Carlos Fuentes

Comment: As we said before, Carlos Fuentes is "one of the primary and most renowned writers of the 'Generation of the “Boom...' He is widely known in the United States..." It is important to note that there are, in reality, two categories of Latin American authors who flourished during the 40 years of the twentieth century: the ones who were discovered by American and European intellectuals, university academics, and publishers. Many of these famous Latin American writers and artists either were exiled by politically repressive regimes, went into self-exile often becoming citizens of other countries, or lived for extended periods away from Latin America. These are the authors most identified with the Latin American theme or motif of exile and diaspora. Other Latin Americans were equally and sometimes more respected in their home countries than the first group, but during the years when they flourished they did not have the international recognition or caché enjoyed by the first group. Among hundreds of other examples, the fact that AARP magazine featured Carlos Fuentes is an example of how popular and seemingly representative of Latin American humanities the first group, the Generation of the "Boom," is.

Humanities Topic: Given the information you have about Fuentes, compare and contrast what you see in these two photos.

Here is the photo of Fuentes accompanying the article in this magazing: