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Carlos Fuentes
Biography
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City in 1928 where his father was stationed as a diplomat. He lived in various countries as a child and went to school in Washington, D.C. where he attended the Henry D Cooke Elementary School. It was while at this school that Lázaro Cárdenas nationalised oil in Mexico and Fuentes’ schoolmates turned against him, making him aware of the trouble relationship between Mexico and the United States. While in Chile, he met the future writer José Donoso. After school he studied in Geneva and the National University of Mexico and then followed in his father’s footsteps as a diplomat, including serving as Mexico’s ambassador to France.
During his diplomatic career, he started writing, with a collection of short stories being his first published work. His next work, a novel – La región más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear) – had considerable success and established him as one of the earliest exponents of the Latin American boom. This novel was a truly Mexican novel, taking the rich Mexican mythology and fusing it with more contemporary Mexican history as well as Mexican politics and culture. He has continued to publish novels, short stories, drama and essays, many of which explore Mexico and what it means to be a Mexican as well as Mexico’s relationship with the United States. He has also written journalism and spoken throughout the world on these topics. He has been very critical of US cultural and economic imperialism and has been, in particular, highly critical of the Bush administration. He died in 2012.
Other links
Carlos Fuentes
Rebel, Internationalist, Establishmentarian: The Meandering Road Of Carlos Fuentes
Reviews of Carlos Fuentes books in New York Times
The Latin master
In praise of the novel (Carlos Fuentes on Cervantes, Kafka, and the saving grace of literature)
Interview
Obituary
Obituary
Obituary
Obituary
Carlos Fuentes (in Spanish)
Carlos Fuentes (in Spanish)
Carlos Fuentes (in Spanish)
Carlos Fuentes (in Spanish)
Fuentes, Carlos (in Spanish)
Obituary (in Spanish)
Obituary (in Spanish)
Obituary (in Spanish)
Bibliography
1954 Los días enmascarados (stories)
1958 La región más transparente (Where the Air Is Clear) (novel)
1959 Las buenas consciencias (The Good Conscience) (novel)
1962 La muerte de Artemio Cruz (The Death of Artemio Cruz) (novel)
1963 The Argument of Latin America: Words for North Americans (non-fiction)
1962 Aura (Aura) (novel)
1964 Cantar de ciegos (stories)
1967 Zona sagrada (Holy Place) (novel)
1967 Cambio de piel (A Change of Skin) (novel)
1969 París: La revolución de mayo (non-fiction)
1969 Cumpleaños (Birthday) (novel)
1969 La nueva novela hispanoamericana (non-fiction)
1970 Casa con dos puertas (non-fiction)
1971 Tiempo mexicano (non-fiction)
1971 Todos los gatos son pardos (drama)
1971 El tuerto es rey (drama)
1971 Poemas de amor: Cuentos del alma (stories)
1972 Diana o la cazadora solitaria (Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone) (novel)
1972 Cuerpos y ofrendas (stories)
1973 Chac Mool y otros cuentos (stories)
1975 Terra Nostra (Terra Nostra) (novel)
1978 La cabeza de hidra (Hydra Head) (novel)
1980 Una familia lejana (Distant Relations) (novel)
1981 Agua quemada (Burnt Water) (stories)
1982 Orquídeas a la luz de la luna (Orchids in the Moonlight) (drama)
1984 On Human Rights: A Speech (non-fiction)
1985 Latin America: At War with the Past (non-fiction)
1985 Gringo viejo (The Old Gringo) (novel)
1987 Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn) (novel)
1988 Myself with Others: Selected Essays (non-fiction)
1989 Constancia y otras novelas para vírgenes (Constancia and Other Stories for Virgins) (stories)
1991 Ceremonias del alba
1992 Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain in the New World (non-fiction)
1993 Ay vida, no me mereces! (with Elena Poniatowska)
1993 Geografia de la novela (non-fiction)
1993 El naranjo (The Orange Tree) (stories)
1995 La frontera de crystal (The Crystal Frontier; The Glass Border) (novel)
1999 Los años con Laura Díaz (The Years with Laura Díaz)
2001 Instinto de Inez (Inez) (novel)
2001 El Espejo Enterrado (non-fiction)
2002 En esto creo (This I Believe: An A to Z of a Life) (non-fiction)
2003 La silla del águila (The Eagle’s Throne) (novel)
2003 Carlos Fuentes: viendo visiones (non-fiction)
2004 Contra Bush (non-fiction)
2004 Inquieta compañía (stories)
2004 Chile, raíz de mi palabra (essay)
2005 Los 68 (politics)
2005 El prisionero de Las Lomas (story)
2006 Todas las Familias Felices (Happy Families) (novel)
2007 Cuentos naturales (stories)
2007 Cuentos sobrenaturales (stories)
2008 La Voluntad y la Fortuna (Destiny and Desire) (novel)
2008 El tuerto es el rey (drama)
2008 Frida Kahlo, 1907-2007 (biography)
2008 Los últimos de Cuba (biography)
2008 Transformaciones culturales y una agenda latinoamericana (essay)
2009 Adán en Edén (Adam in Eden) (novel)
2010 Vlad (Vlad) (novel)
2011 Carolina Grau (stories)
2011 La gran novela latinoamericana (The Great Latin American Novel (literature)
2012 Federico en su balcón (Nietzsche on His Balcony) (novel)
2012 Personas (essays)
2012 Constancia Y Otras Novelas Para Virgenes
2016 Aquiles o El guerrillero y el asesino
2016 Malintzin de las maquilas
2017 Carlos Fuentes y el Reino Unido
2017 Luis Buñuel o la mirada de la Medusa : (un ensayo inconcluso)
2018 Conferencias: políticas educación, sociedad y democracia
2019 Todas las familias felices
2019 A viva voz : conferencias culturales