Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes Macías (born November 11, 1928) is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. Fuentes has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.

Biography

Fuentes was born in Panama City; his parents were Mexican diplomats. In his childhood, he lived in Quito, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Washington, Santiago and Buenos Aires. In his adolescence, he returned to Mexico, where he lived until 1965. He was married to film star Rita Macedo from 1959 till 1973, although he was an habitual philanderer and allegedly, his affairs -- which he has claimed include film actresses such as Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg- brought her to despair. The couple broke up amid scandal when Fuentes eloped with a very pregnant and then-unknown journalist named Silvia Lemus. They were eventually married in Paris in 1976. Rita committed suicide in 1993.

Following in the footsteps of his parents, he also became a diplomat in 1965 and served in London, Paris (as ambassador), and other capitals. In 1978 he resigned as ambassador to France in protest over the appointment of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, former president of Mexico, as ambassador to Spain. He has also taught courses at Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Penn, George Mason, Columbia and Cambridge. He is currently teaching at Brown University.

He fathered three children: Cecilia Fuentes Macedo, born in 1962, now working on TV production and openly gay; a son, Carlos Fuentes Lemus, died from complications associated with hemophilia in 1999 at the age of 25. His daughter, Natasha Fuentes Lemus, died of undisclosed causes in Mexico City 22 August 2005. She was 29.

Works

Fuentes published his first novel, La región mas transparente, at 28 years old, which became a classic contemporary novel. It set groundbreaking work not only on its prose, but also by having a metropolis, Mexico City as its main character. This novel provides an insight into the Mexican culture, which is made up of a mixture with the Spanish, the indigenous and the mestizo: all cohabiting in the same geographical place with completely different universes surrounding them.

The Mexican author describes himself as a premodern writer, using only pens, ink and paper. He asks "Do words need anything else?" Fuentes mentioned that he detests those authors who from the beginning claim to have a recipe for success. In a speech on his writing process he mentioned that when he starts the writing process he begins by asking "Who am I writing for? "^[1]

His 1960s novels, Aura (1962) and La muerte de Artemio Cruz (1962) are widely acclaimed for using experimental modern narrative styles (including the second person form) to explore issues of history, society and identity.

In 1967, during a meeting with Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortazar and Miguel Otero Silva, Carlos Fuentes launched the project of a series of biographies depicting Latin American caudillos, which would be called Los Padres de la Patria ^[2]. Although the project was never completed, it set the bases for Alejo Carpentier's Reasons of State (El recurso del método, 1974) and various other Dictator Novels (novela del dictador).

His 1985 novel Gringo viejo, the first American bestseller written by a Mexican author, was filmed as Old Gringo (1989) starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

In 1994, he published Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone, a fictionalized account of his alleged affair with American actress Jean Seberg. However, authenticity of this adulterous liaison has been brought up to question several times.

Fuentes regularly contributes essays on politics and culture to the Spanish newspaper El País and Reforma. He is a stern critic of what he sees as American cultural and economic situations typically hidden from mainstream Mexican society.

Selected works

Los días enmascarados (1954)
La región más transparente, Where the Air Is Clear (1959)
La muerte de Artemio Cruz, The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962)
Aura (1962) (see Aura (Fuentes))
La nueva novela hispanoamericana (1969)
Zona sagrada, Holy Place (1967)
Cambio de piel, A Change of Skin (1967)
Cumpleaños (Birthday) (1969)
El tuerto es rey (1971)
Diana o la cazadora solitaria, Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone (1972)
Terra Nostra (1975)
Una familia lejana (Distant Relations) (1980)
Agua quemada (Burnt Water) (1981)
Orquídeas a la luz de la luna (1982)
Gringo viejo (The Old Gringo) (1985)
Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn) (1987)
Ceremonias del alba (1991)
El naranjo (The Orange Tree) (1993)
La frontera de cristal (translated by Fuentes' friend and long-time translator Alfred MacAdam as The Crystal Frontier, sometimes translated as The Glass Border - (1995)
"New Time for Mexico"(1996)
Los años con Laura Díaz (The Years with Laura Díaz) (1999)
En esto creo (2002)
Contra Bush (2004)
Todas las Familias Felices (2006), ISBN 987-04-0557-6

References

External links

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Making Love in Spanish - Carlos Fuentes and The Eagle's Throne
In praise of the novel Carlos Fuentes' opening speech at the Fifth International Literature Festival Berlin at signandsight.com.
'Sick Culture' A review article that includes a piece on Fuentes's collection of essays, Myself With Others by William Nericcio, a Latin Americanist who teaches at SDSU.
Video interview with Carlos Fuentes

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[1] Article in the Jornada (13-11-07) (Spanish)

[2] De los orígenes a la nueva novela histórica paraguaya p.43 Template:Es icon

[1]

[2]

Biography

Works

Selected works

Further Reading

References

External links