Carlos Fuentes was Mexico’s most celebrated novelist

Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012) was born in Panama City, Panama and died in Mexico City.

The Death of Artemis Cruz

Fuentes’ best-known work is “The Death of Artemis Cruz” (La muerte de Artemis Cruz, 1962).

This seminal work of Spanish-language literature was influenced by the seminal work of modern filmmaking Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” (1941). In both works, the title character is a newspaper magnate on his deathbed who recalls the key moments in his life.

Artemis Cruz was a poor soldier of the Mexican Revolution who became rich and powerful through the very violence, corruption, and exploitation which the Mexican Revolution was supposed to be against.

The battle between the people of the big house and the people of the land has been the essential human struggle since at least the French Revolution. This struggle continues to play itself out today in Mexico, across Latin America, now the Middle East, and once again here in the United States.