Who Is Carlos Fuentes?

He's an extremely eminent Mexican novelist and essayist.

Although seen as thoroughly Mexican, Fuentes grew up all over the Americas.  He was born in 1928 into a comfortable Mexican diplomatic family then based in Panama, and moved around a lot in his youth (living in the USA, Ecuador, Brazil and Uruguay).  He started publishing fiction in 1954, and had become famous and celebrated by 1962 with the novel, 'The Death of Artemio Cruz'.

He is part of a 20th century generation of many ground-breaking Latin American novelists who devised Magical Realism and have produced what is arguably the best quality recent literature in any language, around the world.  In what is already considered an elite group of brilliant writers, Fuentes is viewed one of its leading intellectuals.

Fuentes has radical political views and is particularly critical of American imperialism in Latin America. He writes regular and frequent essays and commentaries in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.