All Topics  
Carlos Fuentes

 
Carlos Fuentes

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Carlos Fuentes
 
 
  Topics Carlos Fuentes Topic Home

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
Latin American literature

Latin American literature rose to particular prominence during the second half of the 20th century, largely thanks to the international success of the style known as magical realism....
, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.

tes was born in Panama City, Panama; his parents were Mexican. Due to his father being a diplomat, during his childhood he lived in Montevideo
Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital and chief port of Uruguay. Montevideo is the only city in the country with a population over 1,000,000....
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
, Washington
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
, Santiago
Santiago, Chile

Santiago , is the Capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m Above mean sea level....
 and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Carlos Fuentes'
Start a new discussion about 'Carlos Fuentes'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


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
Latin American literature

Latin American literature rose to particular prominence during the second half of the 20th century, largely thanks to the international success of the style known as magical realism....
, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.

Biography

Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama; his parents were Mexican. Due to his father being a diplomat, during his childhood he lived in Montevideo
Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital and chief port of Uruguay. Montevideo is the only city in the country with a population over 1,000,000....
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
, Washington
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....
, Santiago
Santiago, Chile

Santiago , is the Capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m Above mean sea level....
 and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
. 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
Jeanne Moreau

Jeanne Moreau is a BAFTA Awards and C?sar Awards-winning French people actress, screenwriter and Film director....
 and Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg

Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 34 films in Hollywood and in France. Seberg became even more of an icon after her roles in numerous French films and the tragedy of her turbulent life and eventual suicide....
- brought her to despair. The couple ended their relationship amid scandal when Fuentes eloped with a very pregnant and then-unknown journalist named Silvia Lemus. They were eventually married. 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
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz

Gustavo D?az Ordaz served as the President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970....
, former president of Mexico, as ambassador to Spain. He has also taught courses at Brown
Brown University

Brown University is a private university university located in , United States and is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and Colonial Colleges in the United States....
, Princeton
Princeton University

Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
, Harvard
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
, Penn
University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is America's first university and is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States....
, George Mason
George Mason University

George Mason University is a large public university with a main campus in unincorporated area Fairfax County, Virginia, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the Fairfax, Virginia....
, Columbia
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
  and Cambridge
University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge , located in Cambridge, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in the Anglosphere....
. He is currently teaching at Brown University
Brown University

Brown University is a private university university located in , United States and is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and Colonial Colleges in the United States....
. He was also a friend to the US sociologist C. Wright Mills
C. Wright Mills

Charles Wright Mills was an United States sociology. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship....
, to whom he dedicated his book The Death of Artemio Cruz
The Death of Artemio Cruz

The Death of Artemio Cruz is a novel written in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and is considered to be a contributor to the Latin American literary movement known as the Latin American "Boom."...
.

He fathered three children. Only one survives: Cecilia Fuentes Macedo, born in 1962, now working with TV 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 undisclosed causes in Mexico City 22 August 2005, at the age of 30.

Works

Fuentes published his first novel, La región mas transparente, at 28 years old, which became a classic contemporary novel. It was innovative not only for its prose, but also by having a metropolis, Mexico City
Mexico City

Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the most important economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country; the most populous city with over 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008....
 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
Mestizo

Mestizo is a Spanish language term that was used in the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed Europe and Indigenous peoples of the Americas ancestry in Latin America....
: all cohabiting in the same geographical area but with different cultures.

The 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? "

He published Las Buenas Conciencias in 1959 which is probably his most accessible novel depicting the privileged middle classes of a medium sized town, probably modelled on Guanajuato.

His 1960s novels, Aura
Aura (Fuentes)

Aura is a novel by Carlos Fuentes, first published in 1962 in literature in Mexico. The first English translation by Lysander Kemp, was published in 1965 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
 (1962) and La muerte de Artemio Cruz
The Death of Artemio Cruz

The Death of Artemio Cruz is a novel written in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and is considered to be a contributor to the Latin American literary movement known as the Latin American "Boom."...
  (1962) are well acclaimed for using experimental modern narrative styles (including the second person
Second-person narrative

The second-person narrative is a narrative mode in which the protagonist or another main character is referred to by employment of second-person personal pronouns and other kinds of addressing forms, for example the English second-person pronoun "you"....
 form) to discuss history, society and identity.

In 1967, during a meeting with Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier

Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essay writer, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous Latin American Boom....
, Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar

Julio Cort?zar, born Jules Florencio Cort?zar was an Argentina author of novels and short story. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina, but most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951....
 and Miguel Otero Silva
Miguel Otero Silva

Miguel Otero Silva , was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. Remaining a figure of great reference in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works were strictly related to the social and political history of Venezuela....
, Carlos Fuentes launched the project of a series of biographies
Biography

A biography is a description of someone's life, usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography by the same person it is about....
 depicting Latin American caudillos, which would be called Los Padres de la Patria. 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 Novel
Dictator novel

The dictator novel is a literary genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society. The theme of caudillo—the charismatic authoritarian "strongman"—is addressed by examining the relationship between power, dictatorship, and writing, and is used as an allegory for the role o...
s (novela del dictador).

His 1985 novel Gringo viejo, the first pie American bestseller written by a Mexican author, was filmed as Old Gringo
Old Gringo

Old Gringo is a 1989 in film film directed by Luis Puenzo and co-written with A?da Bortnik, based on the novel Gringo Viejo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes....
 (1989) starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck was an American film actor. He was one of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and played important roles well into the 1990s....
 and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an United States actress, writer, political activism, former fashion model and Physical fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, with interruptions, has appeared in films ever since....
.

In 1994, he published Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone, a fictionalized account of his alleged affair with American actress Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg

Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 34 films in Hollywood and in France. Seberg became even more of an icon after her roles in numerous French films and the tragedy of her turbulent life and eventual suicide....
. 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
El País

El Pa?s is the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Spain. According to the 2005 Estudio General de Medios , it has about 2.1 million readers; El Mundo is second with an estimated 1.29 million readers....
 and Reforma
Reforma

Reforma is a Mexico newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma....
. He is a stern critic of what he sees as American cultural and economic situations typically hidden from mainstream Mexican society.

List of works


Novels

  • Las Buenas Conciencias (1959) ISBN 978-9707100046
  • La Región Más Transparente (1959) ISBN 978-9705800146
  • The Death of Artemio Cruz
    The Death of Artemio Cruz

    The Death of Artemio Cruz is a novel written in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and is considered to be a contributor to the Latin American literary movement known as the Latin American "Boom."...
     (1962) ISBN 978-0374522834
  • Aura
    Aura (Fuentes)

    Aura is a novel by Carlos Fuentes, first published in 1962 in literature in Mexico. The first English translation by Lysander Kemp, was published in 1965 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
     (1962) ISBN 978-9684111813
  • Zona sagrada, (1967)
  • Cambio de piel (1967)
  • Cumpleaños (1969)
  • Diana o la cazadora solitaria (1972)
  • Terra Nostra (1975)
  • La cabeza de la hidra (1978)
  • Una familia lejana Also known as "La familia" (1980)
  • Agua quemada (1981)
  • Orquídeas a la luz de la luna (1982)
  • Gringo viejo (The Old Gringo
    Old Gringo

    Old Gringo is a 1989 in film film directed by Luis Puenzo and co-written with A?da Bortnik, based on the novel Gringo Viejo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes....
    ) (1985)
  • Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn
    Christopher Unborn

    Christopher Unborn is the tenth novel by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes. Originally published by the Fondo de Cultura Econ?mica in 1987, the first U.S. edition was published in 1989 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux....
    ) (1987)
  • Ceremonias del alba (1991)
  • El naranjo (1993)
  • La frontera de cristal (1995)
  • "A New Time for Mexico" (1996) ISBN 0-374-22170-7 (translated from Spanish by Marina Gutman Castaneda)
  • Los años con Laura Díaz (1999)
  • Todas las Familias Felices (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
    Chac Mool

    Chac-Mool is the name given to a type of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone statue.The Chac-Mool depicts a human figure in a position of reclining with the head up and turned to one side, holding a tray over the stomach....
     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)
  • La frontera de cristal. Una novela en nueve cuentos (1995) ISBN 968-19-0268-8
  • Inquieta compañía (2004)
  • Las Dos Elenas


Essays

  • La nueva novela hispanoamericana (1969) ISBN 9682701422
  • El mundo de José Luis Cuevas
    Jose Luis Cuevas

    Jos? Luis Cuevas is a Modernism painter and sculptor from Mexico. Born in 1934, Cuevas derived most of his training outside of the academies. He is considered to be one of the artists from the 1950s in the Rupture Generation that was departing from the politicized and stylized Mexican Muralism of Jos? Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera....
     (1969)
  • Casa con dos puertas (1970)
  • Tiempo mexicano (1971)
  • Miguel de Cervantes
    Miguel de Cervantes

    Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel by many, is a classic of Western literature and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written....
     o la crítica de la lectura     (1976)
  • El Espejo Enterrado (The Buried Mirror) (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)


Further reading


English
  • Lifting the obsidian mask : the artistic vision of Carlos Fuentes. Lanin A Gyurko, 2007
  • Carlos Fuentes' The death of Artemio Cruz (Modern Critical Interpretations). Harold Bloom, 2006
  • Fuentes, Terra nostra, and the reconfiguration of Latin American culture. Michael Abeyta, 2006
  • Carlos Fuentes's Terra nostra and the Kabbalah: the recreation of the Hispanic world. Sheldon Penn, 2003
  • The narrative of Carlos Fuentes : family, text, nation. Steven Boldy, 2002
  • Carlos Fuentes, Mexico and modernity. Van Delden, Maarten, 1998
  • The postmodern Fuentes. Helmuth, Chalene, 1997
  • Specular narratives : critical perspectives on Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo, Mario Vargas Llosa. Roy Boland, 1997
  • The writings of Carlos Fuentes. Williams, Raymond L, 1996
  • A Marxist reading of Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, and Puig. Durán, Víctor M, 1994
  • Author, text, and reader in the novels of Carlos Fuentes. Ibsen, Kristine, 1993
  • Carlos Fuentes : life, work, and criticism. González, Alfonso, 1987
  • Carlos Fuentes. Faris, Wendy B, 1983
  • Carlos Fuentes, a critical view. Brody, Robert, 1982
  • The archetypes of Carlos Fuentes: from witch to androgyne. Durán, Gloria, 1980
  • Carlos Fuentes (Twayne World Authors Series). Guzmán, Daniel de, 1972


Spanish

  • El mito en la obra narrativa de Carlos Fuentes, Francisco Javier Ordiz, 2005
  • Los signos del laberinto : Terra nostra de Carlos Fuentes, Carmen V Vidaurre Arenas, 2004
  • Países de la memoria y el deseo : Jorge Luis Borges y Carlos Fuentes, Carmen Perilli, 2004
  • Carlos Fuentes : perspectivas críticas, Edith Negrín, 2002
  • Carlos Fuentes desde la crítica, Georgina García-Gutiérrez, 2001
  • El lenguaje que somos : Carlos Fuentes y el pensamiento de lo hispanoamericano, Estela Marta Saint-André, 2001
  • Los escritos de Carlos Fuentes, Raymond L Williams, 1998
  • Carlos Fuentes : 40 años de escritor, José Francisco Conde, 1993
  • Interpretaciones a la obra de Carlos Fuentes, Ana Maria Hernández de López, 1990
  • Fabulación de la fe : Carlos Fuentes, Fernando García Núñez, 1989
  • La obra de Carlos Fuentes : una visión múltiple, Ana María Hernández de López, 1988
  • Lo fantástico en los relatos de Carlos Fuentes : aproximación teórica, Gladys Feijoo, 1985
  • El cuento mexicano contemporáneo : Rulfo, Arreola y Fuentes, Bertie Acker, 1984
  • La narrativa de Carlos Fuentes, Aida Elsa Ramírez Mattei, 1983
  • Los disfraces : la obra mestiza de Carlos Fuentes, Georgina García-Gutiérrez, 1981
  • Nostalgia del futuro en la obra de Carlos Fuentes, Liliana Befumo Boschi, 1974
  • Aproximación a la literatura del mexicano Carlos Fuentes, Luján Carranza, 1974
  • Carlos Fuentes y la realidad de México, Fidel Ortega Martínez, 1969
  • Constancia: Y Otras Novelas Para Virgenes, 1990


External links

  • Carlos Fuentes' opening speech at the Fifth International Literature Festival Berlin at signandsight.com.
  • Review essay that includes a piece on Fuentes's Myself With Others by William A. Nericcio, a Latin Americanist cultural studies professor at SDSU.