Still Learning From Mexican Writer Carlos Fuentes, One Year On Ethan Shaskan Bumas - The Daily Beast
go to original May 15, 2013

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes poses during a portrait session held on October 15, 2011 in Aix en Provence, France. (Ulf Andersen/Getty)

... Carlos Fuentes died a year ago today at the age of 83 in Mexico City. If he were here now, he would have much to say about life and literature. While condemning the Mexican drug trade - as he did in two novels - he might point out that without illegal demand from north of the border, there would be no violence.

When we debate Mexicans’ right to live in the U.S., he might remind us that much of the land they live in used to be part of Mexico. The Mexican war, which so annoyed Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln and which landed a protesting Henry David Thoreau in prison is something we now take for granted. In that light, immigration is a repeat of the Reconquest, when Ferdinand and Isabella took Spain back for Catholicism.

He might remind us, for the good of our own humanity, to imagine Mexicans’ point of view. Fuentes had a stomach ulcer that caused him to spit blood, and he bled out while waiting for an ambulance caught in traffic in his beloved Mexico City. He died in a taxi on the way to the hospital. But we still have his books.

I miss him.

Read the rest at The Daily Beast

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!