Fuentes, Carlos

Fuentes, Carlos (kär`lōs fwān`tās), 1928–, Mexican writer, editor, and diplomat. He was head of the department of cultural relations in Mexico's ministry of foreign affairs (1956–59) and Mexican ambassador to France (1975–77). Much of his fiction, which generally deals with themes of Mexican identity and history and often focuses on politics and sex, is a synthesis of reality and fantasy, transcending the limits of time and space (see magic realism). His works include La región más transparente (1958; tr. Where the Air Is Clear, 1960), Las buenas conciencias (1959; tr. Good Conscience, 1968), Cambio de piel (1967; tr. A Change of Skin, 1968), Terra Nostra (1975, tr. 1976), Una familia lejana (1980; tr. Distant Relations, 1982), La Campaña (1990, tr. The Campaign, 1991), Años con Laura Díaz (1999; tr. The Years with Laura Díaz, 2000), Instinto de Inez (2001, tr. Inez, 2002), and Silla del Águila (2003, tr. The Eagle's Throne, 2006). His nonfiction books include The Buried Mirror (1992), a study of Spanish and Latin American cultural history, and This I Believe (2005), an alphabetically arranged combination memoir, manifesto, and literary essay. Fuentes has also written numerous essays and short stories.

Bibliography

See biographies by W. Faris (1983) and A. González (1987); studies by R. Brody and C. Rossman, ed. (1982), K. Ibsen (1993), R. L. Williams (1996), C. Helmuth (1997), and M. Van Delden (1998).

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Fuentes, Carlos

Carlos Fuentes, 2003.

(credit: Reuters/Corbis)

(born Nov. 11, 1928, Panama City, Pan.) Mexican writer and diplomat. The son of a Mexican career diplomat, he traveled widely before studying law and entering the diplomatic service. He is best known for his experimental novels. His first, Where the Air Is Clear (1958), a bitter indictment of Mexican society, won him national prestige. The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), about the final hours of an unscrupulous former revolutionary, made his international reputation. Among his later novels are Terra Nostra (1975), The Hydra Head (1978), The Old Gringo (1985), and The Years with Laura Díaz (1999). “The Buried Mirror” (1992) is a long essay on Hispanic cultures.

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Fuentes, Carlos 

Born Nov. 11, 1928, in Mexico City. Mexican writer.

Fuentes was educated as a lawyer. He published the short-story collection Masked Days in 1954. His novels Where the Air is Clear (1958), The Good Conscience (1959), and The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962; Russian translation, 1967) are devoted to recent Mexican history. These works, together with those of J. Rulfo, represent a new stage in the development of realist prose in Mexico. In the novels A Change of Skin (1967) and Birthday (1975), Fuentes added avant-garde techniques to his artistic repertoire. Fuentes has also published a play called All the Cats Are Gray (1970; Russian translation, 1972) and a collection of critical essays under the title The New Hispano-American Novel (1969).

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Spokoinaia sovest’. Smert’ Artemio Krusa. Povesti i rasskazy. Moscow, 1974.

REFERENCES

Kuteishchikova, V. N. Meksikanskii roman. Moscow, 1971.
Terterian, I. A. “V poiskakh formuly,” Voprosy literatury, 1974, no. 1.
Kuteishchikova, V., and L. Ospovat. Novyi latino-amerikanskii roman. Moscow, 1976.

V. N. KUTEISHCHIKOVA