El espejo como simbolo de identidad en la obra de Carlos Fuentes

In: Estudios políticos: revista de ciencia política, Heft 33, S. 217-233

Abstract

Analyzes Carlos Fuentes's most recent work & interviews, all in the 1990s, in order to show how he uses the mirror as symbol for Mexican identity. Fuentes's work is associated with the tradition of the post-1930 boom of Latin American novels of political denunciation, which often dealt with the theme of identity struggle amidst a nation's political turmoil & suppression. Several passages from Fuentes's most recent novels are examined to show how political figures, insurgents, artists, & everyday heroes are often forced to view reflected images of themselves in the mirrors of the mansions they are about to ransack, in quiet hallway looking glasses, or in the surfaces of lakes & ponds. These images are often followed by the most questioning & self-reflective moments in Fuentes's fiction, where individuals or groups will ask themselves what it means to be a Mexican. In this way, Fuentes's work explores the ephemeral quality of the Mexican identity, culminated by the impossibility of knowing who the first Mexican was. His use of mirror imagery is compared to Octavio Paz's similar use of masks to symbolize Mexican identity. 20 References. Adapted from the source document.