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"There is an interesting question as to who is the most skilled, charming, inventive writer in the English language world. I have long argued the case for Carlos Fuentes—when his Spanish is brought over to English."
World-renowned Mexican novelist and critic Carlos Fuentes returned to Harvard on November 17 to speak to a new generation of students and scholars about politics, identity, writing, the creative process, and his latest novel, The Years with Laura Díaz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2000). Part of the 1960's "boom" that first introduced Latin American authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa to non-Spanish speaking readers, Carlos Fuentes has been a major figure in world literature since the publication of his 1962 masterpiece, The Death of Artemio Cruz. In his long career, the 72-year old Fuentes has authored numerous novels, short stories, plays, essays, and works of literary criticism, with many literary successes since Artemio Cruz, including the first best-selling novel in the U.S. by a Mexican author, The Old Gringo, later made into a film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. Fuentes has combined his life as a writer and scholar with a successful career in international relations, which culminated in his appointment as Mexico's ambassador to France from 1975 to 1977. Introductions Giving Voice to a Silent Past Fuentes also spoke of the ideas that have guided him in his writing: always to imagine the past, to remember that the future has a past and that the past must have a future; not to forget the variety of cultures; to keep the discourse open,; to use multiple voices; and to always remember the most important lesson of literature: "that the windmills are giants." At the end of his talk, Fuentes spoke about The Years with Laura Díaz, which explores the story and culture of 20th-century Mexico and the world through the fictional life of one woman, Laura Díaz. Touching on the connections between his experience and Laura's and the destiny of the work of Mexican muralists in the United States, he took the audience through a passage about Laura Díaz's time in Detroit with artists Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera, an excerpt that meditates on art and mortality. Fuentes transitioned briefly into Spanish to allow the audience to experience the work in its original language. Questions and Answers Fuentes noted that, in his lifetime, Mexico City, sometimes called "the Calcutta of the Americas," has exploded from a population of one to 20 million inhabitants, becoming in the process "a kind of a hell, but we love it." His hope for the city comes from his faith in what the civil society of Mexico City is capable of, which was movingly demonstrated after the devastating earthquake of 1985, and in the possibility of decentralizing city and national government now that Mexico is no longer a one-party state. Regarding Vincente Fox, the new president-elect of Mexico, Fuentes repeated a quote from a letter he wrote to Fox upon his election: "I hope that you are a 21st-century Fox." Fuentes explained the tensions within Fox's political party, and noted that Fox is walking a bit of a tightrope between party and people as Mexico attempts to move beyond its ancient tradition of authoritarian government. In response to a Chilean student who asked what literature can come out of the political apathy he sees now in his country and much of the rest of Latin America, Fuentes said that what he sees is History being written with a small "h," less breadth of vision and more of a focus on writing about daily life and personal reality. But he noted that both broad and local vision are required in art and in politics: "locality" as well as "globality." A Mexican student asked what Fuentes thought about mexicanidad, or mexicanity. Fuentes noted that "invasions" of culture occur from both sides and said he has no fear for mexicanidad because "a Mexican knows what it means to be Mexican. The challenge is to go from identity to diversity." About the Forum
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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