Introduction to Mexican Literature: Authors & Resources
A Beginner-Friendly Guide to Mexican Literature
I will admit, as an experience that has saddened me, is that throughout my education, I never had the chance to truly read Mexican literature. The only Latino book I read throughout my middle school and high school experience was Esperanza, which we read when I was in the seventh grade and before I was moved into the Gifted & Talented sections of coursework. And, as an American living in the 21st-century, I think this is terrible that we don’t read more Latino literature in school, because this is why we have such bigoted depictions of Latin America. We don’t consume entertainment forms, such as movies and literature, that depicts Latinos as human.
Then, in college, I believe my school offered a Mexican literature course. Our school was good, it had a bunch of Caribbean courses as well as options like Resistance in Latin American Cinema and Mexican Cinema as liberal arts coursework. Unfortunately, because I graduated a year early, I did not get to take these classes (I really wanted to take the historic representations of the Caribbean class though, it looked so cool), but seeing these as options inspired me to delve deeper into Latin American art forms.
Mexican literature was one of the first forays into this. I’d always been fascinated with Mexico, especially for its food culture and historical roots with indigenous groups (the Aztecs, the Mayans), and so this seemed like a perfect start for someone who only knows a few basic words in Spanish. There’s two distinct periods in more contemporary Mexican literature, where we have the colonial literature, and then postcolonial literature.
There’s a lot more to Mexican literature than that, but let’s actually break it down int he next couple of sections. There’s a lot to unpack, as Mexican history is absolutely fascinating. Let’s begin!
Mexican History: An Overview
In the Western world, we barely learn the depth and nuances of Mexican history outside of colonialism and the Aztecs and Mayans. The land now known as Mexico was first populated in what is estimated to be between 23,000 and 40,000 years ago. The number 40,000 is disputed, as footsteps were carbon dated in a valley, so that’s disputed. We do know, however, that a campfire found was the first evidence of human movement in the area, which was dated to be 23.000 years ago.
The first civilization was the Olmecs, who settled on the Gulf of Mexico from roughly 2500 BCE to 400 BCE. Their best known artifacts are the colossal heads of stone that can be found throughout the region they populated. It is unknown why that civilization ended, but historians and scientists speculate that it was vast environmental changes that forced them to scatter.
Mesoamerica was then home to a series of different civilizations, but the next greatest one were the Mayans. From 250-950 AD, the Mayans had remarkable innovations for the time, such as creating towns with optimized farming techniques, a calendar, and they developed their own writing system. They were succeeded by the Toltecs, who were integral to Mexican cultural history. The Aztecs were the final great civilization of the Mexican area, until the Spanish arrived to their territory in 1519.
The Spanish conquistadors, when invited by the Aztec kings, made friends with his enemies while making way to the capital of the empire. In 1521, Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, gathered these newfound allies and destroyed the Aztec Empire, creating this new era of colonialism, erasure, and suffering. Missionaries began arriving on the continent, forcing the natives into a new, foreign religion, and they were forced into roles of laborers. A new social system was created, putting Spaniards at the top, and Spanish became the only language that was to be spoken in the region.
Whispers of rebellion began in the early 1800s. In Spain, Napoleon Bonaparte has disposed of the monarchy, leading to the Peninsula War between Spain, Britain, and France. This, in turn, as led to the colonial government in Mesoamerica to lean to chaos and disarray, allowing for the perfect opportunity. A series of calculated movements for Mexican independence allows them to finally be liberated in 1821 from their colonizers. Mexico is free.
The region would then fall into a rhythm of political struggle, whether its internal fights for who is in charge, and international, as Spain returned to unsuccessfully get back the land and the United States would spark the Mexican-American War. After the war, a new fuse was lit, and guerrilla warfare and revolt finally leads up to the Mexican Revolution in the ensuing decades.
The Mexican Revolution was long and bloody, and is considered one of the most important events to have happened in Mexican history. It created a more centralized form of government, the 1917 Constitution, and allowed new opportunities for the middle class. Social inequality still largely remained, despite attempts to change that.
Mexico since then has had periods of political and social struggle, and still faces a large wealth inequality within its population. Crime, economic fragility, and gender inequality remain large issues.
Mexican Literary History: An Overview
Mexican literature originates in the oral traditions of the indigenous populations that once ruled the region. While groups like the Olmecs, Toltecs, Aztecs, and Mayans all had their variations of myths and stories, they often weren’t written down as forms of literature to consume. They were articulated to an audience, in the ritual reminiscent of what we call theatre today. Dramatic poetry, epic poetry, and lyric poetry were all forms popular among the natives.
This concept of oral traditions would be usurped with the arrival of colonizers into the region, who inserted their perspective into the narrative. When looking at texts from the conquistadors and Spaniards, it’s important to note their bias against the natives of the region, as they often describe them as barbaric or backwards. While these are important perspectives to read in regards to Latin literature, they can also be a bit upsetting from a moral standpoint.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, we begin to see less native Spaniards and more from people who were born in the region entering the writing arena. In the 19th century, however, due to the unstable politics of the region, we begin to less from Mexican art forms, including literature, due to the ongoing violence and struggles. When we do see literature from this era, it tends to be within romanticism and modernism, two popular aesthetics adopted by writers.
With the onset of the Mexican Revolution, many turned to journalism to document what was going on in the country around them. Nationalist literature, as well as touching upon the concepts and foundations of the revolution itself, were common themes that writers managed to find themselves grappling with. Since then, literature has flourished in Mexico, grappling with ideas of the everyday lives of Mexicans and the impacts of a complicated, bloody recent history has been observed.
Notable Authors of Prose (Fiction/Nonfiction/Theatre)
Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora was one of the first writers and intellectuals to have been born in the New World and not in Europe.
Ángeles Mastretta is a journalist known for writing female characters in real-life socioeconomic conditions.
Elena Poniatowska is a journalist and author who focuses on Mexico’s poor and women.
José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi wrote [supposedly] the first novel in Latin America.
José Vasconcelos Calderón was a writer who is considered to be a cultural leader during the Mexican Revolution.
Mariano Azuela González wrote short stories based around the Mexican Revolution.
Elena Garro was a well-known playwright actives during the 1900s.
Notable Authors of Poetry
Juana Inés de la Cruz was a feminist nun in the 1600s who wrote philosophy, plays, and poetry.
Ramón López Velarde is considered to be Mexico’s national poet.
Elsa Cross is an acclaimed contemporary poet.
Daniel Sada was considered to be one of the most important Spanish-language poets during his era.
Octavio Paz was an extremely important poet, and the husband of Elena Garro.
Nezahualcoyotl was a poet and warrior renowned for his poetry.
Resources for Mexican Literature
Read more here about Mexican legends.
Here are online PDFs of textbooks about Mexican culture, art, and literature.
Read more here from this blogger.
