Fuentes, Carlos

Average customer rating:

Riveting
Bilingual Edition....Beautiful Story....Excellent translation
Simple and Powerful Novella
One Good Turn...
Aura

Aura: Bilingual Edition
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374511713

Book Description

Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged widow to edit her deceased husband's memoirs. There Felipe meets her beautiful green-eyed niece, Aura. His passion for Aura and his gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

Customer Reviews:

Riveting.......2006-11-10

The English translation in this bilingual edition is very well done. Reading the Spanish at first was a bit laborious, but with the help of the side-by-side translation, I soon became quite engrossed in the story and the imagery. If you are looking for a book that helps you learn sentence structure and Spanish syntax, this isn't particularly helpful as Fuentes departs from normal patterns and waxes poetic to the point of being a bit bizarre. However, I became so interested in the story that I switched to reading the English first and then went to the Spanish to fill out the imeragery.

Bilingual Edition....Beautiful Story....Excellent translation.......2006-07-13

This review refers to the Bilingual Edition of "Aura" by Carlos Fuentes..

This was my first read of Carlos Fuentes, and I was very impressed. I am already adding others by Fuentes into my cart. "Aura" is a novella that will keep you involved from the first page to the last. The story, told as if you the reader are the main character,pulls you right into the emotions he is feeling, from the joy of a new job, to the love and lust towards a beautiful woman, to the fear of the unknown. As others have said, the style is akin to Poe. The words flow beautifully, the story is chilling.

Sr. Montero finds an ad for a chance at the job of a lifetime. The pay will keep him comfortable fo quite a while, and that at first is a big draw. He will be organizing and rewriting the journals and memoirs of a distinguished gentlemen for his very old widow. It must be done before she dies. The old woman is an fragile figure, over 100 years old. She insists he stay at the very dark and gloomy home during his employment.

Aura is the beautiful niece of the Senora, and Montero is immediately under her spell. He begins to notice strange and eerie events going on around him, but his love for Aura, overshadows it all. The Sra. and Aura hold a powerful and mystical secret, and getting to it is an engrossing read.One that may give you a nice little twist at the end.

An excellent translation of this mysterious story from Spanish to English by Lysander Kemp. The book is a fast read with Spanish on the left page and English on the right side. It's one that left me thinking about it for quite a while after the read. It will keep you good company and make the time pass on a plane trip or waiting room. Also nice for those learning Spanish or English, to have this bilingual edition to use.

A eerily lovely way to spend a couple of hours.
Enjoy....Laurie

Simple and Powerful Novella.......2006-04-03

A friend recommended I read this book after I heard Carlos Fuentes read from his work at an event.

Fuentes is a high-profile, politically involved writer, but this novella has no overt political content, although Fuentes would say all writing is political. It is an elegantly written, if slight, story of a young scholar engaged to write a memoir of sorts. The characters are interesting--I cared about them and what would happen to them even as events become more and more eerie and supernatural.

The strength of this edition is that you can read the Spanish version alongside the English translation--and even quibble with the translation if you are given to that.

Overall, a quick and enjoyable introduction to Fuentes' work.

One Good Turn..........2005-12-10

AURA by Carlos Fuentes, translated by Lysander Kemp, is a short read that I found wonderful and highly recommend. My Spanish is only mediocre so I was only able to take small advantage of the parallel text format. The plot has been reviewed by others, my only comment on the lists of comparisons, is to add Henry James' TURN OF THE SCREW that I kept thinking of while reading AURA. To those interested in gothic romance, I believe this novella represents the epitome.

Aura.......2005-09-30

It was really helpful to be able to read it in spanish and then look over the english version to make sure I didn't miss any nuances, which I did. Spanish is my second language, and quite frankly at times, some of the most crucial details are glossed over and students are supposed to catch them... This version really made sure I knew everything about what was going on.

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait

Average customer rating:

a MUST
Exceptional reproduction of actual diary pages, in full
diary of Frida Khalo
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait , A Review by Cheryl Millard
Now my Frida Kahlo Library is Complete!

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
Frida Kahlo
Manufacturer: "Harry N. Abrams, Inc."
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Frida

ASIN: 0810959542

Amazon.com

Frida Kahlo's diary, like her art, is painted in breathtakingly vivid colors. It covers her tumultuous last decade and encompasses love letters, political musings on Communism, and resplendent paintings. The paintings, peopled with mythic figures, self-portraits, and monsters, articulate Kahlo's fantastic visions. One drawing melds a procession of crying faces onto an intertwined couple surrounded by body parts, only to dissolve into a mass of roots and dendrites.

In the introduction, Carlos Fuentes writes, "...a streetcar crashed into the fragile bus she was riding, broke her spinal column, her collarbone, her ribs, her pelvis.... The impact of the crash left Frida naked and bloodied, but covered with gold dust." Her paintings depict her bodily experience, from anguish to sensuality. Kahlo said, "I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality." This visionary ability earned her a place among the surrealists.

Kahlo's prose delves into the associations between images and words, feelings and thought. Her writings shed welcome light on her active intelligence and provide an outline of the events of her life. This Abradale edition features plates reproducing the pages of the diary, and essays by Carlos Fuentes and Sarah Lowe that place it in the context of Mexican art, politics, and history. It is a magical work that adds to an understanding not only of Kahlo's work, but of her interior world as well. --Madeline Crowley

Book Description

Published in its entirety, Frida Kahlo's amazing illustrated journal documents the last ten years of her turbulent life. These passionate, often surprising, intimate records, kept under lock and key for some 40 years in Mexico, reveal many new dimensions in the complex personal life of this remarkable Mexican artist. The 170-page journal contains the artist's thoughts, poems, and dreams-many reflecting her stormy relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera-along with 70 mesmerizing watercolor illustrations.<BR><BR>The text entries, written in Frida's round, full script in brightly colored inks, make the journal as captivating to look at as it is to read. Her writing reveals the artist's political sensibilities, recollections of her childhood, and her enormous courage in the face of more than 35 operations to correct injuries she had sustained in an accident at the age of 18. This intimate portal into her life is sure to fascinate fans of the artist, art historians, and women's culturalists alike.

Customer Reviews:

a MUST.......2007-05-05

When I find out there was a book of all of Frida's actual writings and drawings from her diary, I was amazed! And this book totally fit all my expectations. It includes everything from her infamous red leather bound journal that she sought refuge in until the final moments of her life. You can actually see the ink from the next page leaking through the page before it, so you feel like your reading the actual thing. Its in big, bold, deep colors just how Frida liked it, and it translates and explains everything in english in a detailed and sufficient way. Definitely a MUST for all fans of the AWESOME Frida Kahlo =)

Exceptional reproduction of actual diary pages, in full.......2007-04-19

Enrique Torres' review is 100% accurate, so I just want to add a few additional comments.

The reproduction of the diary pages is nothing short of amazing - apparently scanned with a high quality scanner, or perhaps photographed digitally or with film and then digitized. The colors of both the writing and the images appear exceptionally accurate - Frida used many different colored pencils in her diary. Even penciled notations look like pencil, ballpoint ink looks like ink, and all pages are printed on high-quality semi-gloss paper.

The second half, which contains the English translations, also contains small black & white reproductions of each page translated and of each image described/explicated. Makes it easy to return to the first half and look at the original full-color page.

CAVEAT & RECOMMENDATION: The book I have is the 2005 hardback ed. published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. I have not seen nor can I speak of any other published editions. I would buy this edition - the price is more than reasonable and the quality top-notch.

diary of Frida Khalo.......2007-03-09

Fantastic illustrated diary, in her own handwriting an absolute must for all Khalo/Diego fans.

The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait , A Review by Cheryl Millard.......2006-06-20

Owning this book is really the closest you will become in owning an actual piece of kahlos intimate belongings even if it is only a reproduction.The books cover is a faithful reproduction of the diarys cover, you feel as if you are holding in your hands the actual diary,The pages are reproduced in a way that shows where the writing on the other side of the page has started to come through or where the paint,ink and marker has bled .You get a direct insight into the inner thoughts of this tormented,but highly talented person, tormented by the chronic pain from a life altering injury at such a young age as well as tormented by her love for Diego Rivera,miscarriages,opperations to alieviate the constant pain ,Frida weaves her art into words.The diary also shows her humorous side in making do with what life has dealt her with her dark sense of brash humor in a poetic yet sad way, we cannot help feeling as if we are looking into something forbidden expecting her to appear behind us as we look into the most fragile part of her life. In the back is a page by page translation for those of us who cannot read spanish, you will find this very helpful.This is another book that anyone who loves Kahlo should not be without,it is really well done in all aspects.

Now my Frida Kahlo Library is Complete!.......2006-01-15

To actually see the pages of Frida's diary (in full color) is amazing. Her diary is a work of art. Although heart-wrenching to read, her poetry, musings, and, quite possibly, 'random neural firings' give us a very personal picture of her last days. No Frida library is complete without it.

Average customer rating:

The out-of-print version is BETTER
Make it Work for You
The Death of Artemio Cruz
Excellent
Cannot but make the judicious grieve

The Death of Artemio Cruz: A Novel
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374522839

Book Description

Hailed as a masterpiece since its publication in 1962, The Death of Artemio Cruz is Carlos Fuentes's haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico. Its acknowledged place in Latin American fiction and its appeal to a fresh generation of readers have warranted this new translation by Alfred Mac Adam, translator (with the author) of Fuentes's Christopher Unborn.

As in all his fiction, but perhaps most powerfully in this book, Fuentes is a passionate guide to the ironies of Mexican history, the burden of its past, and the anguish of its present.

Customer Reviews:

The out-of-print version is BETTER.......2006-04-14

If you love literature then let me suggest that you purchase the "out-of-print" translation from one of the third party sellers. I read this book in a class and half the class read the older translation, the other half the new one. We voted hands down for the older translation. The new translation is good, but it simplifies a lot of the text and is mising the flair and use of complex figurative language of the older version.

Make it Work for You.......2004-12-13

The book was beautifully written, the plot was interesting, and the character development went above and beyond most books.

So why is there such controversy over this book? Well it is easy to say, this is not your cruise vacation book to read while laying by the beach. The first chapter will have you kicking and screaming for anything tangible to grab onto. The only person in this book you have to guide you is Artemio Cruz, who is sharing with you his memories. However, he isn't always the most stable guide. Half the book he is on his deathbed rambling, switching tenses and narratives.

So that is the first warning. However if you are willing to invest some time, you can find an entire new meaning to life within this book. If you can't invest the time, go out and rent Citizen Kane, you'll get the gist in about two hours, rather then the month minimum you'll need to get this book. Even after rereading it, the book leaves dozens of pieces in the book isolated and unconnected. (In fact we never how Artemio gets from being 13 to 23, and if you read the book you'll know why this is important and frustrating).

So what does this book have to offer besides several headaches and why in the world did I give it five stars? Well I could throw a lot of pretty adjectives out at you, but I won't. I will tell it to you simply. This book makes you think. And not in the painful way. If you fight this book, you will never get it. If you embrace it, even in it's most challenging passages, you will be opened to a whole new world of ideas. Ideas about memory, desire, life, death, and our place within society are embedded in this story.

Bottom line: This story is like an excavation site waiting to be dug up, hidden with endless treasures. If you are willing to put in the time, you won't be disappointed. If that sounds like too much work, move right along then.

The Death of Artemio Cruz.......2004-11-20

Artemio Cruz owns a vast empire in Mexico, encompassing newspapers, land, construction and more. He has a beautiful wife and daughter, both of whom he cannot stand, nor they him. His aide, Padilla, a man he trusts with his empire, and one he has grown to love as the son he lost so many years ago. He is so important, so respected, so necessary to the Mexican country that the President tries to impress him, rather than the other way around. But Artemio Cruz is dying, painfully and slowly, and it is while dying that he has a chance to evaluate his life, to take a good look at himself and what he has achieved.

Cruz is a complicated man. As a youth, he fought in the various, chaotic revolutions and counter-revolutions that periodically caused Mexico to cease functioning as a nation, becoming little more than a series of loosely connected fiefdoms. Using his intelligence and daring, he was able to secure a command in the fight against Pancho Villa, but more importantly, he also knew when to leave the life of a soldier for a more solid existence. As a young man, he met Regina, the woman he was to love until his dying day.

As an older man, he is respected and influential, but also cold and distant. Gone are the passionate, poorly thought-out heroics of his early adulthood. He no longer loves like it doesn't matter, or cares much for the reality of another person. At his annual New Year's party, Cruz retires early to a comfortable leather chair positioned so he can watch everyone else have fun. The unspoken rules of the party forbids guests to talk to him at all, other than to pay their respects. His wife lives in another city, and a prostitute shares his bed this night, as she has every other night for the past eight years.

The three technique Fuentes uses in painting Cruz's life are quite interesting. In the present of the novel, when Cruz is dying, the narration is first person, disjointed, and very, very personal. No physical details are omitted, no matter how disgusting. Thoughts are fragmented, jumping from place to place, from time to time. The first few instances of this are difficult to follow, because we do not yet know Cruz's life, but as the novel progresses, the chaotic mental ramblings of the present become clearer, if not for Cruz but for us.

The second stylistic method used are the second person sections. These are generally short, but are the harshest and most self-critical. It is as though Cruz has stepped back from himself, created a 'you' for him to pour forth his bile, resentment, anger and also satisfaction about himself and his own life. These sections are just as personal as the first-person chapters, but in an emotional sense. He probes at the reasons he did this, or why he would think that. These sections are almost entirely devoid of other characters, it is simply Cruz with himself, condemning and praising, remembering and trying to forget.

The third - and most plentiful - type of chapters are in third person, dated, and taken from various times throughout his life. It is here we learn of Regina, here we learn why the phrase, 'We crossed the river on horseback' is so important, why his wife hates him, and more. In these sections, we are almost never shown his thoughts, nor those of anybody else. They are very detached, expositionary scenes, helping to explain the intimate thoughts and ramblings of the second- and first-person chapters.

Towards the end of the narrative, as Artemio Cruz approaches his death, the 'you' and the 'I' narratives start to merge, fuzzing and growing indistinct. He rails against himself, then defends his decisions over the years, then praises himself for the love he has, even now, for Regina. The sections - interspersing the 'you' and 'I' and even 'he' of Cruz within the space of four sentences - could be confusing if done earlier, but because we are familiar with his life and thoughts, they make sense. There are pages long sequences of broken thoughts, flitting between time and place without warning or explanation, and surprisingly, these are effective and do not come across at all as a gimmick. Rather, it is the character of Cruz - presented elsewhere as so strong and stable when old, so mercurial and romantic when young - breaking apart, unable to accept his death, unwilling to leave his life, even if it will mean re-uniting with Regina.

In the end, what we have is a character study. The setting - early 20th century Mexico - is rich and colourful, although at times, it does fade into the background as Artemio Cruz's character takes over. This is by no means a negative, as Cruz is a wonderful diverse man. He has weaknesses and strengths, and the novel spends as much time of his flaws as it does on his achievements. It is a credit to Fuentes that the vibrancy of Mexico shines through in what is, primarily, a journey through the mind of a proud man, a lonely man, a dying man: Artemio Cruz.

Excellent.......2004-07-10

The book truly is a beautiful piece of literature. As with any book of its stature, one must force themself to look past the plot-- an attempt to do so will end in frustration and ambivalence. The book examines the complex life of a corrupt Mexican elite during the time of revolution. However, it does not attempt to create sympathy for Artemio but rather casts a great critique on the overall mechanisms of judgement. The book is very honest, and Fuentes does not hesitate to confuse the reader.

The reader below who says the book made him realize his taste is better than that of his professors is obviously trapped in adolescent frustration and ignoring the intent of the novel. Do not read this for plot. Although at times the action is exciting and suspenseful, any attempt to read for plot will result in confusion and frustration. The book is not easy to read. Ultimately, however, the experience proves to be more than worthwhile.

Cannot but make the judicious grieve.......2003-12-15

When a writer starts a story in the first person, switches to the second person and finally to the third person, I usually get annoyed and stop reading. But when it's on a list of books you have to read and are going to be tested on, you keep going, more and more convinced of the stupidity of those professors in Spanish departments all over the USA who keep it on their reading lists and thus save it from the oblivion it so richly deserves and will soon attain.

I give "Artemio Cruz" two stars only because reading it proved to me that my taste is better than that of my professors.

And for those who think that the fault may lie in the translation, I can assure you that the original is just as bad, if not worse.

Los años con Laura Díaz (Biblioteca Carlos Fuentes)

Average customer rating:

Una historia que vale la pena leer.
Bellísimo...
La gran dama Laura Diaz
Los Anos con Laura Diaz
Historia y novela

Los años con Laura Díaz (Biblioteca Carlos Fuentes)
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Santillana USA Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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La Silla Del Aguila (Biblioteca Carlos Fuentes)
The Years with Laura Diaz
En esto creo (In This I Believe)
Instinto de Inez
Los de abajo

ASIN: 9681905318

Book Description

Laura D´az is a passionated character, intimately connected to many historical events. Through her story, Carlos Fuentes writes the journal of the Mexican twentieth century, supporting his novel with facts and characters that define the shape of today's Mexico.

Customer Reviews:

Una historia que vale la pena leer........2004-10-14

La historia de Laura Diaz puede llegar a ser tomada como idealista, pero encierra los deseos de todo ser humano y muy intereantemente nos lleva de la mano de la historia de Mèxico del siglo XX.
Yo soy de Guatemala, pero ambos paises tiene una cultura paralela en el tiempo y con muchos puntos en comun, por algo fueron conquistados al mismo tiempo y por casi las mismas personas.
Tanto en lo social como en lo polìtico este libro pudiera llegara a ser tambien la historia de ambos paises, ambos con revoluciones, represiòn y corrupciònm que hacen que uno se sienta identificado con el tema.
En resumen una lectura fascinante.

Bellísimo..........2004-09-04

Una relato lindísimo sobre la historia de Mexico, el amor y la vida en general. No dejen de leerlo...Me ha costado conseguir un libro que lo supere.

La gran dama Laura Diaz.......2002-05-28

Este es uno de los mejores libros que Carlos Fuentes ha escrito. Digo que es uno de los mejores pero no el mejor que a esrito. Si te gusta la historia entonces te va guster mucho. Si tienes interes en la historia de Mexico te va gustar mas porque es una novela inolvidable que puedes ver por los ojos de Laura Diaz, una mujer fuerte y sensilla que tiene que luchar para los derechos que hoy en dia apenas las mujeres estan disfrutando. Es una bonita novela que se trata de los cambios que han occurido en Mexico durante el siglo XX. Es muy emocional la historia, especialmente si conoces familia que a vivido los cambios durante los ultimos cien anos. Yo pase el tiempo leyendo este libro y pensando en mi abuelita que hace unos anos fallecio a los 99 anos. Como Laura Diaz estuvo presente para ver los cambios entre el gobierno y los atitudes de la cultura sobre los derechos de los humanos sin pensar si es mujer o hombre. Laura Diaz vive una vida completa con gran amores, familia y todo el tiempo al lado de los famosos y un testigo de la historia de Mexico. Te recomendo este libro para entender la historia de Mexico y como la mujer es parte de esa historia.

Los Anos con Laura Diaz.......2002-01-13

The 5 stars I give this work is not because I am in love with Fuente's overall work, but because this historical fiction provokes thought and analysis in a poetic way of the life as seen through the eyes and feelings of a woman.
If the reader wishes to to learn the history of a country while becoming enveloped in how a woman, a wife, a daughter, a lover and friend is impacted by the choices made, this is a book to read.

Historia y novela.......2002-01-11

Los años con Laura Díaz es como la novela gemela de La región más transparente, porque con ambas obras se puede aprender, analizar y entender la historia de México, sobre todo la del siglo XX; Fuentes demuestra en esta novela su calidad como narrador, su conocimiento del español que fluye en la creación de los personajes y su ambiente. El viaje entre Veracruz y la Ciudad de México que emprende Laura Díaz es un tejido que señala los entresijos de la historia del México contemporáneo. En fin, el lector queda enamorado de Laura, una especie de Beatriz que nos guía por los espacios cósmicos de México.

The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World

Average customer rating:

Best book I have read in a long time
Understanding the Hispanic tradition
Unsatisfied
Magnificent!
The Buried Mirror

The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0395924995

Book Description

As the Los Angeles Times said: "Drawing expertly on five centuries of the cultural history of Europe and the Americas, Fuentes seeks to capture the spirit of the new, vibrant, and enduring civilization [in the New World] that began in Spain." Fuentes's singular success in this remarkable endeavor has made the book a classic in its field. (A Mariner Reissue).

Customer Reviews:

Best book I have read in a long time.......2007-05-25

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.

Understanding the Hispanic tradition.......2006-01-17

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.

Unsatisfied.......2005-10-09

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?

Magnificent!.......2002-08-06

This book is absolutely spellbinding and captivating in it's presentation that is both an excellent narrative and artistic with imagery to further enhance the experience. The editorial review here at Amazon by Kirkus Reviews is a good synopsis to get a good idea about the books contents. Also there are many sample pages available for your perusal. From a readers perspective this book is one to cherish after the reading experience is over. Carlos Fuentes presents the subject of Spain and it's influence on the new world with clarity and makes his points with the precision of a sugeon, clean and accurate. Beginning with the ancient imagery of the bull found in caves in Spain Fuentes begins his analysis showing how this imagery continues in the arts and culture in such diverse domains as the works of Goya and Picasso, advertisements for brandy and of course the Spanish spectacle of bullfighting. He picks and chooses his historical path, weaving through the centuries concluding with the the growth of Hispanic USA. The book is full oh historical facts, little known bits of information abound as Fuentes draws analogies that stimulate the mind, stimulating the reader to conclude further inferences. The book reminds me of Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man" only on a smaller scope, from a perspective that makes connections between Spain and Latin America as oppossed to the whole of humanity. The "mother" countries influence is expounded upon as only Fuentes can, his use of language is powerful, insightful and revealing all the while showing his keen intelligence and sharp eye for details. The accompanying artwork throughout the book is fantastic and helps the reader to further understand the subject. A moving narrative is delivered by Fuentes and I highly suggest this book to anyone interested in the history of Spain and it's long lasting influence in the Americas. A natural outcome of reading this book is to further explore one of the many topics introduced. Included is a complete lineage of Spanish succession detailing the various ruling families and marriages that created the kings and queens of Spain. Aslo there is an outstanding suggested bibliography. This is a superb book that stimulates the mind while you read and beyond.

The Buried Mirror.......2002-07-02

This book is good for readers who are interested in Hispanic culture but don't know where to start looking for information. Carlos Fuentes introduces Latin America poetically and simply.

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Had to have it!
Botero-Women

Botero: Women
Fernando Botero
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Botero: Paintings and Drawings (Art Flexi Series)
Botero: Sculptures
The Baroque World of Fernando Botero
Botero: In the Museo Nacional de Colombia/New Donation 2004
Botero: Abu Ghraib

ASIN: 0847825558
Release Date: 2003-11-29

Book Description

Since the age of nineteen-the year of his first solo exhibition-Fernando Botero has delighted his audience with the joyfully rotund figures that populate his canvases. Like any great artist, he was compelled to paint the female form. More than 100 of his greatest works devoted to the theme of women are collected in this oversized, deluxe volume, the design of which was overseen and directed by the artist himself. This book includes fifty unpublished works, numerous archival photographs, and vellum inserts printed with images made by Botero especially for the book.

Botero never works from live models, as he feels it limits his creativity. The women in his work are inspired by the women he has known throughout his life-the vivacious neighborhood characters from his native Colombia. In the early 1950s, he left Colombia to study the paintings of great artists, such as Diego Velázquez and Piero della Francesca, all of which made a lasting impression on the artist.

Accompanying the work of this incomparable artist is an introduction by one of the most respected Latin American writers of today, Carlos Fuentes.

Customer Reviews:

Had to have it!.......2005-09-21

Archetypical composition that is autobiographical beyond words is Botero. When you've finished reviewing this beautiful book you will know Botero better than many of your friends and possibly some of your relatives.

Beautifully bound, a real treasure.

Botero-Women.......2005-08-04

A preferred selection for us and delivered in excellent condition.
We are VERY pleased.

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An Underwhelming Brew
A Fragile Crystal
A ROLL OF THE EYES
Insights from the Outsider
A modern look at the polarized lives on the border

The Crystal Frontier
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Conquest
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Lizard
This I Believe: An A to Z of a Life
Inez

ASIN: 0156006200

Book Description

From Mexico’s preeminent man of letters, “a Balzacian novel in nine masterly stories” (Vanity Fair) that explores the “uneven and painful meshing of two North american cultures” (Washington Post Book World). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. Translated by Alfred Mac Adam.

Customer Reviews:

An Underwhelming Brew.......2006-07-20

Whenever I travel to a country, I like to take along some fiction written by someone from that country to read while I'm there. So, for my first trip to Mexico, Fuentes seemed like the logical choice, and since I tend to enjoy short stories, this "novel in nine stories" seemed to fit the bill. However, for the most part, I found it both thematically and stylistically underwhelming, rather tedious, and it didn't give me any new insights into the dynamic and complex relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. The nine pieces are very tangentially connected to Don Leonardo, a rather generic shady, wealthy Mexican businessman who exists at one end of the socioeconomic spectrum. He's able to move easily across the "crystal frontier" between Mexico and the U.S. -- whether by flying first class to New York or being chauffeured to El Paso in his Mercedes.

In "A Capital Girl", a beautiful girl from Mexico City with few prospects finds security with her godfather Don Leonardo, and although she marries his son, she becomes the old man's mistress. Surely this is allegorical, although I'm not quite sure what to make of it. In "Spoils", Juan Zamora is able to attend Cornell Medical School through the machinations of Don Leonardo. While there, he explores his homosexuality and unable to reconcile his identity, flees back home. "Spoils" is in some ways the most fantastical and enjoyable of the stories, as an eminent Mexican food critic sits discovers a Mexican genie in a bottle of salsa. However, it's simultaneously a tediously diatribe against American food (which I'm not particularly a fan of either) which gets all too shrill.

"The Line of Oblivion" is an ineffective rambling stream of consciousness monologue from a wheelchair-bound old man at a border protest. "Malintzin of the Maquilas" is probably my favorite segment of the whole book, as it is the most direct and apparently "realistic" of the lot. It follows a young woman who works in a border factory assembling television sets, and her relationships with several coworkers and a feckless boyfriend. It's more compelling than the others because the socioeconomic themes feel more at home in this particular setting, with these characters. Unfortunately, it's also marred somewhat by a predictable (and unnecessary) bit of melodrama at the end.

"Las Amigas" is simply a terrible story about the relationship between a very wealthy and a very racist elderly Chicago woman and her Mexican maid. It's really, really bad, but not quite as ridiculous as the title story, "The Crystal Frontier". This is about a hardworking, solid Mexican man forced to take a job as a contract window washer in New York in order to earn a living. There, he experiences an incredibly cheezy moment of "connection" with a typical American businesswoman who's working over the weekend. They kiss through the glass -- it's so awful it beggars belief. "The Bet" stands a little removed from the rest of the book, as it chronicles the relationship between a Mexican tour guide and a Spanish woman he meets and falls for, while also telling of a time from the past when he and his friends used to pick on the town's simpleton. The final story, "Rio Grande, Rio Bravo" attempts to bring together the book's themes (and some of the characters) in a climactic nighttime border crossing but collapses in ridiculous bloodbath involving neo-Nazi skinhead bikers!

My main disappointment with this book is that I didn't feel like I learned anything or gained any perspective. The storytelling is pretty awkward for the most part, and the translated prose felt affected and pretentiously overwritten. There are some interesting characters who are brought to life (at least on the Mexican side, every single Anglo in the book is either an out and out racist or subconsciously prejudicial), but the situations there are put in are often too artificial. The next time I look for a book my a Mexican writer, I think I'll try and find something by someone much younger and closer to the ground -- despite the evident good intentions there's an air about Fuentes' writing which makes him seem utterly removed from the plight of people he's trying to write about in most of these stories.

A Fragile Crystal.......2002-08-15

Carlos Fuentes is a major author in Mexican literature, with notable successes in history and fiction. In this book of 266 pages, he introduces us to the lives of a spectrum of persons living on both sides of the Mexican Border, particularly with Texas. He speaks with authority about the historical injustices involved in the American conquest of Texas, the War on Mexico, and our continuing hostile dependency on each other. The Americans need cheap labor and the Mexicans need jobs. In nine vignettes (chapters), he gives us a glimpse into the lives of various persons on both sides of the border. The Mexicans come North to go to school legally or to do menial work illegally or legally. The message in this book is quite clear. We want the Mexicans when we need them to do tasks cheaply that our own labor force will not do. We do not want the Mexicans when they become dependent on us and stress our social system for such things as health care or education. Carlos Fuentes points to the type of economic slavery that this creates, not much better than the era of slavery which Abraham Lincoln fought against. Fuentes achieves some balance in showing also the internal corruption of Mexico, and the many ways that they miss opportunities to improve themselves. The vignettes are funny, sad, passionate, and sometimes lacking in clear focus. Some characters fade into and out of various chapters creating a fabric of impressions about the life on the border. The reader has to relax and let the images flow past, with the poetic inserts by Fuentes about the various conflicts. This is clearly not his best book but in some ways it perhaps reveals more of his own most heartfelt conflicts which accumulated while he spent many years as a child and young adult in the USA. It is a particularly good book to read while you are traveling near the Mexican border and can get your own impressions of this SCENE.

A ROLL OF THE EYES.......2002-06-30

Anytime you write a bunch of short stories and try to thread them together with a cameo of characters from previous stories you're going to get into trouble. Because that's what it ends up being. A bunch of short stories that is said to comprise a "novel". It's hard to remember who's who from one story to the next because you've only been exposed to the characters for a short glimpse.

"The Crystal Frontier" is an unimaginative attempt at metaphor concocted by Fuentes to symbolize the frontier between Mexico and the United States. That boundary is not only the physical presence of the Rio Grande River but also of the differences between cultures.

The character that threads the stories together is a powerful Mexican businessman named Leonardo Barroso whose main export to America is cheap labor. He is introduced in the first story, called "A Capital Girl" in which he sets up his bookish son to be married to a beautiful girl. He also sets her up to be his mistress. Like a demented Amelie, Leonardo has a direct or indirect impact on all the short stories that follow. I guess it has something in common with chaos theory, but instead of a butterfly causing a hurricane, here we have a money grubbing exploitive Enron type affecting lives that he knows nothing about.

A few of the earlier stories are interesting and good. "Pain" is about a doomed love affair between two medical students, one of which got a scholarship from Leonardo. "Spoils" was a great story about a famous food critic and chef who offers his philsophy of why America is obese. It is also in that story that the book starts to destroy itself for me. Fuentes starts coming in through his characters about how America stole half of Mexico and about how we are inferior to the europeans in culture. It is in this story that Americans begin to be stereotyped as ruthless buzzards that are eating off the flesh of Mexico. I won't get into a rant just yet.

The rest of the stories in the "novel" run the gamut from average to poor and some are just downright an affront to the intellegence of a brain dead squirrel and are unreadable. Two of the most awful are the short story the book was named for, "The Crystal Frontier" and the last story in here, called "Rio Grande, Rio Bravo". "Frontier" is about a Mexican who is a complete failure in his hometown who is contracted to work in New York. His work is to clean the windows of an immense glass skycraper. While he is cleaning he notices a woman working, not knowing that she's there on a Saturday to get away from her domestic problems. There's this whole big moment where they basically fall in love just looking at each other straight out of a harlequin novel. It was just so cliched and awful.

For sheer Ed Wood sorriness "Rio Grande" takes the cake. All the characters in the earlier stories are brought together in an episode centering on an illegal crossing of Mexicans into Texas. Here we have the cliched white border guard who never goes out in the sun because he's afraid of tanning and showing the darkness inherit in his genes and who is sort of a closet Adolph Hitler. We have his subordinate, an American of Mexican descent, who is in a cliched scene where he confronts an illegal alien and is engrossed in a loving hug with him. Let's not forget the arrival of a Nazi skinhead motorcycle gang who proceed to slaughter the Mexicans right on cue. Oh boy. The horror. The horror. This book is so ludicrous it makes me sick. Oh, it is also interspersed with a Neruda-wannabe poem recounting Mexico's history.

I will soon be donating this book to my local library. Fuentes' prose is overblown and pompous. He tries so hard to be a poet but it can never be. It says on the back of the jacket that he is Mexico's greatest novelist. I weep for Mexico. I agree that America takes advantage of Mexico but Mexico also takes advantage of us. It's a cycle that has benefits and drawbacks but I think both countries ignore the problems. Sometimes I don't understand why Mexico has never been able to get its act together and why there even has to be the problems we have. Fuentes seems to place most if not all the responsibility on the US. He does place some blame on Mexico itself when he states that "whoever said Mexicans have the right to be well-governed?"
Obviously he likes the politics in his country enough to be an ambassador to France for it. And I have a lot of suspicion for a man who "champions the poor" when he divides his time between Mexico City and London. It must be rough trying to get by on the little amount of money he makes.

Insights from the Outsider.......2002-01-22

Fuentes does not bridge the gap between two colossal cultures, he defines that gap. As a gringo in his own country Mexico, and a foreigner in the US, he is qualified and capable to draw a honest and sensitive picture of these two countries and its characters. He uses the physical divide to draw a picture of what really matters to him - the poverty and impasse existence of myriads of people in Mexico. Luckily, there is only a hint of his (far leftist) politics, and we are allowed to enjoy his cultural insight, deep understanding of characters, compassion for suffering, and sense of humor. A powerful author, but short of the genius of friend and peer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

A modern look at the polarized lives on the border.......2001-08-16

A fascinating look from numerous perspectives at the increasingly intermingled Mexican and U.S. frontier. The short stories range from life in the oppressive border factories pumping out goods for America to the lives of those who control this commerce, to workers entering the U.S. for menial jobs, both with a visa in relative comfort and with nothing to lose in the deserts along the Rio Grande. This book is ten times more informative, realistic, and well-written than most of the works shoved down a student's throat in any type of ethnic literature or sociology course concerning these issues. Highly recommended book by Latin America's most overlooked great author, Carlos Fuentes.

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Modern National Discourse and La muerte de Artemio Cruz: The Illusory "Death" of African Mexican Lineage
Puro onanismo sintactico y poco mas
A masterpiece to remember
Obra Maestra
zurc oimetra ed etreum al

La Muerte de Artemio Cruz
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Los de abajo
El laberinto de la soledad
Cien Años de Soledad
Pedro Paramo Y El Llano En Llamas
Los pasos perdidos

ASIN: 0140255826

Book Description

In La muerte de Artemio Cruz we are present in the last moments of the life of a powerful man, one who was a revolutionary soldier, a lover without passion, and a father without a family. Carlos Fuentes reveals in this novel the thoughts of an elderly man who can no longer fend for himself; the man is confronted with an imminent and torturous death, but his will does not allow him to be defeated.

Description in Spanish: Los últimos momentos de la vida de un hombre poderoso, un soldado revolucionario, un amante sin amor, un padre sin familia¿ un hombre que traicionó a sus compañeros, pero que no pudo soportar las heridas que le infligió el destino.

Carlos Fuentes nos revela los procesos mentales de un viejo que ya no es capaz de valerse por sí mismo y que se halla postrado ante la muerte inminente e indigna, pero su voluntad ¿que le ha otorgado una posición sobresaliente en la sociedad¿ se resiste a dejarse vencer.

Usando una brillante técnica narrativa, que reúne en un solo texto el consciente, el subconsciente y la narración objetiva, el pasado, el presente y el futuro, Fuentes nos conduce por las entrañas de la Revolución, el sistema político mexicano y la idiosincrasia de las clases dirigentes.

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Modern National Discourse and La muerte de Artemio Cruz: The Illusory "Death" of African Mexican Lineage .......2006-02-02

"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.

Puro onanismo sintactico y poco mas.......2003-02-26

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.

A masterpiece to remember.......2001-05-13

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.

Obra Maestra.......2000-12-13

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

zurc oimetra ed etreum al.......2000-09-04

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

The Eagle's Throne: A Novel
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Politics in the Raw

The Eagle's Throne: A Novel
Carlos Fuentes
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0812972554
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Here is a true literary event–the long-awaited new novel by Carlos Fuentes, one of the world’s great writers. By turns a tragedy and a farce, an acidic black comedy and an indictment of modern politics, The Eagle’s Throne is a seriously entertaining and perceptive story of international intrigue, sexual deception, naked ambition, and treacherous betrayal.
In the near future, at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Mexico’s idealistic president has dared to vote against the U.S. occupation of Colombia and Washington’s refusal to pay OPEC prices for oil. Retaliation is swift. Concocting a “glitch” in a Florida satellite, America’s president cuts Mexico’s communications systems–no phones, faxes, or e-mails–and plunges the country into an administrative nightmare of colossal proportions.

Now, despite the motto that “a Mexican politician never puts anything in writing,” people have no choice but to communicate through letters, which Fuentes crafts with a keen understanding of man’s motives and desires. As the blizzard of activity grows more and more complex, political adversaries come out to prey. The ineffectual president, his scheming cabinet secretary, a thuggish and ruthless police chief, and an unscrupulous, sensual kingmaker are just a few of the fascinating characters maneuvering and jockeying for position to achieve the power they all so desperately crave.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Politics in the Raw.......2006-07-28

This political satire holds your attention. What makes the reading a bit tedious is the fact that the styles of the various correspondents whose letters constitute the narrative, are not well differentiated, possibly due to translation. While the Mexican political chicanery depicted may seem extreme at times, our own Watergate, Monica L. and Weapons of Mass Destruction do not pale in comparison.

Americanos: Latino Life in the United States

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Beautiful Tapestry of Latino Life in the United States
Manuel Monterrey
Very Important Book
A Glory beyond Words
A not to be missed work!

Americanos: Latino Life in the United States
Edward James Olmos , Carlos Fuentes , and Lea Ybarra
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0316649090

Book Description

This spirited photo book is part of an unprecedented campaign, one that includes an HBO documentary and a Smithsonian traveling photography exhibit, that highlights the vital contributions of Latinos in all aspects of American culture. The book brings together original photos, as well as essays and poetry from notable authors as Isabel Allende and Carlos Fuentes.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Tapestry of Latino Life in the United States.......2002-04-10

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.

Manuel Monterrey.......2000-08-02

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.

Very Important Book.......2000-02-27

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.

A Glory beyond Words.......1999-11-21

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.

A not to be missed work!.......1999-10-18

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Olmos talk in person about the making of "Americanos" and now have the pleasure of enjoying the book again and again. The photos are hauntingly charming, poignant and vital and I can guarantee they will stay in your heart and mind long after you put the book down.

What "Americanos" has to say about Latinos is so vitally important. Olmos, in his preface, says "...Too often, only one culture of Latino culture is apparent. That is the culture that we see from our car windows, on newscasts, in restaurants and from stadium seats..." "Americanos", however gives us an insider's view, a look into the very heart and soul of our Latino brothers and sisters and reveals a people, in Olmos's words, "...who are diverse in culture, color, ideas and dreams..."

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