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Mexican author Carlos Fuentes
Acclaimed Mexican author Carlos Fuentes

Noted Mexican author to speak Sept. 14 at UTSA

(Sept. 10, 2001)--Acclaimed Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes will speak on "U.S. and Mexico: Sharing a Border" at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 in the Convocation Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio 1604 Campus. Fuentes is considered one of the most important contemporary voices in Latin American literature.

Born in 1928, Fuentes spent his youth in Washington, D.C., where his father was posted as a Mexican diplomatic representative. As a teen, Fuentes lived in Argentina and Chile, as well as his native Mexico. Fuentes' roving childhood existence led to an education received partly in English and partly in Spanish.

These early experiences gave Fuentes his unique hemispheric perspective. Few Latin American writers have such an intimate knowledge of Americans or see the American/Latin American cultural dynamic with the great depth that has earned Fuentes a reputation as Mexico's most famous living novelist.

Fuentes' works include over a dozen novels, beginning with his classic, "La region mas transparente"/"Where the Air is Clear" in 1958. Others include, "Diana: The Goddess Who Hunts Alone," "La Muerte de Artemio Cruz," "Crystal Frontier: A Novel in Nine Stories," "Distant Relations," "Change of Skin," "Terra Nostra," The Old Gringo" and "New Time for Mexico." His credits also number several volumes of short stories, plays and numerous essays on literary, cultural and political topics.

A former Mexican ambassador to France and a law school graduate, he began his literary career by composing bawdy, English limericks while a student at a British school in Santiago, Chile. But reading the works of legendary Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires convinced the then 14-year-old Fuentes that Spanish was his language, and so it became the one in which he has penned his prolific body of work.

His lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Autumn 2001 Lecture Series sponsored by UTSA, the Mexican Cultural Institute, the San Antonio-Mexico Friendship Council and the San Antonio Express-News. For information, call (210) 227-0123 or (210) 227-0124.

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