Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes Macías
Carlos Fuentes Macías
Occupation	novelist, writer
Nationality	Mexican
Period	1954 –
Literary movement	Magic realism
Notable works	The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962); The Old Gringo (1985)
Spouse	Rita Macedo (1959–1973) ; Silvia Lemus (1976–)
Children	Cecilia Fuentes Macedo (1962), Carlos Fuentes Lemus (1973-1999), Natasha Fuentes Lemus (1976-2005)
Website
	http://www.clubcultura.com/clubliteratura/clubescritores/carlosfuentes/index.htm

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. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages. Fuentes' generation of writers include Elena Poniatowska, José Emilio Pacheco and Carlos Monsiváis.^[1]

Biography

Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama, to Mexican parents. His father was a diplomat, and he spent his childhood in various capital cities in the Americas: Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Washington, Santiago, Quito, and Buenos Aires. As an adolescent 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 included film actresses such as Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg - brought her to despair. The couple ended their relationship amid scandal and Fuentes then married journalist and now famous interviewer Silvia Lemus. Following in the footsteps of his parents, he 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, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cambridge, and George Mason University. He is currently teaching at Brown University. He was also a friend of the US sociologist C. Wright Mills, to whom he dedicated his book The Death of Artemio Cruz.

He fathered three children. Only one of them survives: Cecilia Fuentes Macedo, born in 1962, now working in television production. A son, Carlos Fuentes Lemus, died from complications associated with hemophilia in 1999 at the age of 25. A daughter, Natasha Fuentes Lemus (born 31 August 1974), died of an apparent drug overdose in Mexico City 22 August 2005, at the age of 30.^[2]

Works

Head and shoulders shot of a man on stage talking into a microphone.

Carlos Fuentes at the Miami Book Fair International of 1987

When he was 30 years old Fuentes published his first novel, La región más transparente, which became a classic contemporary novel. It was innovative not only for its prose, but also by having a metropolis, Mexico City as its main character. This novel provides insight into Mexican culture, which is made up of a mixture with the Spanish, the indigenous and the mestizo, all cohabiting in the same geographical area but with different cultures.

The author describes himself as a pre-modern 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? "^[3]

He published Las Buenas Conciencias in 1959. This is probably his most accessible novel depicting the privileged middle classes of a medium-sized town, probably modelled on Guanajuato.^{[citation needed]}

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

In 1967, during a meeting with Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortázar 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.^[4] Although the project was never completed, it provided the base for Alejo Carpentier's Reasons of State (El recurso del método, 1974) and various other Dictator Novels (novelas del dictador).

His 1985 novel Gringo viejo, the first United States bestseller written by a Mexican author^[5], 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 Jean Seberg. However, the authenticity of this adulterous liaison has been questioned several times.

Fuentes regularly contributes essays on politics and culture to the Spanish newspaper El País and the Mexican Reforma. He is a harsh critic of the United States.

List of works

Novels

La Región Más Transparente (Where the Air is Clear) (1958) ISBN 978-9705800146
Las Buenas Conciencias (The Good Conscience) (1961) ISBN 978-9707100046
Aura (1961) ISBN 978-9684111813
The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) ISBN 978-0374522834
Cambio de piel (A Change of Skin) (1967)
Zona sagrada (Holy Place) (1967)
Cumpleaños (Birthday) (1969)
Terra Nostra (1975)
La cabeza de la hidra (The Hydra Head) (1978)
Agua quemada (Burnt Water) (1980)
Una familia lejana (Distant Relations) (1980)
Orquídeas a la luz de la luna (1982)
Gringo viejo (The Old Gringo) (1985)
Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn) (1987)
Ceremonias del alba (1991)
"The Campaign" (1992)
El naranjo (The Orange Tree) (1994)
Diana o la cazadora solitaria (Diana: the Goddess Who Hunts Alone) (1995)
La frontera de cristal (The Crystal Frontier: A Novel of Nine Stories) (1996)
"A New Time for Mexico" (1996) ISBN 0-374-22170-7 (translated from Spanish by Marina Gutman Castaneda)
Los años con Laura Díaz (The Years With Laura Diaz) (1999)
Instinto de Inez (Inez) (2001)
La Silla del Águila (The Eagle's Throne) (2003)
Todas las Familias Felices (Happy Families) (2006), ISBN 987-04-0557-6
La Voluntad y la Fortuna (2008), ISBN 970-58-0446-5

Short stories

Los días enmascarados (1954)
Cantar de ciegos (1964)
Chac Mool y otros cuentos (1973)
Agua quemada (1983) ISBN 968-16-1577-8
Dos educaciones. (1991) ISBN 84-397-1728-8
Los hijos del conquistador (1994)
Inquieta compañía (2004)
Las Dos Elenas

Essays

La nueva novela hispanoamericana (1969) ISBN 9682701422
El mundo de José Luis Cuevas (1969)
Casa con dos puertas (1970)
Tiempo mexicano (1971)
Miguel de Cervantes o la crítica de la lectura (1976)
"Myself With Others" (1988)
El Espejo Enterrado (The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World) (1992) ISBN 8430602658
Geografía de la novela (1993) ISBN 9681640446
Tres discursos para dos aldeas ISBN 950-557-195-X
Nuevo tiempo mexicano (1995) ISBN 9681902319
Retratos en el tiempo, with Carlos Fuentes Lemus (2000)
Los cinco soles de México: memoria de un milenio (2000) ISBN 84-322-1063-3
En esto creo (2002) ISBN 9705800871
Contra Bush (2004) ISBN 9681914503
Los 68 (2005) ISBN 0307274152

Theater

Todos los gatos son pardos (1970)
El tuerto es rey (1970).
Los reinos originarios (1971)
Orquídeas a la luz de la luna. Comedia mexicana. (1982)
Ceremonias del alba (1990)

Screenplays

¿No oyes ladrar los perros? (1974)

References

^ Stevenson, Mark (June 19, 2010). "Mexican author Carlos Monsivais dies at age 72". The Boston Globe. boston.com. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
^ http://www.letralia.com/129/0822fuentes.htm
^ Article in Jornada 13 November 2007 Template:Es icon
^ De los orígenes a la nueva novela histórica paraguaya p.43 Template:Es icon
^ http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/5869.aspx

External links

Template:Worldcat id
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' Review essay that includes a piece on Fuentes's Myself With Others by William A. Nericcio, a Latin Americanist cultural studies professor at SDSU.
Video interview with Carlos Fuentes

Preceded by José Angel Conchello Dávila	Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor 1999	Succeeded by Leopoldo Zea Aguilar

Template:Persondata

[boston061910-1] Stevenson, Mark (June 19, 2010). "Mexican author Carlos Monsivais dies at age 72". The Boston Globe. boston.com. Retrieved 20 June 2010.

[2] ttp://www.letralia.com/129/0822fuentes.htm

[3] Article in Jornada 13 November 2007 Template:Es icon

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

[5] ttp://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/5869.aspx

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