Mexican · 1928–2012
Carlos Fuentes confronted Mexican history and identity through novels of dazzling formal invention, becoming one of the Latin American Boom's central figures alongside García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, and Cortázar. Son of a diplomat, he grew up across Latin America and in Washington, D.C., developing the cosmopolitan perspective that marks his work. The Death of Artemio Cruz uses shifting perspectives to anatomize a dying revolutionary who became a corrupt tycoon, implicating the entire arc of post-revolutionary Mexico. Terra Nostra spans five centuries of Hispanic civilization. He served as Mexico's ambassador to France, wrote prolifically on culture and politics, and remained a public intellectual until his death.