Fuentes, Carlos (1928-), mexicano:A Morte de Artemio Cruz (1962);
Zona Sagrada (1967);
Terra Nostra (1975);
O Espelho Enterrado (1995).
Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama, where his father was posted as a member of Mexico's diplomatic corps. The family would soon relocate to Washington D.C., where the father served as legal counsel of the Mexican embassy. Carlos Fuentes received much of his primary education in the public schools of Washington, D.C. While his American classmates enjoyed their summer vacation, he returned to Mexico, to stay with his grandparents and attend Mexican schools. From his grandmothers, he absorbed Mexican history and folklore, while in Washington he was immersed in American popular culture. He followed the international politics of the turbulent pre-war era through his parents' dinner table conversation.
A particularly dramatic moment came in 1938, when Mexico's President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed that the country's foreign-controlled oil fields would be nationalized and the country's oil industry placed in the hands of a state monopoly, Pemex. American industrialists with interests in Mexico were outraged. They demanded that President Franklin Roosevelt intervene, with military force if necessary, as previous U.S. governments had done when Latin American governments had threatened U.S. business interests. Roosevelt refused, and negotiated a settlement, respecting Mexico's sovereignty while ensuring that private interests were compensated. This turning point in U.S.-Mexico relations made a strong impression on the young Carlos Fuentes, who was impressed with Roosevelt's diplomacy in reconciling the opposing parties. At the same time, Fuentes was made newly aware of his own identity as a Mexican in a foreign country.
