Fuentes Says Politics Influenced Writing

Mexican author Carlos Fuentes spoke about his new book, The Years with Laura Diaz, his literary influences, and Mexican politics at the Askwith Lecture Hall on Friday evening.

The talk by Fuentes, a renowned contemporary Latin American author, drew over 300 Harvard students, faculty members, as well as representatives from the Mexican and Argentine consuls.

In his speech, Fuentes discussed how politics had influenced his writing. As a child, he traveled throughout Latin America because his father was a Mexican diplomat. He attended the Washington, D.C. elementary schools.

"I felt the vibrancy of D.C. and the U.S. under Roosevelt," he said.

His time in Chile, which he said was one of the most democratic countries in Latin America, was when "politics and poetry came together" due to the influence of poets such as Pablo Neruda, he said. It was in this setting that he wrote his first novel at 13.

Avoiding Argentine schools that Fuentes said "fed an ideology of fascism and anti-Semitism," he took a year off and wandered the streets of Buenos Aires, where he discovered tango and the great Spanish writer Jorge Luis Borges.

Fuentes emphasized the importance of his choice to write in Spanish, a decision he came to after reading Don Quixote for the first time at age 14.

"I only dream in Spanish, make love in Spanish and insult in Spanish," he said.

He said he questioned why few great Latin American novels after Don Quixote were written in Spanish and said his decision to write in Spanish was compelled by his need to "fill a vacuum."

Today, he is often considered to have started the "boom" of Latin American authors of the 1960s. The "boom" writers, he said, are inspired to "give voice to a silent past" because of years of colonial repression.

After speaking about his influences, Fuentes read a passage from his most recent book, The Years with Laura Diaz, which describes Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Laura Diaz's trip to Detroit where Rivera was painting the Ford automobile mural.

He read a portion of the selection in Spanish because he said it is important to hear the language.

When questioned about his ability to write about unfamiliar subjects he said, "Literature is all about language and imagination."

He described art as "expression of reality, but also a creation."

"Can we imagine reality without Don Quixote and Hamlet?" he said.

He said many of his works are derived from stories told to him by his grandmothers.

"[The] novel was about paying attention," he said.

Fuentes, who was the Mexican ambassador to France from 1975 to 1977, said he has seen Mexico grow immensely and faces problems of pollution, dirt, and traffic.

"We love it because it's our city, it's all the ills in the world…but we go back to it," he said.

He said he saw civic activism as a positive force in Mexican society. For instance, he said, after an earthquake in 1995, ordinary citizens helped locate missing people and clean up the damage.

"I have faith in citizens and civil society to organize itself," he said.

Fuentes said some American culture had been a positive influence on Mexico.

He said that Mexico has accepted the "great culture" such as Faulkner and that "Kentucky Fried Chicken is secondary."

"Who's afraid of Mickey Mouse? Not me," he said. "A Mexican knows what it means to be a Mexican. The challenge is to go from identity to diversity."

One student said Fuentes' speech gave him a greater understanding of the creative process and appreciation of his ethnic heritage.

"He made me remember how good it is to be Latin…and how important it is to be conscious of the moment you're living," said Juan Carlos Cardet '04.

Fuentes' talk was cosponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Askwith Education Forum and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.