Puerto Ricans in New York City, Olmos and a team of other editors have produced a book that perfectly and respectfully captures the beauty and realities of Latinos all around. Available in hardbound and paperback editions, "Americanos: Latino Life in the United States" is a must have for Latino/Hispanic Studies students/enthuasists or for anyone who tuly appreciates cultural photography. The book, which was accompanied by a U.S. museum tour of photographs featured in the book, is truly a milestone for a community that has risen from a long sleep and awakened to become the most dynamic and promising group in the Americas.

If I can use two words to describe this book, I would use "moving" and "beautiful." It's a must have book in your library, especially if you're Latino.

Esto es un libro hecho muy bien con el editation gráfico muy bueno hecho por Manuel Monterrey. Recomend I él.

This is a very well done book with very good graphical editation done by Manuel Monterrey. I recomend it.

I have always been a fan of Carlos Fuentes and other novelists writing in Spanish. This book does not disappoint, even tho it is short. It's beautifully written, with language that evokes a dream. The stories of the old man, Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, looking back on his life and his love of a woman, Inez Prada, intertwine with that of a pair of lovers in ancient times. Overlaying it all is music - mostly that of Berloiz and his "The Damnation of Faust" - but also other music, the original music that man made when he was learning to talk. The beauty is marred by the evil things men do - the London Blitz in WWII and violence in the ancient time. But the scars on the earth can be healed - as Atlan-Ferrara says, "Sing until the bombs of Satan are silenced."

I read this book a couple of years ago and really really love it. The story stays with you.... Fuentes is an amazing writer.

I read this short, enigmatic novel, "Inez" by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes because it draws heavily upon one of my most beloved works of music, Hector Berlioz' "The Damnation of Faust". Berlioz called this work a "legende dramatique". It is usually performed as a concert opera. It is based upon Goethe's Faust, with a text by Berlioz himself. It tells the story of an aging scholar who sells his soul to Mephistopheles to win the love of the beautiful Marguerite. At the climax of Berlioz' opera, Faust is driven off on horseback to hell to the sound of a furious "hup-hup" while Marguerite is saved and goes to heaven. In his book,Fuentes makes a great deal of the "hup-hup" of Faust's fateful journey.

Fuentes's novel tells the story of a 93 year old conductor Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, who has spent much of a long career conducting this masterwork of Berlioz. The opera is intertwined for Ferrara with his love for a great Mexican singer, Inez Rosenzweig who adopts the stage name Inez Prada. Ferrara and Prada see each other at three widely-spaced times in their lives, the first in London during WW II, (when Inez is a fledgling but strong-willed singer, only 20 and a virgin) the second in the early 1950s (when Inez dismisses a lover from her apartment to receive Ferrara) in Mexico and the third in London in 1967. During the first meeting Prada rejects Ferrara as a lover but becomes infatuated by a young male friend who appears in a photograph with Ferrara. Ferrara walks away from her, and the picture of the young man mysteriously disappears from the photo. During the second meeting Ferrara and Prado consummate their love but do not otherwise pursue their relationship. Prada marries briefly. During the third meeting the couple reminisces while Ferrara oonducts a version of Faust with Marguerite in the nude. The two never see each other again. Ferrara has a mysterious crystal he received from Prada and, he believes, it allows him access to the past and the future. As an aged man of 93 conducting Faust for the last time, his thoughts are on Prada.

The Prada-Ferrara story is juxtaposed against an even more enigmatic tale involving a man named Neh-el and a woman named Ah-nel. This story is set in primordial time as the first love between a man and a woman as they separate themselves from the other animals. Their story involves tenderness, lust, incest, and the change from a matriarchial, egalitarian society to one based upon patriarchy.

The Faust-Marguerite, Ferrara-Prada, Nehel-Ah-nel relationships all involve the mysterious nature of love and sexuality between a man and a woman. They also involve the ability of music to capture this relationship and to transcend it. (The Nehel -- Ah-nel relationship involves the tale of a primitive silver flute which plays music never since heard.) The strongest scenes in this novel are those that are closest to Berlioz' music, that capture its romantic passion, and that illustrate Ferrara's life-long obsession with the score. The book includes extended discussions of the power of music and difficult reflections on the nature of male-female relationships. There is also a great deal of fantasy in the book as it concerns the mysterious crystal and the early relationship of Neh-el and Ah-nel.

This is a moving but obscure novel. Those fascinated with the book should explore for themselves Berlioz' flamboyant and passionate setting of "The Damnation of Faust". Berlioz' "legende dramatique" is readily available on many fine CD sets.

Robin Friedman

I've read nearly every book wrtten by Carlos Fuentes and found ths one to be great but not his best. Somewhere between great and mind blowng would be more accurate. I only wish it were longer. Carlos Fuentes , the master story teller never fails to produce works that will stand the test of time as great literary pieces. Written in a short story format the story is nonetheless epic. Fuentes manages to use language to carry you beyond the incidents you are reading about , he opens up your mind to possibilities through his use of passages that are fluid streams of thought. There are several good customer and editorial descriptions of the actual storyline but suffice to say that Fuentes goes out of bounds , beyond the limits and back as he interweaves a story with another, carrying you through a time machine tunnel where the light you see is your own thought process being ignited. His concepts are relatively simple in comparison to some of his other works but there is always so much more to a Fuentes book. This is a book that is best enjoyed read over a short period of time, a few hours, a day or a weekend to become completely engulfed in. I read this over a few hours sessions in the Baja California desert where there were few interruptions or distractions. This is an excellent short book in a long list of great Carlos Fuentes novels. This story is a gripping fantasy and an emotional rollercoaster that is beautifully written, and highly recommended.

If you're a fan of Carlos Fuentes' early novels, like "Aura" and "The Death of Artemio Cruz," then you are bound to enjoy "Inez," (in Spanish, "Instinto de Inez"). In this, his latest book, after "The Years With Laura Diaz," the author returns to the magical world of fantasy, and to some of his favorite themes: creativity and time.

Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a dynamic and celebrated symphony conductor, reflects back on his life, at age 93, and realizes that only death awaits him. These reflections reveal his great passion for one woman, and for music. They also disclose the conductor's view of the world, and destiny, as he confronts death. "El muerto no sabe lo que es la muerte, pero los vivos tampocos" ("The dead don't know what death is, but neither do the living"). The past holds for him the memory of his love for the red-haired, dark eyed Inez. Gabriel has a shimmering glass seal, a mysterious object "sufficient unto itself." This seal might bestow upon its bearer the ability to see past, present and future, to hear music of impossible beauty, and to read unknown languages. The maestro hopes to find, in the crystal seal, the impossible reflection of Inez and a return to a time when they were together - to transcend time, distance and space through their love.

The crystal also provides the link between two intertwining stories - that of Atlan-Ferrara and his memories, and a parallel narrative which records Inez' dreams - a poetic love story telling of the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman. "Inez" is an extraordinary tale which contrasts love and obsession, life and death, male and female.

Alan-Ferrara encountered Mexican opera singer, Inez Prada, three times over the course of his lifetime. The first time was during the 1940 London blitz. This was when he initially heard her sing. In 1949 they met again in Mexico City. She had become a renowned diva. Atlan-Ferrara had moved-up in his career also, and was now one of the world's most important orchestra conductors. Their last meeting took place in London, 1967, when the conductor decided to break all the rules of traditional opera. Each time they met they were performing Berlioz's opera, "The Damnation of Faust." It is "the opera that permits me to travel in time...," Fuentes said in an interview. "It is Berlioz who invents this original dissonance, this extraordinary mystery of the origin of music and the origin of voice."

Fuentes also stated that Alan-Ferrara is "modeled on one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the Romanian Sergiu Celibidache." The young Mexican soprano, Inez, Fuentes says was inspired by the legendary Maria Callas.

Margaret Sayers Peden's translation is excellent and captures Fuentes' language as well as any translation could.

Carlos Fuentes, probably Mexico's greatest living writer, is the author of more than twenty books and has received many awards for his accomplishments as a novelist, essayist, and commentator, among them the Cervantes Prize in 1987. Major themes in Fuentes' work are the power of fantasy, national identity, and the promise and failure of the Mexican revolution. Fuentes has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His father made him read Mexican history when he was a boy, which Fuentes saw as a history of crushing defeats, especially when compared with the United States. "I learned to imagine Mexico before I ever knew Mexico," he once said.
JANA

Reviewing a book that i received, have not read it, but it's in great condition and shipping was very quick. Thank you.

I have really enjoyed using this book. I am in several spanish classes at college and I have found that Fuentes' book is an easy read; you are able to understand and visualize some of the history of Latin America. The structure of the book is less like a textbook and more like a novel, the facts are all there, they are just presented in a different way, a more subjunctive way. I encourage those who need a good resource on the history and culture of Spain and Latin America to consider this book.

Fuentes dice en el Espejo Enterrado que Rocinante es una yegua y no es cierto. Reto al mismo Carlos Fuentes a que me lo demuestre.

Los espejos simbolizan la realidad............. De los espejos de obsidiana de la urbe totonaca de El Tajin a los espejos ibericos de Cervantes y Velasquez, el de la locura y el del asombro, un intercambio de reflejos ha ido y venido incesantemente de una a otra orilla del Atlantico. (Excerpted from the back cover of the book).

Such reflejos are the subject of the book, which is listed as an essay (ensayo) among the works of Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, but which should really be classified under the subject of History in that it traces the development of the Spanish speaking people from prehistory to modern times.

The book consists of 18 chapters as follows: "La Virgen y el Toro" (the Cretan and Greek roots); "La Conquista de Espana" (by Cartage and Rome); "La Reconquista de Espana" (by the Barbarians, later by the Moors); "1492: El Ano Cruzal" (the expulsion of the Moors by the Catholic kings, and the discovery of the New World); "Vida y Muerte del Mundo Indigena" (the natives of North America, Cortes and Moctezuma); "La Conquista y la Reconquista del Nuevo Mundo" (the conquest of the New World, the new towns, the universities, the new religion); "La Era Imperial" (the problems with the administration of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish armada by Francis Drake); "El Siglo de Oro" (literature and art in imperial Spain - Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Velasquez, Tirso de Molina, Francisco de Zurbaran); "El Barroco del Nuevo Mundo" (problems and unrest in the New World, Aleijadinho, Juana Ines de la Cruz); "La Epoca de Goya" (Melchor Gaspar de Jovellanos and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes); "Hacia la Endependencia: Multiples Mascaras y Aguas Turbias" (the unrest among the Creoles and the desire for independence); El Precio de la Libertad: Simon Bolivar y Jose de San Martin" (the expulsion of Spain from Latin America); "El Tiempo de los Tiranos" (Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia in Paraguay, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Benito Juarez and Maximilian and Carlota in Mexico); "La cultura de la Independencia" (Latin America looks back at Spain while neglecting the local Indians and blacks, Argentine gaucho Jose Hernandez and his poem Martin Fierro, Cuban writer and patriot Jose Martin, Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada); "Tierra y Libertad"(The Mexican revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa); "Latinoamerica" (the general situation and problems of modern day Latin America); La Espana Contemporanea" (the general situation and problems of modern day Spain); La Hispanidad Norteamericana" (a very interesting chapter providing statistics on the total number of Hispanics as well as the number of Hispanic illegals in the United States, describing the invaluable contribution of the Hispanic people to the US economy and more).

El Espejo Enterrado may be listed as an essay, it may be classified as a history book, yet it is more than that, because Carlos Fuentes is more than an essayer or a historian. He is a multifaceted artist who sees and describes reality in a more comprehensive as well as captivating manner than the average essayer or historian would. He does not just give the description of the events that shaped the history of the Spanish speaking people, he makes them interesting, he makes the reader want to learn more. For example, by discussing the individuals whose thoughts and actions influenced the decisions of the Spanish speaking people (e.g., Jean Jacques Rousseau and Napoleon); by relating the major events from which those related to the Spanish speaking people developed (e.g., the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the American Revolution); or by describing the works of the Spanish speaking artists who reflected the periods during which they lived (e.g., Don Quixote, La Vida Es Sueno, Las Meninas, La Maja Desnuda. Hence with this book, the reader will learn more than the history of the Spanish speaking people, he/she will meet (again) some of the great thinkers of the Western world, he/she will be reminded of the history of the Western world, he/she will learn about the products of the most illuminated minds of the Spanish speaking world. He/she will also discover about many word origins, (how many among you reading this review know the meaning of the word Saragoza, the origin of the name Malinche, the identity of the woman from whom California got its name, the reason why they call the turkey guacolote in Mexico). And he/she will acquire an awful lot of useful information which would otherwise not be easily available all in one book, for example, the real significance of Goya's Saturn Devouring his Children".

This is a book that, once started, cannot be put down. A book that many will wish will never come to the end.

Available in Spanish, as well as English with the title The Buried Mirror - Reflections on Spain and the New World, a must for anybody who is interested in history, in the works of the creative mind (including its author's) and the origin of things. Perhaps a must for just anybody interested in expanding his mind, whether or not of Hispanic descent.

"EL ESPEJO ENTERRADO" ES UN LIBRO QUE NO PUEDES DEJAR DE LEER. TIENES QUE TOMARTE UN TIEMPO PARA LEERLO Y APRENDER DE O RECORDAR LA HISTORIA DE TODO AMERICA.

"The ideal of mestizaje, so pejoratively translated as miscegenation, was based in the reality of mixed races to which the positivists ascribed different virtues and failings, and which had to amalgamate if anything like national unity was to be produced. Unity, in positivist rhetoric, was not so much a political or economic concept as it was biological. Since growth meant modernization and Europeanization, the most extreme ideologues (like Argentina's Domingo F. Sarmiento) advocated a combined policy of white immigration and Indian or Black removal, while others...[as the Mexican ideologues] settled for redeeming the "primitive" races through miscegenation and ideological whitening."
Doris Sommer


The modern Mexican nation emerged in the third decade of the twentieth century during the cultural phase of the Mexican Revolution. The criollo (white) controlled government disseminated officially the myth that mestizos were the offspring of Spaniards and Amerindians exclusively, in that order. Thereafter, this discourse was reproduced and reinforced through various means of mass persuasion, including the novel, until 1968.
The black African heritage of Mexican mestizaje was replaced in the collective memory and national imaginary with José Vasconcelos' "cosmic race" myth. This philosophy, a continuation of Spanish colonial beliefs, codified blacks as tame and their genes as recessive. By insisting that Spanish genes were dominant and that black African genes were recessive in the mestizo, criollos, as supposed heirs of the Spanish genes, "legitimated" a paternity claim; hence, a protagonist role in carving out the Mexican nation. This enabled them to transfer historical glory to their name. The history of cimarronaje was erased and African Mexican national heroes were whitened, thus African Mexican national achievements became criollo based.
According to Vasconcelos' creed, exposed in the first forty pages of his La raza cósmica, the black characteristics of the Mexican were receding through natural selection. In his Christian-rooted vision, "beauty" was overpowering "ugliness" and the mestizo population was steadily and eagerly whitening. The modern nation builders adopted Vasconcelos' views as the unequivocal road toward modernization. La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962) (The Death of Artemio Cruz), by Carlos Fuentes, reintroduces and reinforces the myth of the Mexican populace's willing submission to whitening.
In this canonized post-modern novel, the central character, a post-revolution Mexican prototype, on a level, appears as a "mestizo" oblivious of his African family tree; but as he reels through memory from his deathbed, the reader is informed that in the depth of his heart he despises his negritude. He is convinced that "the whiter the better." La muerte is read in this study as a link in the chain of canonized criollo works reflecting the cosmic race-discourse on nation whose iron-like determination, from the start, was the cleansing of blackness from the population, if at least psychologically.
La muerte continues the construction of a false national identity. The novel depicts and perpetuates stereotypes of blacks. It posits that for black characters to be rebellious, or to show intelligence, they have to be whitened. La muerte ignores that black Africans from the beginning of the Maafa or Black Holocaust have revolted. Alive in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, Yanga, the maroon leader in Veracruz, the home state of the protagonist anti-hero of the novel, is a case in point.
La muerte is read in light of pertinent portions of Octavio Paz' "Los hijos de la Malinche" (1950), El perfil del hombre y la cultura en México (1934) by Samuel Ramos, and La raza cósmica (1925) by José Vasconcelos to track down the codification of blackness under its various Mexican signifiers. The aim is to exhibit the intertextuality of these canonized criollo works, pillars of the modern nation, and disclose how they codify the African Mexican Experience.
La muerte uses chingar as substance in constructing Cruz' character (143-47). It thereby makes him a prototype of the Mexican pelado as pointed out by both Remigio Paez, the catholic priest, who brokers his marriage to the criolla Catalina (47), and Cruz himself (276). Regarding the Mexican pelado, Ana María Prieto Hernández reveals, "zaragates, guachinangos, zaramullos, zánganos, ínfima plebe, chusma, peladaje [plural pejorative of pelado] or "léperos" were the postcolonial names given to the various mestizos of African descent (17-19) (emphasis mine). These euphemisms replaced part of the "sixty-four" Spanish colonial categories used to refer to a person's degree of African heritage (Davis 37).
"Los hijos de la Malinche," a parody of los hijos de la chingada (sons of the raped African Mexican woman), exposes that chingar is a "vulgar" word (Paz 67), and that the general population is master of its usage (Paz 67). It posits that chingar may be of Aztec origin (Paz 68). Thereby, it cleanses léperos or pelados from their African heritage. "Los hijos" claims the mestizo, lépero or pelado as the offspring of Spaniards and Amerindians, in that order.
The Malinche, a synonym of national treason, embodied in a pre-Hispanic born Amerindian woman who gives into Hernán Cortés, is inserted in the place of la chingada. Through its thesis, besides glorifying the criollo and marking the Amerindian genes of the mestizo as inherently "malinchista," it blocks the possibility of establishing the relations between La chingada, her Africaness and the African Kimbundu cradle of the verb chingar (Pérez Fernández).
"Los hijos de la Malinche" replaces the maroon history of mestizaje in the national imaginary. It omits mestizaje's African heritage. "Los hijos" annuls the connection between Africans, African Mexicans, alvaradeños, jarochos, chinacos, léperos, or pelados. "Los hijos" is another vehicle of cultural misappropriation. It confuses ownership of the verb chingar and blurs the African origins and identity of the Mexican mezclas or mestizos.
"Los hijos" fuses all "social" classes through the word chingar. It presents Mexico and Mexicaness as one; this underlines the fallacy of Mexico as a racial paradise. By omitting its Africaness, it creates a "rightful" and preferential space for the criollo within a culture constructed by the Other. Ted Vincent exhibits the two separate worlds constructed in Mexico during the colonial period: the Spanish-criollo world marked by the minuet, wine and white bread; and the mezcla world marked by La bamba, tequila, and corn tortillas (5). For "Los hijos," Mexicaness, embodied in the mestizo, has Spanish and Amerindian roots alone, in that order.
"Los hijos" follows the "psychoanalytical profile" of the pelado in El perfil. After calling the pelado "fauna," El perfil characterizes the pelado as "a being without principles, generally mistrusting, full of bluster and cowardly" (Ramos 76). El perfil manifests that as a subject, the pelado "lacks all human values" and that in fact he is "incapable of acquiring" said values (Ramos 76). El perfil's evaluation of the pelado is linked to Vasconcelos and his philosophy on education (Muñoz 24). El perfil forwards the perspective that Mexican culture is a culture of cultures whose most valuable manifestation is the criollo culture. In La muerte, the protagonist recognizes Mexico as "a thousand countries under one name" (274) where criollos are the mark of civilization (50).
Cruz is narrated as a dying seventy-one year old (16) Mexican of African lineage who does not identify with his African heritage (276). He is the bastard son of a certain "Isabel Cruz, Cruz Isabel," a Mulatto woman whose true name is unknown (314). Cruz' father, Anastasio Menchaca, is a criollo who during the Porfiriato had been a powerful landowner. Cruz is six feet tall and weighs about 174 pounds (247). He has "pronounced features" (41), a wide nose (9) graying curly hair (16, 251) that once was black (314). He has dark skin (16), as the "very dark" skin color of his son (168). He has green eyes that project a cold, unwavering look (171), an energetic mouth, wide forehead, protruding cheekbones (149) and thick lips (115).
Cruz becomes Lieutenant Colonel during the armed phase of the Revolution. Through his cunning marriage to a criolla, the sister of a fellow soldier executed by a firing squad at the end of the armed conflict, he turns out to be first, a landowner and administrator, and later, a newspaper magnate and a millionaire by brokering government concessions to foreigners.
In La muerte, the images are patchy and colored in a cubist fashion. For instance, when Cruz tells himself:

Although I don't want it to, something shines insistently next to my face; something that reproduces itself behind my closed eyelids: a fugue of black lights and blue circles. I contract the face muscles, I open the right eye and I see it reflected in the glass incrustations of a woman's purse (...) I am this old man with the features shattered by the irregular glass squares. (9)

The physical and ideological descriptions of the characters are introduced in scattered fragments and clues throughout the novel, as a puzzle that must be assembled. In the case of Cruz, this renders his heritage confusing. The analytical Afrocentric reader must amass the fragments to realize Cruz is an African Mexican. The level of difficulty of this decoding task is evidenced by the scattered page numbers where Cruz' characteristics and features are introduced bit by bit nonchalantly: 276, 324, 247, 41, 9, 16, 251, 314, 168, 171, 149, 115, and 316, among others.
The reader is forced to travel back and forth in time. The images evoked by Cruz flash in and out of focus. Time, space, physical and metaphysical barriers are shattered as the plot develops in Cruz' psyche. He brings the past to the present at will. One case in point is when he recalls his childhood, as in a close-up scene, and transports the reader to a different place in time (271).
The past and present dissolve into one plane when pain brings Cruz out of his lethargy and he becomes aware of the presence of others in the room (116). An uncertain future intermingles with the present when Cruz foresees what may happen (247). La muerte penetrates the memory of the reader lost in trying to put together the pieces and unexpectedly, subliminally lays an Eurocentrically idealized world in the place of historical facts. Thus, what never happened replaces maroon history. The novel shapes a national imaginary according to criollo beliefs.
Julio Ortega interprets La muerte as "the first product of Latin American post-modernity" and as "a disenchanted reading of compulsive modernity" (2). This is correct to a point. La muerte provides a "fresh" look at the Revolution and indicts the corrupted patriarchal system. Thereby, it passes within the guise of the long awaited voice of self-criticism of a decadent structure.
On a level, La muerte casts the illusion of condemning the existing political structure: the entrenched PRI system that from the onset of the cultural phase of the Revolution sought total control and power over the people. La muerte condemns the Mexican post-revolution's social situation in part; nonetheless, at a subliminal level, it endorses the color divide imposed since the colonial period.
Through a close review, the Afrocentric reader is forced to question the authenticity of the character ascribed to Cruz as an African Mexican in modern Mexico, particularly in light of the prevalent criollo mentality that loathed even a drop of "visible" blackness in a person.
Had racism subsided in Mexico by 1920 as to allow a visibly black person to rise "freely" from rags to riches? How many visibly black Mexicans can be found as tycoons in the Mexico of the first half of the twentieth century? If "it always has been an object of the novel to tell the other version of history, particularly starting after the nineteeth century" as Carlos Fuentes has declared (Güemes 2), would it not have been more true to life to have made the antihero a criollo?
Why make a "pelado" (47, 276) or mestizo of African descent the villain? Is the novel repeating and reinforcing the white myth of the "evil nature" of African blood? Is La muerte reintroducing and reinforcing the Eurocentric colonial stereotypes of los hijos de la chingada and the pelados found in La raza cósmica, El perfil, and "Los hijos"?
Snead clarifies that mass-produced images have political, ideological, and psychological effects upon an audience's beliefs and actions (132). Also, he states "Stereotypes ultimately connect to form larger complexes of symbols and connotations. These codes then begin to form a kind of 'private conversation' among themselves without needing to refer back to the real world for their facticity" (141).
La muerte gets close to the origins of chingar and the pelado. It nearly makes the connections between the mestizo, his language, his worldview and his African heritage. This may have enabled a fuller explanation of the Mexican character and his sense of humor as early as 1962.
However, La muerte continues the same criollo aesthetic found in La raza cósmica, El perfil, and "Los hijos." Cruz is characterized as a mestizo who, notwithstanding, or because of his visible African heritage, the knowledge of his birth, and his having been raised in an African Mexican environment until the age of fourteen, has virtually repressed his black legacy.
It is a sign of indecency for Cruz "to live and die in [the] Negro shack" of his lineage and cultural heritage (276). La muerte whitens Cruz' by making him particularly proud of his criollo identity. Cruz expresses that he has conquered "decency" for his children. He expects them to thank him for making them "respectable people," and keeping them out of the "Negro shack" (276).
According to Snead, a work "becomes 'propaganda' and no longer merely 'fiction' when its aim is to introduce or reinforce a set of political power relationships between social groups" (140). In La muerte, Mexicans whose African lineage is openly identified are characterized as rootless (302), backward, submissive, tame and servile (302-03). They are caricatured as simple, as jungle beings (302) with an endless sexual appetite (279, 288-89), as possessing an innate musicality (288), and as having a natural predisposition to relax (287).
This is remarkable when juxtaposed to criollo portrayal. Criollos are conceived as civilized (50), rooted to the land (48); as history makers (35), with an identity (50); as having feelings, ideals, and even as being chivalrous at the moment of defeat (50). This perception echoes El perfil's notions about criollo supremacy. The Spaniards in La muerte are capable of understanding, and of sacrificing body and soul for family and beliefs (50, 54, 103).
Snead explains, "'Codes' are not singular portrayals of one thing or another, but larger complex relationships" (142). He exposes how these relationships, under the will, imagination and ideological slant of the narrative maker, may "present fantasy or an ideal world that has nothing to do with the real world" as if it were the real world (134).
According to Lanin A. Gyurko, Cruz is developed as a "single character, powerful and complex enough to be convincing, not only as an individual but also as a national symbol" (30). In La muerte, this national character is imagined by his uncle as a black Moses (285). But paradoxically, and as if marked by his African blood, Cruz is constructed as an innate traitor, a despicable being: polygamous (122), immoral, greedy (15-16), treacherous (24-25), cowardly, and corrupted (16, 21, 50, 56).
Cruz is incapable of caring about high revolutionary ideals, or country (56). He is the opposite of José María Tecla Morelos y Pavón (Vargas) and Vicente "el negro" Guerrero, each a Black Moses. In Gyurko's words: "Cruz is literally an hijo de la chingada. Violation gave him life -rape of a slave woman by his father, Anastasio Menchaca; violation pervades his life, and violation (mental and physical) characterizes his death" (35). For Gyurko, on the symbolic level, Cruz is a metaphor for the Frozen Revolution and a nation that "slavishly imitates the value systems of European and North American nations" (39).
Cruz is rich, powerful and married into a criollo family. However, it is made obvious that these "attributes," per se, cannot remove the color line that marginalizes him throughout the story. He enters a marriage where the color divide is kept and cultured within the relationship (103). All the power Artemio Cruz has is not enough to free his conscience from the knowledge of being "the Other," even at home with his wife and daughter (31-32).
This very power, impressive physique and ruthless character, given him so lavishly, mark Artemio Cruz and make him stand out as a whitened black (33). Cruz never gains control of his life, although a millionaire. This creates the illusion that the criollos he wishes to emulate are naturally superior to him and those he is the prototype of, nonwhite Mexicans (32, 33, 50). Snead identifies mythification, marking and omission as three particular tactics to forge and perpetuate black stereotypes (143). He points out that to make whites appear more civilized, powerful and important, they are shown in contrast to subservient blacks. La muerte does this.
Lunero, Cruz' Uncle, is a well-tamed and criollo-loyal young Mulatto who quietly accepts his fate (284). He is still in bondage at the beginning of the twentieth century (295). He silently tolerates the sexual rape and physical abuse of his sister, Isabel, Cruz' mother, by the master, Cruz' father. Lunero helps Isabel during Cruz' birth (314). But he does nothing and stays quiet when the master, a known rapist of nonwhite women (229), beats Isabel with a stick and runs her off the property in his presence (286, 306). Lunero is unbelievably good and incapable of running away. He invents work to support his masters' household (285, 303) when they have become poor due to the war. He is very protective of Cruz and takes care of him for fourteen years even though, or perhaps due to Cruz' being a lighter black.
Jackson points out that discrimination, based on place of origin, color of skin, social class, and religious beliefs, has been instrumental in developing a narrative that depicts black people in "one dimension racist images," as purely sensuous, as merely musical savages waiting to be saved from their supposed incapacity to reason, and from their entirely emotional realm (Black Image 46)
Lunero is narrated as having the rhythm in him (287-88). Every afternoon he sings to young Cruz the songs brought by Lunero's father from Santiago de Cuba "when the war broke out and the families moved to Veracruz along with their servants" (286). He is a prisoner of fear and nostalgia. He fears the New World: the sierra, the Amerindians, and the plateau (302); and is nostalgic of the continent where "one like him would be able to get lost in the jungle and say that he had returned" (302).
Jackson exhibits that Latin American literature, guided by the white aesthetic, caricatures blacks, presents blacks as easily corruptible, with an endless sexual appetite, as possessing an innate musicality, as having a natural predisposition to relax, as inherently drunkard, as polygamous, as irresponsible parents and as devil-like (Black Image 49-59).
According to Snead:

The history that whites have made (...) empties black skin of any historical or material reference, except as former slaves. The notion of the eternal black "character" is invented to justify the enforced economic disadvantage that we enjoy (or don't enjoy)(...). [B]lacks' behavior is portrayed as being unrelated to the history that whites have trapped them in. Let me repeat: that behavior is being portrayed as something static, enduring, and unchangeable, unrelated to the history that whites have trapped them in. Blacks are seen as ahistorical. (139)

Isabel Cruz or Cruz Isabel, Artemio Cruz' mother, is a woman without a fixed name that appears in the narrative only as a vessel to bring another hijo de la chingada into the world (314). Although she appears fleetingly, she leaves the impression of being nothing more than a victim, a fearful presence incapable of making a sound even at the moment of delivery. Jackson has found that even in cases where blacks are defended, they are depicted, among other ways, as backward, submissive, tame, and servile ("Black Phobia" 467).
In La muerte, African Mexicans seem to inhabit Veracruz, and not to extend beyond the sierra. The hacienda of Cocuya is full of blacks (295), "Negroid" people (289), and "... clear eyed Mulattoes with skin the color of pine nuts" who were offspring of the "Indian and Mulatto women that went around bearing them" (289). One learns about blacks "brought to the tropical plantations with their hair straightened by the daring Indian women that offered their hairless sexual parts as a victory redoubt over the curly haired race" (279).
In contrast to La muerte's narrative, it is well documented that black Africans of the Diaspora were taken all over New Spain wherever there was mining, farming, ranching, factories, domestic work, or transportation of goods. History shows that African Mexicans, the infamous mezclas, became the majority of today's mestizos (Aguirre Beltrán 276).
History confirms that the mezclas or mestizos of African descent fought valiantly under the name of "chinacos" and "pintos" during the War of Independence (1810-1821) (Riva Palacio's Calvario; Díaz, xviii). It archives that later, they fought against the French and defeated them in Puebla (5 May 1862). History records that the chinaco and pinto liberals followed the French into the interior of the country and, against all odds, defeated and expelled them from Mexican national territory three years later.
"The omission of the black [heroes], then, has meant the presence of the stereotype" (Snead 147). La muerte's reintroduction and reinforcement of black stereotypes does not end there. Cruz' daughter, Teresa, who is a mestiza of African descent as well, is portrayed as oblivious of her African lineage. They are ideologically whitened. She appears as happily Americanized, going shopping, eating waffles and talking about North American movie stars (22-23, 25). La muerte suggest that post-revolution corruption in Mexico is tied to miscegenation and that mestizaje, of the type embodied by Cruz and his lineage, had a negative effect on the Mexican Revolution (50).
In conclusion, La muerte is a text where the modern Mexican nation is still being narrated in accordance to the "cosmic race" creed; a belief that the "improvement" of the nation rested on the cleansing, by mixing out, of all black African traces of the population. The novel perpetuates the myth of whitening that underlines the ideology of mestizaje in Mexico, as in other parts of the Americas. La muerte contributes to the erasure of the path that leads to the African family tree, of Mexican mestizaje. Just as La raza cósmica, El perfil, and "Los hijos," among other pillars of the imagined modern Mexican nation, La muerte reproduces and reinforces the confusion of the origins of the Mexican mestizo and his culture: "a río revuelto ganancia de pescadores."
La muerte forges and perpetuates stereotypes of black people and their daughters and sons. It thereby codifies them as exhibited under Snead's perspective. The novel marks blacks, mythifies whites and omits mentioning, under a just light, Mexicans of African lineage who do not desire to be whitened and are not servile, tame, submissive, or backward. This renders the African Mexican ahistorical. Just as other Latin American writings studied by Jackson, La muerte replaces the historical image of prominent African Mexicans with caricatures.

Personajes : artemio cruz, catalina, Lorenzo, Teresa, Gloria, Gerardo, Gamaliel, padre Paez, Lilia, Laura, Lunero, Gonzalo , Regina, Locacion: México Año: diferentes fechas

La historia de Artemio es la historia de la ambición por sobre todas las cosas, el deseo desmedido de poder, la corrupción, la degeneración moral, dejar de creer en el amor y en las personas para empezar a creer en lo que se puede comprar y tener, en lo que se puede manejar, dominar, subyugar..... Esta obra esta escrita de diferentes maneras, en primera persona, en segunda persona, y narrador omnisciente, estados de conciencia y semiconciencia caracterizan la trama y los diálogos se sitúan como la vida misma dentro de la cabeza de Artemio, donde las fechas y los recuerdos van tomando su curso, para hacernos entender esa maraña de cosas que se tejen y destejen en su cabeza, para empezar a poner orden a esos pensamientos desordenados, que giran y giran y buscan tal vez el perdón y la comprensión de las mujeres, Catalina que nunca lo amo, Regina que lo amo con el alma, Lilia y Laura que solo querían su dinero, El destino, que lo hace verse viejo y sin herederos, su hijo completando su vida, muriendo la muerte que le tocaba morir a el en la guerra y que tuvo que ser muerta por su hijo en otra guerra al otro lado del mar que sabe a cerveza y huele a melón, que hay detrás del mar? Islas , ... Artemio, muere Artemio, no quiero verme viejo,. Por eso los controlo, por eso las uso, por eso me burlo de ellas, que me odian........ Es también una obra sobre el poder en México y la forma en que se maneja..... Excelente. LUIS MENDEZ

Pues que quereis que os diga? A mi, con todos sus recursos tecnicos y su narracion omniescente y sus millones de puntos suspensivos, esta novela me ha resultado increiblemente fangosa, aburrida y dificil de leer. Por consiguiente no me ha gustado nada.
Eso si la he leido toda todita eh?
Este senor Fuentes para quien escribe? Porque a mi me parece que solo escribe para el. Igual que otros se encierran en el retrete y se la cascan alegremente este se encierra en su casita con su maquina de escribir y ale a darse gusto a si mismo.
Se trata de comunicar Senor Fuentes. De hacer sentir a otros, no solo en la novela si no en cualquier otro tipo de arte. No es arte si no mueve. Y aqui alguno podria decirme; pues a usted le ha movido, o no esta ahora pontificando aqui cuando podria igualmente estar haciendo algo mas provechoso?- pues si me ha movido pero no por la razon que deberia haberme movido.
Me he dirijido a estas paginas para tratar de dar sentido a lo que acabo de leer, ver por que a otros lectores les ha gustado tanto, averiguar que es lo que yo me he perdido?
Mi conclusion es que este es un libro de lectura puramente academica. Como trabajo literario, es idea ambiciosa, pero como novela es un toston. Y es una pena porque segun y como estoy seguro de que podria haber funcionado.
La culpa es suya Senor Fuentes, no mia. Yo me he esforzado mas en entender su libro que usted en hacermelo entender y como leer un libro es trabajo de dos, me siento defraudado porque usted no ha querido hacer su trabajo como dios manda. Usted no se ha preocupado mas que de deslumbrar a sus colegas, usted no escribe para mi, usted escribe para su critico literario.
Asi que felicitaciones Senor Fuentes porque pasara usted a
la historia, pero no a la de los grandes novelistas, -usted nunca sera un Dickens, Galdos, Marquez, Cervantes o Llosa- sino a la de los oscuros prestidigitadores de la palabra que con todo su ingenio y pericia morfosintactica no consiguen mas que hacer bostezar al lector.

Esta novela fue mi introducción a García Márquez...su eso de adjetivos, impresionante...la historia, dios mío!

As an intersection of two major themes - the illusion of independence pictured in a faint bourgeois environment (Las Buenas Conciencias, 1959) and the nightmare of transculturation in contemporary life (La Región Más Transparente, 1958), La Muerte De Artemio Cruz (1962) rebuilds mexican history on the ruins of individual and social consciousness. The protagonist (the "yo" instance) is led to seek the truth in his own past, while the voice of memory ("tú") recalls the origins of a betrayed revolution ("él", the stream of historical action) and gives the dying man the last chance to imagine how things might have been from another point of view: the wish of community, a future raised by plural needs and dreams - "nosotros". From the epigraphs to the end of the novel, death and memory join forces to restore that manifold identity, stifled by Artemio's overwhelming projects. The physical death of Artemio corresponds to the rebirth of mexican history as a social body made of facts but also of feelings and emotions, concealed under the rough mask of authority. Throughout the text the feminine figures accomplish this mission as well, reflecting, like mirrors (so often mentioned in this book), the reality Artemio wants to deny. Four women - Regina, Catalina, Lilia y Laura - symbolize different periods of Artemio's life strongly attached to main revolutionary commotions (from the beginnings to their later political and economic metamorphose). In each one of them, financial ascent and physical/moral degradation are but one painful and irreversible process. All these symbolic elements converge to the final scenes: the fulfillment of collective destiny in the death of his son Lorenzo; the recognition of social fountainhead through the analogous images of Artemio's mother, Isabel Cruz, and the mythical representation of La Chingada. At the end, the two most important moments of Artemio's life stick together: his birth and his death. All the lapse between these extremes is a synesthetic confluence of multiple perceptions, where past and future switch sides, creating what Jacques le Goff called "the ontological rule of historicity": the rescue of memory as freedom.

I'm writing from the perspective of one who has very little background in Latin American history, and I did appreciate the literary device of sending the novel's protagonist from region to region. From reading this, I had a sense of the vastness of space and variety of experience possible in Latin America; also, I got the point that the revolutionary fervor was sweeping.

Perhaps the tool was contrived, but it worked for me mostly because I loved spending time with Balta Bustos, exploring the depths of human contradiction with him, sorrowing with him, maturing with him. Rarely have I read such beautiful writing, seemingly slow in pace (which normally would send me on to some other book) but in reality very captivating. I was absorbed here, and was rarely tempted to put the book down out of restlessness. Yes, history was obviously an aim here, but for me, the journey was human and full of heart.

Carlos Fuentes creates a historical novel based loosely on events in Latin America in the early 1800's that is both fun and exciting. The novel actually focuses more on his three main charaacters and their relationships and roles in various revolutuionary causes taking place in Latin America; in essence the breaking away from Spain. The main protagonist is Baltazar Bustos, a character who is the son of wealthy Argentine racnher and a firm believer in the ideas of Rousseau. We see an interesting tranformation of Bustos and all of the characters. Bustos has two friends that play significant roles in the book. Xavier Dorrego and Manuel Varela, who is telling the story, are the vehicles for this novel. Dorrego is from a priveleged family and buys books for his group of intellectuals. He aspires to be a lawyer. All three of the friends are subversives as each takes a role in reproducing the cherished but dangerous books received from Europe with new ideas. This is only the beginning of their adventures as the story is further propelled by Bustos kidnapping of the Marquise de Cabra's infant child(he swaps infants, replaces one with a mulatos child)but the plan goes awry as a fire destroys a room in which the baby was held. Bustos is tormented by this act and tries to repent by finding the elusive woman. The three friends travel to Chile , Venezuela, Peru and ultimately Mexico. Mr. Fuentes integrates the philosophies of the previously mentioned philosophers throughout his book via the characters. The revolutionary ideals of the time period that ultimately won independence for the nations of Latin America helps drive the novel. Thus Mr. Fuentes weaves a tale cleverly that is both historical and philosophical. I enjoyed this book but not as much as some of his other efforts. I would recommend this book to someone who likes history, specifically the quest for independence from Spain in the new world in the nineteenth century.

Bustos being a intrepid person along with Dorrego and Varela, tried to understand and at the same time change the political system that was being experienced back in that time when the spaniards ruled the latin american country Agentina. they fought with an intellectuall manner instead of the brutal, trying to get more knowledge about the political issues even though it was prohibited. They were succesful.

In this somewhat allegorical novel of early 19th century Latin American history, Fuentes attempts to produce a hybrid historical and philosophical novel. The protagonist is a young Argentine revolutionary and romantic whose travels take him throughout Latin America during the revolts from Spain. The allegory is the protagonist's pursuit of a woman whom he glimpsed only briefly and whom he has wronged. The result is not really successful, partly because characters and narrative seem to switch from one mode to another without good integration of the philosophical and historical elements Fuentes is attempting to combine. Oddly, the book suffers from being too short. It would have been much better to incorporate the philosophical elements into a longer and more naturalistic historical novel, a la Tolstoy's War and Peace. This book also contains some magical realist elements, which seem engrafted into the novel and consequently incongruous. Interesting but not very rewarding reading.

1985 foreword by Carlos Fuentes; "his first weapon is a language as fresh, funny, direct, and irreverent as any produced by Latin AMercian literature in its history" a rare insider's view into a revolutionary army whose only enlistment criteria are deep reserves of patience, a white-hot outrage and the (perhaps) naive belief that one can overcome shocking odds and upend the entrenched...a song of morality and optimism and gritty idealism sure to raise the spirits and set an example for those fighting the good fight vs the evil empire...

I'm a college student and last year I made a Presentation about Nicaragua In my class of Latin America stadies. I had this book over six months, but I never read it. To me it did not had material I need it. This past weekend I started to read and my surprise was, that it's full of so many emotions and information material. It explained the whys and doubts of the people to change the Somaza government and How big part the college students played in this amazing revolution movement to made it come true. It's one of the best bood I had read about the Guerrilla war in Latin America.

This autobiographical novel by a fighter in Nicaragua's revolution is engaging, sometimes funny and very readable. It is the personal tale of his experiences in the revolution, notably in the mountains and thence the title. Don't worry, it is not polemical, he tells it like it was.

This collection of photographs from the author's two visits to Mexico are quite striking. Cartier-Bresson knows his craft well, and yet I feel a slight disappointment in the book, as I had hoped that his range of subject matter would be a little more varied, and perhaps show a few more pictures of the countryside. This collection of photos is nice, but consists mostly of shots of a sociological nature, from the poor classes of Mexican society. I understand that this is Cartier-Bresson's personal photo essay, but perhaps he could have widened his scope of Mexico to have included a wider array of subject matter. I do like the pictures, there just should have been more of a variance of them. If you like Cartier-Bresson, his book of India is simply fantastic.

There is a consistant light which runs through Cartier-Bresson's work. It is the late afternoon light or the early morning glow, that enters his leica. We see it in the streets, behind the waitress in the Mexican bar as she leans unknowingly towards Cartier-Bresson's lens. It's surrounded by this light that Cartier-Bresson feels most at home, even in Mexico. Mexican notebooks is full of all Cartier-Bresson's hallmarks; real people in real situations. Circumstance and the click of his shutter fixes them in their descisive moment. This is a collection no photojournalist should be without.

this is a very touching and intimate look at everyday life, but Cartier-Brenson's experienced eye has also captured the powerful light that alludes to heat, the mood of poverty, and the history that pervades this country. At different points this volume is disturbing, humorous, spiritual, and abstract. a masterpiece.

Something magical connects the five distinct stories which comprise 'The Orange Tree'. They read like the jumbled fragments of a beautiful, disorienting dream. Fuentes offers glimpses of remarkable events - the firey fall of the Aztecs, the sexual death of a fading film star, a Roman siege - and makes their ugliness beautiful. All the while, he weaves a delicate web of connective tissue, turning 'The Orange Tree' into a remarkably cohesive tapestry of Latin American history and culture. Surreal, haunting and elegant, this book reads like a vision.

The Orange Tree is a book of unusual beauty. Fuentes, once again playing the historian, presents a reiteration of Latin American history which is utterly convincing as a piece of pure mythology. This perhaps lies in Fuentes' uncanny ability to assign either perfect charm or horrifying ugliness to so much of what he describes: the spectacular fall of the Aztec Empire; the complex seige of a Spanish city by the Romans; the dreamlike arrival of Columbus to a ambivilant paradise.

The five novellas of The Orange Tree offer the reader voices which seem to speak from beyond life and history. We are presented tales of death and suffering in a context so huge, so ambitious, that Fuentes has destroyed the barriers of history and constructed a reality all his own. The lavishness of his vision is hypnotic.

Read this book with abandon; allow its mythology to consume you.

There is a certain poetic fusion connecting the five novellas found in this fine book of short stories that is like a disconnected dream you might experience upon waking. Carlos Fuentes delivers his verbal barrage and assault upon everything that has created the modern Mexican. He delves into his historical replays with witty insight, carefully ripping apart the sacred past with tongue in cheek imagery that is funny and thought provoking at once. After reading some passages you will go back and read them again for the sheer eloquence and beauty of the masterful use of language. Fuentes says things in such a way that even things that should offend you are so profound in their simplistic articulation that you have to chuckle. Fuentes delivers his message in suttle ways but with an impact that gets under your skin, enveloping and seducing you in his recreations that are colorful and walk off the pages taking you on a wonderful journey as only he can. Even tough the stories are unrelated they somehow feel like the greater part of the whole. I found all the stories to be different, completly entertaining with the exception of one. This is probably my own personal taste but I had trouble getting into "The Two Numantias," quite possibly because of my not being as familiar with the subjects. However, when Fuentes is talking about La Malinche, Cortes, Chapultepec, Cortes , the Spanish conquerors and the Aztecs, often in hyterically hyped imagery, the results are as familiar as frijoles and tortillas. Carlos Fuentes often writes in a hyper sexual mode as is evident in "Apollo and the Whores" where the sexual escapades are rated xxx but have an erotic texture that somehow make them less raw; besides his hilarious and outrageous narrative dominates and makes you laugh at the outlandsih scenarios. This book of five short stories is definitely recommended for someone not familiar with Carlos Fuentes. As one of Mexico's most brilliant and prolific writers, Fuentes demonstrates why he is one of the best Latin American writers. If you are unfamiliar with Fuentes this might be a good place to start since the stories are short and give a good indication of his writing style; if you don't like a particular novella you can always skip it. However if you do like Fuentes and want to read more than I would recommend "Christopher Unborn," "The Death of Artemio Cruz, " "The Good Conscience," or more recently the epic books "The years With Laura Diaz" or "The Buried Mirror." I'll end this review or suggestive prodding of you to read Carlos Fuentes by borrowing verse from a Fuentes scene involving two singers, one singing in Nahuatl another in Castilian."We've only come to dream, and the words flow far from the valley, into a distant sea where the silent rivers of life come to a halt. The narrative continues and the singing ends without ending: "My flowers will never end,
My songs will never end.
I raise them up,
I am only the singer......."

Very entertaining, with lots of unexpected endings to interesting and vivid stories. Perfect for somone who doesn't have a lot of time to read.

This particular translated edition of "Burnt Water" originally was released in Spainish under the title "Aqua Quemada" and has many more stories, over double, than the original version. The translations are excellent and deserve mention because they do not compromise the integrity of the beautiful written word of Carlos Fuentes. I have compared both editions and am very impressed with the literal translation. The stories are all very short, usually in the 25- 30 page range but read like little novels. The characters developed by Fuentes are colorful representations that come to life and jump off the pages. When reading Fuentes the familiarity with the characters and distant lands becomes familiar at once. Fuentes can take you on a journey to the times of the Mexican Revolution and you feel the period come to life. The rich literary style of Fuentes in his formative years is revealed to be not quite as eloquent as his later works but do show the characteristic stylings developing. When you read these short stories you will feel as though they are sketches of future works(if you are familiar with his later works), fragments creating a whole and eventually evolving into masterpieces. Fuentes ability to create visual scenes translates into an experience that allows you to smell the aromas, see the vistas, for example, when he describes a person sweeping in front of their home you can feel the wet earth being the neutralized by water to keep the dust down. You feel the character breathing in the fresh morning air, the fragrance of the flowers, the morning dew on the trees, the distant mountains and the peeking sun giving the countryside a wake up call; Fuentes paints panoramic vistas with his words that draw you into the scenes, he is a literary giant even in the short story form. Although I am not personally a big fan of the short story format, these stories are perfect for the limited attention span of the modern busy times we live in. This is an excellent collection of stories, all very different in content and sometimes ending too quickly; the people and places you meet in Carlos Fuentes works are such that you want them to go and on. Recommended for anyone that appreciates literary genius but especially good for someone on a limited reading time schedule or curious about the works of Fuentes.