Carlos Fuentes - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/carlos-fuentes","20190107133144","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1546867904"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Carlos Fuentes - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="For 50 years, Carlos Fuentes was one of the leading literary and political figures of the Spanish-speaking world. A giant of Latin America's literary boom of the 1960s and '70s, his novels, including the classics Terra Nostra, The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo, are passionate explorations of the history and identity of the Latin American nations, and of their contentious relationship with the superpower to the north. The son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes spent much of his childhood in Washington, D.C., returning every summer to his grandmother's home in Mexico. As Mexico's best-known public intellectual, he served as Ambassador to France in the 1970s. His work was recognized with the most prestigious awards in Spanish letters, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, awarded by the King of Spain. He was the first recipient of the Latin Civilization Award, presented jointly by the Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and France. In 1992, he produced and narrated a documentary television series on the history of pan-Hispanic culture, The Buried Mirror. An independent political thinker with a profound instinct for social justice, Carlos Fuentes is one of those rare writers who, by the sheer power of his literary art, defined the cultural and emotional identity of an entire continent."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Carlos Fuentes - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">For 50 years, Carlos Fuentes was one of the leading literary and political figures of the Spanish-speaking world. A giant of Latin America's literary boom of the 1960s and '70s, his novels, including the classics <i>Terra Nostra</i>, <i>The Death of Artemio Cruz</i> and <i>The Old Gringo</i>, are passionate explorations of the history and identity of the Latin American nations, and of their contentious relationship with the superpower to the north.</p> <p class="inputText">The son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes spent much of his childhood in Washington, D.C., returning every summer to his grandmother's home in Mexico. As Mexico's best-known public intellectual, he served as Ambassador to France in the 1970s. His work was recognized with the most prestigious awards in Spanish letters, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, awarded by the King of Spain. He was the first recipient of the Latin Civilization Award, presented jointly by the Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and France.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1992, he produced and narrated a documentary television series on the history of pan-Hispanic culture, <i>The Buried Mirror</i>. An independent political thinker with a profound instinct for social justice, Carlos Fuentes is one of those rare writers who, by the sheer power of his literary art, defined the cultural and emotional identity of an entire continent.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/fuentes-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">For 50 years, Carlos Fuentes was one of the leading literary and political figures of the Spanish-speaking world. A giant of Latin America's literary boom of the 1960s and '70s, his novels, including the classics <i>Terra Nostra</i>, <i>The Death of Artemio Cruz</i> and <i>The Old Gringo</i>, are passionate explorations of the history and identity of the Latin American nations, and of their contentious relationship with the superpower to the north.</p> <p class="inputText">The son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes spent much of his childhood in Washington, D.C., returning every summer to his grandmother's home in Mexico. As Mexico's best-known public intellectual, he served as Ambassador to France in the 1970s. His work was recognized with the most prestigious awards in Spanish letters, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, awarded by the King of Spain. He was the first recipient of the Latin Civilization Award, presented jointly by the Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and France.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1992, he produced and narrated a documentary television series on the history of pan-Hispanic culture, <i>The Buried Mirror</i>. An independent political thinker with a profound instinct for social justice, Carlos Fuentes is one of those rare writers who, by the sheer power of his literary art, defined the cultural and emotional identity of an entire continent.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Carlos Fuentes - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/fuentes-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190107133144\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190107133144\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190107133144\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required 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[(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/fuentes-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Carlos Fuentes</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Author, Scholar and Diplomat</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2350 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-author careers-novelist"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">To read and write is a paradise.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Mexico's Most Celebrated Novelist</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> November 11, 1928 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 15, 2012 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>Carlos Fuentes was born in Panama City, Panama, where his father was posted as a member of Mexico’s diplomatic corps. The family would soon relocate to Washington D.C., where the father served as legal counsel of the Mexican embassy. Carlos Fuentes received much of his primary education in the public schools of Washington, D.C. While his American classmates enjoyed their summer vacations, he returned to Mexico, to stay with his grandparents and attend Mexican schools. From his grandmothers, he absorbed Mexican history and folklore, while in Washington he was immersed in American popular culture. He followed the international politics of the turbulent pre-war era through the dinner table conversation of his diplomat father, his family and friends.</p> <figure id="attachment_19454" style="width: 2959px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19454 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19454 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes at home in Mexico City in the 1980s. (© Sergio Dorantes/CORBIS)" width="2959" height="1978" data-sizes="(max-width: 2959px) 100vw, 2959px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883.jpg 2959w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883-760x508.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Internationally acclaimed novelist and essayist Carlos Fuentes at home in Mexico City in the 1980s. (© Corbis)</figcaption></figure><p>A particularly dramatic moment came in 1938, when Mexico’s President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed that the country’s foreign-controlled oil fields would be nationalized and the country’s oil industry placed in the hands of a state monopoly, Pemex. American industrialists with interests in Mexico were outraged. They demanded that President Franklin Roosevelt intervene, with military force if necessary, as previous U.S. governments had done when Latin American governments had threatened U.S. business interests. Roosevelt refused, and negotiated a settlement, respecting Mexico’s sovereignty while ensuring that private interests were compensated. This turning point in U.S.-Mexico relations made a strong impression on the young Carlos Fuentes, who was impressed with Roosevelt’s diplomacy in reconciling the opposing parties. At the same time, Fuentes was made newly aware of his own identity as a Mexican in a foreign country.</p> <p>During the years that followed, the Fuentes family would be assigned to duty in Chile, Argentina and elsewhere in South America. Carlos Fuentes, adapting to each new environment, acquired a respect for the differences between countries while developing a powerful sense of the shared heritage of the Latin nations. An enthusiastic reader, he resolved at an early age to become a writer, but at his parents’ insistence, he pursued the study of law, first at the National University of Mexico and then at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Like his father before him, he entered the diplomatic service and served as Director of International Cultural Relations for the Ministry of Exterior Relations.</p> <figure id="attachment_19452" style="width: 2346px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19452 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19452 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes in the study of his London home, 1985. (© Christopher Cormack/CORBIS)" width="2346" height="3593" data-sizes="(max-width: 2346px) 100vw, 2346px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236.jpg 2346w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236-248x380.jpg 248w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236-496x760.jpg 496w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1985: Mexico’s most celebrated novelist Carlos Fuentes in the study of his London home. (Christopher Cormack)</figcaption></figure><p>While fulfilling his government duties, he pursued a literary career in his spare time. With the success of his novel <em>Where the Air is Clear</em>, Carlos Fuentes could afford to leave the foreign service and pursue a career as a full-time writer. In 1962 he published <em>The Death of Artemio Cruz</em>, an epic panorama of Mexican history from the revolution to the present. This work, inspired in part by the stories his grandmothers had told him of the revolution and its aftermath, has become an acknowledged masterpiece of world literature and one of the signature works of <em>el boom</em>, a period of intense creativity in Latin American fiction, when writers like Fuentes and his friend, the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, captured the imagination of readers around the world.</p> <p>Fuentes continued to write novels throughout the 1960s and ’70s, including <em>The Good Conscience</em>, <em>A Change of Skin</em>, and <em>Aura</em>. In addition to his fiction, his journalism and political commentary made Fuentes one of the most recognizable public intellectuals in the Spanish-speaking world. This visibility also created difficulties. For many years he was denied a visa to enter the United States, as were many other prominent European and Latin American intellectuals, presumably for his criticism of American foreign policy, although no reason was ever given publicly.</p> <figure id="attachment_19457" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19457 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19457 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes listens to questions during a UNICEF conference, "Latin America between two millenniums, challenges and hopes." Guatemala City, August 28, 2001. The eyes shown on the poster behind Mr. Fuentes are his own. (Photo by Jorge Silva © Reuters/CORBIS)" width="640" height="457" data-sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953.jpg 640w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953-380x271.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">August 2001: Novelist Carlos Fuentes listens to questions during a UNICEF conference, “Latin America between two millenniums, challenges and hopes” in Guatemala City. (Photo by Jorge Silva © Reuters/Corbis Images)</figcaption></figure><p>The publication of his 1975 novel <em>Terra Nostra</em> confirmed his reputation as one of the most inventive novelists writing in Spanish or any other language. The Mexican government recognized his growing international stature by asking him to return to public service once more, this time as Ambassador to France, a post he held from 1975 to 1977. After stepping down, he resolved to devote himself entirely to literature, but the press of current events often compelled him to speak out on public issues. In the 1980s, he became one of the world’s most outspoken critics of U.S. policy in Central America; he was also vocally critical of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, for whose revolution he had once held high hopes.</p> <p>Fuentes presented a lifetime of reflection on the shared cultural heritage of the Spanish-speaking countries in a television series, <em>The Buried Mirror</em>. His companion volume for the series proved immensely popular around the world.</p> <figure id="attachment_19459" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19459 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19459 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes, 2003 (Sassier/Gallimard)" width="900" height="1301" data-sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web.jpg 900w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web-263x380.jpg 263w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web-526x760.jpg 526w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2003: Carlos Fuentes’ best-known novel, <em>The Death of Artemio Cruz</em>, was published in 1962 and is “widely regarded as a seminal work of modern Spanish American Literature.” The novel is influenced by Orson Welles’ <em>Citizen</em> <em>Kane</em>, and attempts literary parallels to Welles’ techniques including close-up, cross-cutting, deep focus, and flashback.</figcaption></figure><p>Fuentes continued to produce novels, including <em>The Hydra Head</em> and <em>Distant Relations</em>. His novel <em>The Old Gringo</em> concerned the fate of the U.S. writer Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared in Mexico in 1913 during the revolution. The novel became a bestseller in the United States in 1985, the first novel by a Mexican author to achieve this status. A film version, starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda, appeared in 1989. The same year saw the success of Fuentes’s novel <em>Christopher Unborn</em>, a philosophical fantasy told from the point of view of an unborn child who will enter the world on the 500th anniversary of the European discovery of America. These were followed by <em>Diana: The Goddess Who Hunts Alone</em> and <em>The Crystal Frontier</em>. More recent novels include <em>Inez</em>, and <em>The Years with Laura Diaz</em>, another saga of 20th century Mexican history, as seen through one woman’s very long life.</p> <p>Besides his 15 novels, Fuentes produced books of short stories, essays and political commentary. He wrote a regular column for the Mexico City daily newspaper <em>La Reforma</em>. A compelling lecturer and public speaker, Fuentes served as Simon Bolivar Professor at Cambridge University in England. After the ban on his travel to the United States was lifted, he was invited to teach at numerous American universities as well. He was the first to hold the Robert F. Kennedy Chair of Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and was a visiting professor at Princeton University and a Professor-at-Large of Hispanic Studies at Brown University.</p> <figure id="attachment_19461" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19461 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19461 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes is presented with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement by Patron and Council member Carlos Slim Helú, Chairman of Teléfonos de México, in Los Angeles, 2006. (© Academy of Achievement)" width="2280" height="1841" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176.jpg 2280w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176-380x307.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176-760x614.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Carlos Fuentes is presented with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement by Patron and Council member Carlos Slim Helú, the Chairman of Teléfonos de México, in Los Angeles, California, June 3, 2006.</figcaption></figure><p>A collection of essays, <em>This I Believe: A Life from A to Z</em>, received the Prize of the Royal Spanish Academy for Best Book of 2004. The same year, he published <em>Contra Bush</em>, a critique of the U.S. administration. He continued his meditations on history and public affairs in his last works of fiction. <em>The Eagle’s Throne</em> (2006) is a mischievous satire of Mexican politics set in the not-too-distant future. His 2011 novel, <em>Destiny and Desire,</em> threads a tale of friendship between two old school friends through a dense tapestry of fantasy, history and mordant reflections on the state of contemporary Mexico.</p> <p>With his wife, Mexican television journalist Sylvia Lemus, Fuentes divided his time between homes in Mexico City and London, England. Fuentes had one grown daughter by a previous marriage. The two children of his marriage to Sylvia Lemus died in adulthood of natural causes. Carlos Fuentes died in Mexico City at the age of 83.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2006 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.novelist">Novelist</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.author">Author</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> November 11, 1928 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 15, 2012 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">For 50 years, Carlos Fuentes was one of the leading literary and political figures of the Spanish-speaking world. A giant of Latin America’s literary boom of the 1960s and ’70s, his novels, including the classics <i>Terra Nostra</i>, <i>The Death of Artemio Cruz</i> and <i>The Old Gringo</i>, are passionate explorations of the history and identity of the Latin American nations, and of their contentious relationship with the superpower to the north.</p> <p class="inputText">The son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes spent much of his childhood in Washington, D.C., returning every summer to his grandmother’s home in Mexico. As Mexico’s best-known public intellectual, he served as Ambassador to France in the 1970s. His work was recognized with the most prestigious awards in Spanish letters, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, awarded by the King of Spain. He was the first recipient of the Latin Civilization Award, presented jointly by the Presidents of Brazil, Mexico and France.</p> <p class="inputText">In 1992, he produced and narrated a documentary television series on the history of pan-Hispanic culture, <i>The Buried Mirror</i>. An independent political thinker with a profound instinct for social justice, Carlos Fuentes is one of those rare writers who, by the sheer power of his literary art, defined the cultural and emotional identity of an entire continent.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/NCXMPcGY_PI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=2443&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_14_13_11.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_14_13_11.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Mexico's Most Celebrated Novelist</h2> <div class="sans-2">Los Angeles, California</div> <div class="sans-2">June 2, 2006</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtextfirst"><b>You have been so prolific in your writing — novels and essays and commentaries. How do you decide what to write and when to write it?</b></p> <p class="inputtext">Carlos Fuentes: It’s very curious, because there is an element that comes into this which is very fascinating and inexplicable.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCx_POdFBV4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_18_39_00.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_18_39_00.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I say, “I’m going to write this book,” and now I sit down and I start sorting out chapters and imagining the book and saying, “Tonight, I think that tomorrow I will write such and such.” I go to sleep. I wake up in the morning. I go to my table. I take the pen and something totally different comes out, which means that perhaps dreams are dictating part of your writing life in a very mysterious way. You have silly dreams. We all have silly dreams. We are naked on the street. How terrible! We fall off a roof. We’re drowning in the sea. Those are the dreams you remember. But what about the dreams you don’t remember? I think these are the really important dreams in your life, the underground dreams, the subterranean dreams that come out somehow in your life, and in my case, through literature. Because I can’t explain otherwise why I write certain things I have never thought about before. And always on the day after a dreaming night.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>As a writer, is it important to have a daily routine?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/uNCTSR3pFz0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_16_33_22.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_16_33_22.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Carlos Fuentes: A writer is no different than a bricklayer or a bus driver in that sense. You must have discipline. Oscar Wilde said that writing is 10 percent genius, 90 percent discipline. You must have discipline for writing. It is not an easy task. It is very lonely. You’re all alone. You are not in company. You are not enjoying yourself in that sense. You are enjoying yourself in another sense. You are delving into your depths, but you are profoundly lonely. It is one of the loneliest careers in the world. In the theater, you are with companions, with directors, actors. In film. In an office. In writing, you are alone. That takes a lot of strength and a lot of will to do it. You must really be in love with what you’re doing to tolerate the huge loneliness of writing.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_19448" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19448 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19448 size-full lazyload" alt="Author Carlos Fuentes in Paris, September 1979. (Ulf Andersen/ Getty Images)" width="2280" height="3399" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2.jpg 2280w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2-255x380.jpg 255w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2-510x760.jpg 510w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Author Carlos Fuentes in Paris, September 1979. Fuentes served as Mexico’s ambassador to France from 1975 to 1977, resigning in protest of former President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz’s appointment as ambassador to Spain. (Getty)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>As part of your process, how important is rewriting?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Not that important. I seem to rewrite in my head a great deal. I write in these English ruled notebooks. So I write on the right, and then I correct on the left. Then, when it’s typed out, I even make another correction, and then maybe in the typed sheets also. But not that much. I seem to have a great facility to go right into what I want to say. I do correct, but not like Balzac, who went crazy over the printing presses. He was correcting at the last minute.</p> <p><strong>What about the proverbial writer’s block?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: No, no. I have never suffered that.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/6xXdN9Z2Rr4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=31&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_10_45_21.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_10_45_21.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I have friends who have practically died from writer’s block. I had a good Chilean friend, José Donoso, a novelist, who had such a writer’s block that I think it killed him eventually. He was so anguished. He suffered so much from that. I have never, thank God, suffered from writer’s block. Never. That’s why I produce so many articles and speeches and lectures at the same time, because when I do have writer’s block for literature, I say, “Now is the time to write that speech. Now is the time to write that op-ed piece.” So I am a well-oiled writing machine. I am always on the job.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>How can a writer not suffer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: You suffer in another sense. Not from writer’s block. There are other anguishes — of expression, of not finding the right adjective, of doubting what you have written and throwing a lot of things into the wastebasket and all that kind of thing. Yes, that happens, but not writer’s block in the sense of not being able to sit down and write. That I have never had, as long as I can write trash and then destroy it. But that’s not the same as writer’s block.</p> <figure id="attachment_19451" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-19451 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-19451 lazyload" alt="Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, at home in London, 1985. (© Christopher Cormack/CORBIS)" width="2280" height="1499" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235.jpg 2280w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235-760x500.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, at home in London, 1985. Fuentes taught at Cambridge, Brown, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth and Cornell. (© Christopher Cormack/CORBIS)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>In any career — and now I’m just speaking of your career as a writer — there are disappointments. There are setbacks. Have you experienced that?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Not career-wise. There are difficulties, tragedies, disappointments in life, but not so much in reading and writing — it is a pleasure always. It is a great paradise. To read and write is a paradise.</p> <p><strong>What about criticism? How do you handle that?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I don’t read it.</p> <p><strong>At the same time that you were writing, presumably every day, you had another career in government, in diplomacy. How did you manage that?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: That has been kind of a vacation. Only twice in my life have I been in government.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/sb0-vKXrfbg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_18_11_04.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_18_11_04.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I was in government as a very young man, in the diplomatic service of Mexico when I was in my early twenties. Then, with the success of my first novel, <i>Where the Air is Clear</i>, in 1958, I left the bureaucracy, and I did not come back until the 1970s, when I was Ambassador to France for a couple of years. That’s it. I have been offered, by other presidents “nearer-to-us” posts as ambassador, but I have always refused them, because I know from my experience that I am unhappy in diplomatic and governmental posts. I am happy when I am a free agent, writing what I like.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_19449" style="width: 1468px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19449 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19449 size-full lazyload" alt="Carlos Fuentes" width="1468" height="1000" data-sizes="(max-width: 1468px) 100vw, 1468px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada.jpg 1468w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada-380x259.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada-760x518.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Carlos Fuentes’ 1985 novel <em>The Old Gringo</em> is loosely based on American author Ambrose Bierce’s disappearance during the Mexican Revolution and became the first U.S. bestseller written by a Mexican author. The novel tells the story of Harriet Winslow, a young American woman who travels to Mexico, and finds herself in the company of an aging American journalist (called only “the old gringo”), Tomás Arroyo, a revolutionary general. Like many of Fuentes’ works, it explores the way revolutionary ideals become corrupted. The novel was made into a film.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">Although I know that it is a service, and I do not look down on it — on the contrary. My father was a career diplomat, so I respect diplomacy and government service very much. Simply, I’m not happy in it. Why? Because I am away from my writing desk.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ILl4CkhSPhc?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=44&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_04_25_09.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_04_25_09.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">When I was Ambassador in France, I could not write a single line, because I was constantly on the call for functions, for memoranda, for speeches, for this, for that. There was a time difference with Mexico, so I had to be with the French during the day and then with Mexico from 7:00 p.m. on, because of the time lag. So I never had any time for myself, which was okay. It was interesting. I got to know France well, a fascinating country. So many levels of interest and artistic community, business, ecclesiastical, the army, the political parties — everything is interesting in France. Gastronomy. So I didn’t have time for writing there. I did other things. That was a parenthesis in my life.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext"><b>Although you were a prominent writer, the son of a diplomat, and a diplomat yourself, in the 1960s you were denied a visa to the United States. Could you tell us about that?</b></p> <p class="inputtext">Carlos Fuentes: Yes. I was invited by NBC in 1962, I think, for a debate with Richard Goodwin — who was then the Under Secretary of State for Latin America at the State Department — on the Alliance for Progress. I said, “Sure, sure. Let’s go. He has the advantage of being in the administration, of speaking English better than I do, and all these things, but I’ll be happy to do that.” So I was invited. I accepted the invitation.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mo9dPP-30x4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=56&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_32_28_09.Still014-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_32_28_09.Still014-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I went to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and was promptly denied a visa. I asked why, and they said, “We can’t tell you why. It’s a secret.” So I was left stranded and classified forever under the Undesirable Aliens list. I asked once, “Do you ever get out of that list? Can I ever get out?” and they said, “No, no, no.” I said, “Even hell has its limits. Even in hell you are promised that one day everybody will go to purgatory or to heaven; hell is not forever. Surely, the denial of a visa is not forever.” They said, “No, no, you can come out with a visa.” How? “If you demonstrate your allegiance to the cause of anti-Communism.” I said, “Well, that is something I will never do just on the principle of it. I am not a Communist, but I will not go to that McCarthyite length.”</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_6229" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-6229 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-6229 size-full lazyload" alt="Author Carlos Fuentes addresses the Academy of Achievement in Los Angeles, 2006. (© Academy of Achievement) " width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387.jpg 2280w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Author Carlos Fuentes addresses the delegates at the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">So I was there on that blacklist. I was denied entry into Puerto Rico in 1967. And then Senator Fulbright took the floor and demanded that I be given a special waiver so that I could come to the United States, lecture and be in this country without problems. So I got that waiver, which was very extraordinary, because it meant that I applied for a visa and I was denied the visa on the presence of the Unwanted Persons Act — the McCarran-Walter Bill it was called. Then I applied again, and I was granted the visa on the strength of the Fulbright Act. So it was very Kafkian — we’re speaking of Kafka today, but this is an actual Kafkian situation.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqQ_slZILhQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=55&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_30_29_09.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_30_29_09.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">It wasn’t until the Clinton administration that this list became history, and all us who were on the list — García Márquez, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Foucault, Graham Greene, myself — it was a very distinguished list. We were very happy to be on the “unwanted persons of the United States” list. Then we were all free from that and now we can come and go as we wish. It was a ridiculous Cold War situation. You know, McCarran and Walter were very, very reactionary senators. Arthur Miller tells in his biography how he was put in the unwanted persons list and was denied a passport to travel <i>from</i> the United States, but he went with Marilyn Monroe to see Senators McCarran and Walter, and on the strength of the presence of Marilyn Monroe, they gave him back his passport.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_19450" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-19450 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-19450 size-full lazyload" alt="Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes poses in front of his library during an interview with the AFP news agency, in Mexico City, on November 6, 2008. Mexico launched, on November 11, 2008, a series of events including discussions, presentation of art works, operas, and conferences to pay tribute to the 80-year-old Fuentes, one of the most prolific Latin American writers, and also to celebrate the book which established his reputation 50 years ago, "La región mas transparente" ("The Most Transparent Region"). (AFP PHOTO/Ronaldo SCHEMIDT)" width="2280" height="1583" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni.jpg 2280w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20190107133144im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni-760x528.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes in front of his library in Mexico City, on November 6, 2008. That year, Mexico launched a series of events including discussions, presentation of art works, operas, and conferences to pay tribute to the 80-year-old Fuentes, one of the most prolific Latin American writers, and also to celebrate the book which established his reputation 50 years ago, “<em>La región mas transparente</em>” (<em>The Most Transparent Region</em>).</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext"><b>At the time, in the wake of the Castro revolution, when you were denied a visa to America, you were quoted as saying, “Books are my bombs.” What did you mean by that?</b></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190107133144if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/5EGV6-kc6sU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=32&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_26_58_22.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Carlos-2006-MasterEdit.00_26_58_22.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Carlos Fuentes: I was very, very amazed that I would be denied a personal visa to enter the United States when one of my books was published in translation. In 1963, my publisher — Roger Strauss of Farrar Strauss — invited me, and I was promptly denied the visa. And I said, “The real bombs are my books, not me. I’m not going to put a bomb in a post office in the U.S.A. But my books may be more dangerous than I am. They maybe should ban the books, not the person.” It was logical.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What was your childhood like, growing up as the son of a diplomat?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Well, it was packing and unpacking a great deal. Also, a challenge to your capacity of adaptation. Being the son of a diplomat, you are constantly forced as a child to change schools, language, friends, ambience. So I had to go from Spanish to English to Portuguese, back to Spanish, back to English, make new friends — but it was challenging. Well, it makes you a person. I’m not unhappy about my childhood. On the contrary, I am grateful for it.</p> <p><strong>What kind of a kid were you?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I was a very studious young man. As a little boy, I read a lot. That was solitary in a way, because I knew my friends wouldn’t last more than two or three years, then another change, new friends. So I had to build my own inner world through reading, movies, radio at the time. Radio was so important in the life of kids in the United States in the 1930s, when I was growing up here. So it meant really, in a word, building up your own personal world and traveling with it.</p> <p><strong>Can you recall books or radio programs or movies that were important to you?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Oh, yes. Very much so. I belong to two cultures. That means that the books you read as a child were different in the Anglo-Saxon world and in the Latin American world. We were reading, as children, books that have never been read in the United States, Italian swashbuckling stories of <em>The Black Corsair</em> by Emilio Salgari, the swashbuckling French tales of the <em>Pardaillan</em>. These were not read. Here you were reading Nancy Drew, and the Dixon Boys I remember were read very much at that time. But there were the common classics that you found in all cultures: Jules Verne; (Alexandre) Dumas, <em>The Three Musketeers</em>; Robert Louis Stevenson, <em>Treasure Island</em>. Mark Twain was immensely popular throughout the world — <em>Huckleberry Finn</em>.</p> <p>So there were common readings. There was also on my part a great passion for film. Living in the United States in the 1930s, my father loved film, and once a week he took me to films. And I became very versed in films. I remember there was a moment when several movie stars were declared “box office poison.” They were the likes of Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn! And people started to shy away from the movies, for some reason.</p> <p>I went to all the movies, and when you left the movie, you were handed a questionnaire. And if you answered the questionnaire correctly, well, you won some money. It so happened that I won in the children’s category, and I got $50 for it, which was immense! It was like $5,000 today. So I said, “There’s money in movies.” That’s as far as I went in money-making in movies. And there was radio. Sometimes I feigned I was sick, so I wouldn’t go to school, and listened to <em>Terry and the Pirates</em>, <em>Don Winslow of the Navy</em>, all these great serials that were meant for housewives who were at home doing the work and hearing the radio programs. I was fascinated by all these melodramas that went through. So that formed my imaginary life in the United States in the 1930s to a big, big measure.</p> <p><strong>We’ve read that you spent summers in Mexico with your grandmother, who was a storyteller.</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I had two grandmothers, and both were storytellers. One was from Vera Cruz, on the gulf coast; the other one was from Mazatlan in Sinaloa on the Pacific Coast. So I had two oceans at my disposal. I spent my summers with my grannies in Mexico. My father was counselor of the Mexican Embassy in Washington at the time. I think that I became a writer because I heard those stories — all the stories that I didn’t know about Mexico, about my own land. They were the storehouse of these great tales of migrants, revolution, highway robberies, bandits, love affairs, ways of dressing, eating — they had the whole storehouse of the past in their heads and their hearts. So this was, for me, very fascinating, this relationship with my two grannies — the two authors of my books really.</p> <p><strong>The radio shows you enjoyed were also a kind of oral storytelling, where you had to use your imagination. Do you think you benefited from that?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yeah. You had to use your imagination. Now you see men landing on the moon, or you see the bombing of Baghdad, and that’s it! You don’t have to imagine anything. We had to imagine everything. We heard the great speeches of Franklin Roosevelt, the fireside chats. We had to imagine the man who was saying these warm, beautifully enunciated words.</p> <p><strong>You were in Washington when Mexico nationalized its oil industry. Was your father involved in those negotiations?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Not my father. He was simply the legal counselor of the embassy. The negotiation really went on at the top. It went between President Roosevelt of the United States and President Cárdenas in Mexico. It was a turning point in the history of relations between the U.S. and Latin America, and between the U.S. and Mexico, which until then had been fraught with confrontation, dangers, war, interventions, invasions, all kinds of troubles. When Cárdenas nationalized Mexican oil in 1938 — President Cárdenas — Roosevelt decided to respect that decision and said, “Let us sit with the Mexicans and negotiate with them. We’re not going to confront them. They have a right. But we will negotiate repayment of the companies and all that.” So began the new era in Mexican-American relations which thankfully has lasted to this day. We have never come to blows. We know how to negotiate.</p> <p><strong>As a boy, were you aware of what was going on?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Very much so. I was ten years old at the time, so I was very much aware, and it was the topic around the table — the dinner table at home or with the other colleagues of the embassy who were all talking about these things. Very conscious of them. Very conscious of the Mexican situation, of the New Deal, of the Spanish Civil War, of the rise of Hitler and Nazism, of the coming Second World War. You were extremely conscious of this. You saw the newsreels, which were also extremely important to see the images, the actual images of the führer or children being taken to camps in the countryside to avoid the bombing. All these things become a part of your life in the 1930s and ’40s.</p> <p><strong>So you were introduced to politics at a very young age.</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Very young age. It was dinner table talk.</p> <p><strong>Were you affected by these negotiations?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yes. In the sense that when Mexico nationalized the oil in 1938, I became unpopular at school, when I had been popular, because there were these great banner headlines, “Mexican Communists Steal Our Oil!” So therefore, I was not the favorite. Then — American kids are quite nice — so eventually they forgot I was a Communist and they brought me back into the fold.</p> <p><strong>Were there any difficulties for you being a Mexican?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: No. No, no, no. Just a cold shoulder sometimes, or suspicions or, “Who is this man? We thought he was like us. He’s different. He’s from another country.” Which was good for me to realize that, indeed, I was not a gringo. I was a Mexican. I belonged to another country, another culture. Okay. I lived with that very comfortably.</p> <p><strong>What did you like about school when you were growing up?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Oh, in the United States I liked the teacher I had. I always remember her. I remember her by her name, Miss Painter. Miss Florence Painter at the Henry D. Cooke Public School on 13th Street in Washington, D.C. At that time, there was not something called “general studies,” as today. At that time, you were taught arithmetic. You were taught language. You were taught history. You were taught geography. They had proper names. And she taught everything. She made us achieve interest in the world, in geography, in history, in language, in speech and arithmetic too. So it was really an extraordinarily good public school system. I think it’s gone down the drain today, but at that time I think it was one of the best public school systems in the world, and I profited from it. I was educated by the public school system of the United States.</p> <p><strong>You didn’t have any difficulty going between cultures and languages?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: No, no, no. I adapted very easily. I was a child without vacations, because at that time, during the summer months there were vacations in the United States, but there was school in Mexico. Vacations in Mexico came December, January. So when I was finished with school in the U.S., I was taken down to school in Mexico so I would not forget the Spanish language. I lived with my grannies, and I went to school every day. So I was a boy without vacations. Well, I profited from that. It was a bit sad at the time to say, “Oh, my friends in the United States are out fishing and playing baseball, and here I am learning verbs.” So it turned out okay. It gave me fortitude, if you wish.</p> <p><strong>Was there anything in school that was difficult for you?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Not particularly. I adapted quite well. I had the spirit of adaptation, as I told you, because of my father’s diplomatic career. So I got along well with people, adapted myself to the customs, the language, the slang, the jokes, whatever. It came very easily, not only in the United States. Mexico, Chile, Argentina — I adapted quite easily, like a chameleon. Although I am not a chameleon, I was able to adapt quite easily.</p> <p><strong>Did you have heroes as a young boy?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Franklin Roosevelt was my hero, a political hero, if you wish. I grew up at that time, and I saw that the Depression — the Great Depression of 1929 — had fostered dictatorships in Germany, it had strengthened Mussolini in Italy, it had strengthened Stalin in the Soviet Union, the rise of Japanese militarism, the weakness of the Western democracies. And Roosevelt was capable of solving the Depression through democratic means, by appealing to the people, to the social work force of the country: “Let us together solve these problems.” That is a lesson I have never forgotten. It was my prime lesson in politics. I owe it to FDR.</p> <p><strong>Was there anyone in your youth who served as an inspiration to you or challenged you or helped you develop?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: My father was a great educator for me. He taught me so many things. He named me Carlos after a brother he lost — a very brilliant young man who died at 21 in Mexico. He had written very good poems. He was an intellectual. I think my father wanted to see his brother in me, so he put books into my hands at a very early age. He fostered my literary and artistic inclinations. So he was my best teacher. Then I was lucky in having good teachers throughout my life, in secondary school and then at the University of Mexico as well.</p> <p><strong>You went on to study law?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yes. You know, I wanted to be a writer always. I had published my first stories in Chile when I was 11 years old, and went on from there and won contests in high school. Well, that was my vocation, no doubt about it. So when I was told, “Now you have to do law school,” I said, “Why? I want to be a writer; I don’t want to be a lawyer.” But the pressure in Mexico at the time was if you are a writer, you will die of hunger, so you must have a professional title. I remember visiting the great Mexican writer Alfonso Reyes, who my father told, “Convince Carlos he has to be a lawyer.” And he said — and Alfonso was the greatest Mexican writer at the time — and he said, “I am a writer, but first I am a lawyer, because Mexico is a formalistic country. We are all hot cups of coffee, and if you don’t have the handle to pick us up, people will burn their hands. You have to be Doctor something, <em>Licenciado</em> something, Engineer something or other.” So I obeyed him and I went to school in Mexico. I went to school in Geneva. I achieved a broadness of education I would not have had otherwise. By reading law — going back to read philosophy, Roman law, the medieval times, which are so important to understand Latin America, the philosophy of the Middle Ages — I got a whole picture of the world that I would not have had if I had not studied law. So I’m very grateful for it.</p> <p><strong>How did you know at such a young age that you wanted to be a writer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: It’s like walking, or singing in the bathtub. It comes naturally. It is there. I was writing — indeed, at seven, I was writing my own magazine in the apartment building in Washington, and circulating it through all seven stories. I did it myself. News, movie reviews, reviews of books I had read. I mean, who cared? I cared. But it’s a vocation that was there for me from the earliest time, the earliest age. Then it sort of spawned out into other activities, but always the center, the core of my life has been writing. The proof is that I have more than 20 books. I wrote them some time, huh?</p> <p><strong>Was it always there, or was there an epiphany, a moment of realization?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: No, it was always there, but there were epiphanies, certainly. One epiphany which I will never forget is reading Kafka’s <em>Metamorphosis</em>. I must have been 17. And that really burned through my heart and my mind. I remember I started smacking the light bulb, I was so excited. I think the world was turning around me. “See! This you can do with literature! If you can write this, that’s all you want from life. You want nothing more.” The epiphany was reading Kafka, I think.</p> <p><strong>What did your father do when you said you wanted to be a writer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Oh, he was very happy, but he said, “Also you’re going to be a lawyer. You must be two things.”</p> <p><strong>What is the responsibility of the writer in society, as you see it?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: To write books. To write books as best he can. To write good books. And then all things flow from that. There was a moment when this idea of the political responsibility of the writer — to proclaim yourself, “I am on the left,” and “I am for the people,” and you made a declaration and then wrote bad books, but it was pardoned because you were on the right side — this is over. A lot of bad books were written — by good people maybe, but bad books. In Latin America, it’s clear why this was the case.</p> <p>Pablo Neruda once said to me, “You know, we Latin American writers, we all travel with the bodies of our countries on our back. We carry our countries on our back. We are responsible to our countries, because our countries don’t have political freedom, because illiteracy is in the 80s. For all the reasons you know, it is up to us to give voice to the voiceless.” Today that is no longer true. Most Latin American countries are democracies, with regular elections, political parties, liberty for the unions, agrarian co-ops. In general, there is democratic freedom in Latin America. So if you want to be a writer that participates in politics, you do so with the honesty of saying, “I am in politics. I am a writer. Being a writer doesn’t give me special privileges. Let me be judged by my political thoughts and actions.”</p> <p>That is one part of it. But there are writers who say, “I will have nothing to do with politics. I stay on the side. I write my books and I am merely a literary figure.” But even then, the writer is working with language, with ideas, with memory. And as soon as you are working with language, you are working with a social medium, whether you like it or not. That book you are writing without any political conviction will have the political effect of giving value to language. Language is usually debased by the constant social use, by the rhetoric of politics or religion or whatever you wish. To give back what (Stephane) Mallarmé has said — “the purity of the language of the tribe.” To give the tribe back its language continues to be a mission of the writer, whether he or she likes it or not.</p> <p><strong>Is a novelist a provocateur by nature?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yes, in the sense that you don’t say things that people are comfortable with, generally. To me, the greatest novelistic tradition in the world is the English novel. It’s been going on for a long time, producing masterpieces, and all of them are against the grain of the English society. My wife and I live in England part of the year, and we realize how conservative and staid and conformist that society can be. And if, in that society, you get Emily Brontë and D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, you are going to have something that goes against the grain of the society, that confronts the society with a mirror of itself as it is not, as it could be, as it would wish or not wish to be. It is another vision of reality that is presented, the alternatives to reality are presented to a society by the novelist. So naturally, there is always an element of revolt — of contrariness — in writing novels. It is very different from writing political speeches.</p> <p><strong>You have generated controversy. How do you handle it?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Oh, very, very simply. Very calmly. It doesn’t affect me at all. It comes with the turf. It’s part of the job. It doesn’t alarm you at all to provoke anger, hatred, responses, criticism, envy — all the things you can provoke as a writer, or even as a public figure. I take it in my stride. It doesn’t bother me at all. I never answer an attack. Never. Never. Never.</p> <p><strong>What are your sources of inspiration when you choose your subjects?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I think it’s part of the dream work, the unfathomable subconscious. I want to write a novel now about the last day of the life of Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican guerrilla leader. The day he was shot, what else happened in the country? It’s something I want to write. There you have a subject which is clear-cut. But the way I write it, the style in which I write it, the components, I don’t know yet. Apart from the bare bones of the structure, I am not certain how I am going to go about it, because that is going to depend on my memory, on my fears, on my dreams, on my desires, on a million things that are unaccountable this moment when we’re talking together here.</p> <p><strong>Is there an audience that you’re trying to reach in particular?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I’m not sure. I am translated into 36 or 37 languages, so how can I account for the Lithuanian or Uzbekistanian reader? He or she cannot come into my conscience when I write or I would go bananas. So maybe I think of a small circle of friends, or I think of my wife — I think of a very small group of people, if I think at all of anybody, except the blank page, which is my real interlocutor when I’m writing. A blank page is staring at me, and I say, “You cannot go on being blank for long, and I have to talk to you, and you have to talk back to me,” and there we go. You start writing.</p> <p><strong>Is writing a dialogue with yourself? A dialogue with society?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yes, with your own culture, with your civilization, with all the things you know, all the things you ignore. What you ignore is more important for writing than what you know, because what you know is known. What you don’t know is what you imagine. That gives force to the writing. If it’s not there, the writing is not very good, because you’re just reflecting on things and imitating life. But when you’re talking about what isn’t there yet, or what is there but is hidden or forbidden, then you come into something more interesting.</p> <p><strong>How do you prepare for a life as a writer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: You read a lot. You read a lot. You read a lot. Reading is essential. You have to read a lot. You have to love reading in order to be a good writer. Because writing doesn’t start with you. It doesn’t spring from nothing. It doesn’t start at zero. You have to be conscious that there is a tremendous tradition behind you, a tradition that goes way back to the Bible and Homer and whatever you wish — and Aztec myths. You have to see yourself as part of the chain of being, if you wish. You are part of a process of language and memory and imagination. To put it in a nutshell, I think that to create, you have to be conscious of tradition. But to keep the tradition alive, you have to create something new. That would be my formula.</p> <p><strong>How do you measure achievement for a writer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Certainly not like Dan Brown, I can assure you. I think that writing is like a message put in a bottle and thrown into the sea. So whoever fishes that bottle out of the sea and reads the message, that is the “destinatary” (addressee) of the book. I mean, in other words, you cannot have a prefabricated audience, as a lot of best seller authors have. They know exactly who they’re writing for. They pander to the tastes of that audience. That, for me, is not writing. That deprives writing of its mystery, of its importance, of its imagination finally. You have to be in ignorance, in a way, of the reader if you are to write a good book. You have to create readers, not just give them what they want. That is a big difference.</p> <p><strong>Not having pandered, not having sought out this great popular audience, how do you account for your achievements?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Total mystery. I am in awe at anybody who buys a book of mine. I want to go and buy it back and say, “Don’t do it. Here is your money. Take it back.” For me it is a great mystery. You have so many cases of great writers who have achieved great popular success — Balzac, García Márquez — two examples. There are writers who have not had immediate success — Stendhal, William Faulkner. But eventually they come into their own with time. Balzac and García Márquez will be popular forever. They are great writers, and they deserve their popularity. Stendhal was a failure, complete — his novels. A lot of Faulkner was unread until he got the Nobel Prize practically, but the books were always great. The same year — I think it was the same year — <em>Anthony Adverse</em> came out, Hervey Allen novel, and <em>Absalom, Absalom!</em> by Faulkner. The Hervey Allen novel was a huge bestseller, huge bestseller — the great bestseller of the year. I think nobody reads it today. Faulkner is read throughout the world. So you have to be very faithful to what you’re doing. The rest is the gift of the gods. That’s it.</p> <p><strong>Is it important to be a risk-taker? Do you take risks as a writer?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Absolutely. Absolutely. One can write comfortable novels, become a best seller, make yourself <em>simpatico</em> to a lot of readers. That’s not my way. I want to take a risk with every book I write, and pose challenges to myself and to the reader. Sometimes I’m not an easy read, but I want the reader to come along with me and realize that he’s climbing a mountain with me, that sometimes it may be difficult and sometimes even useless — I don’t care. But I’m not going to make the path just easy by writing something that I know will be popular or easy to read. That’s not in my nature. I would rather rewrite my books the way I have already written them than debase myself in some way and say, “Now this is easy. Munch it up. It’s easy to digest.” No, no, no. Life is hard, difficult. Thought is difficult. Situations are extreme, and you must make an effort with the writer to travel this road. It is not easy for you. It wasn’t easy for me either. But maybe there is a reward at the end. Maybe there isn’t a reward. Maybe you have failed. But if there is a reward at the end of a hard trail, then you’ve done a good job.</p> <p><strong>In the 1960s, you were part of the great literary boom in Latin America. How important was that moment in Latin culture?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: It was very, very important. We’ve always had a great literary tradition in some countries of Latin America, starting with the Indian cultures. The Aztecs, the Incas produced great literature. There is a folk literature, a verbal literature of the Indian people of the Americas. Then we have a great colonial literature, starting with the chronicles of the conquest, which are our first novels, Bernal Diaz, Hernan Cortez. And a great colonial period, the great poet, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in Mexico. Then a not-so-good 19th century because we were very imitative of European models and fashions.</p> <p>But then a recovery through great poetry — Ruben Dario, Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo — great poets that brought the language to the fore and showed us their language and said, “It’s your language as well.” From them sprang a generation of very good novelists, Borges, Carpentier, Asturias, Onetti, and we are their heirs. I mean, we didn’t come out of nothing; we came out of a very rich tradition. That tradition coincided with interest in Latin America, worldwide interest, because of the Cuban revolution. The Cuban revolution brought Latin America into focus after a long period of dictatorships and ignorance of what was going on. So there was this leader, Fidel Castro, and a lot of attention on Latin America — and who are the writers in Latin America? It happened to be us. It could have been another generation that had preceded us, or a generation yet to come. We coincided with a historical event, which was the Cuban revolution, and with the Alliance for Progress and Kennedy and a whole new interest in Latin America. So that is the publicity of the affair. I think we also wrote good books, naturally. If not, we wouldn’t be talking here. But the publicity moment was very good, and the books were good as well, so it was a very felicitous moment for our literature.</p> <p><strong>You have done so many things. You have won prizes. You have been given honorary degrees. You are a celebrated figure. What gives you the most satisfaction? What gives you your greatest sense of achievement?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: It is personal things, always. The love of my wife, the love of my children. My parents. It is personal things that give you the greatest satisfaction even if you have never written a book.</p> <p><strong>Is there anything you haven’t done that you would like to do?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Yes, but I wouldn’t tell you.</p> <p><strong>As we look ahead into the 21st century, what most concerns you?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: The list of concerns is so great, I wouldn’t know where to begin. I think the future of the globe, the future of the Earth as such would be my prime concern. What we are doing to devastate our habitat, the place we live in, the air, the sea, the animals — we’re destroying everything.</p> <p>We have heard news today about the possible devastation of Alaska with a petroleum pipeline, instead of conserving that nature, which is the air we breathe and the food we eat, the water we drink. This is amazing — a planet bent on suicide if it is not stopped, and I don’t know how to stop it. There are all the good voices we have heard here in the Academy pleading for attention to save the planet.</p> <p>That is probably the greatest concern we have, because if we don’t save the planet, goodbye Michelangelo, goodbye Rembrandt, goodbye Walt Disney, goodbye everything. There will be desolation. It will be like Mars. Do we want that? Can we do anything about it? I think this is the great concern right now.</p> <p><strong>If one of the bright young people who read this came to you seeking advice, what would you say to them?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Precisely that. In your own life, in your own career, be very much aware that you are here for the next 50 years. Be sure you’re here for the next 50 years. Maybe there won’t be a planet in the next 50 years. Do the utmost to preserve our habitat.</p> <p><strong>If you had it to do all over again, is there anything you would do differently? Any regrets?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: I don’t think so, no. I don’t have regrets, not real regrets, no.</p> <p><strong>In so many words, what’s most important to you? What is really important to you?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Life and love. The quality of love around me. Yes. And the quality of your life.</p> <p><strong>How would you like to be remembered?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: In what world would I be remembered is the question? It depends on what world. I don’t want to be put on the wall of infamy by a dictatorship, no. Maybe our destiny is dust and anonymity and who survives, yes.</p> <p>It is astonishing how people are forgotten. How many people of the past do we remember? Remember great artists, remember great writers, famous statesmen, warriors. But these are not the majority. The majority are the people who go to an unknown grave. It is very sad to think of it. You cannot think back — if you’re a normal citizen, not a prince or a king — you can’t go back more than three, four generations. Then your past is lost. You can’t go further back than that. I can go back to my great-grandparents. After that, I don’t know who they were. They’re lost forever. So we write books in order to remember that past, to give it some semblance of reality, some possibility of survival through fictional characters. Anna Karenina will go on living, and Don Quixote. They will go on living, I’m sure of that.</p> <p><strong>There is a question that’s very much at issue in the United States today. Everyone’s talking about the immigration issue and what to do about our border with Mexico. We’d love to hear your views about that.</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Listen, there are two sides to that. One is the fact that the United States needs workers. They happen to be Mexican workers because that’s the neighboring country. But let us imagine that Mexico had full employment one day. The workers would still be needed. Who would pick the fruit? Who would cook? Who would serve at tables? Who would take care of the children? Who would drive the buses? Who would do the catering and work in the hotels? You have to get them from somewhere. Or generate those jobs for Americans who don’t want to take them, obviously. So you are profiting from our labor.</p> <p>In Mexico, we have a duty as well, and it is to provide labor to these workers. I wish they had never left Mexico. In the future, I want them to stay in Mexico. Mexico is a deeply divided country — 50 percent of the population of 100 million is poor. There should be jobs waiting for them. There are not. They have to come to the United States. We should provide jobs for 50 million Mexicans and help us step out of poverty. We’re still mired in poverty in Mexico. So I wish we had the offer of these jobs. If we had a Franklin Roosevelt, he would find a way to give jobs to the 50 million, who would not migrate. But then that would be your problem: Where are your workers coming from?</p> <p><strong>This has always been a country of immigrants.</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: Of course it is. Besides, I don’t want to be nasty about that, but for many Mexicans who come here, they say, “Hey, this used to be our land! We are now foreigners here.”</p> <p><strong>Now, is there any other question that you wished we had asked?</strong></p> <p>Carlos Fuentes: No. No. You have asked everything. I can’t think of anything you could ask.</p> <p><strong>Thank you very much.</strong></p> <p>Thank you.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Carlos Fuentes Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>14 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4901960784314" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2.jpg" data-image-caption="Author Carlos Fuentes in Paris, September 1979. (Ulf Andersen/ Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Carlos-Fuentes2-510x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68157894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/carlos-fuentes-destacada-760x518.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69473684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni.jpg" data-image-caption="Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes poses in front of his library during an interview with the AFP news agency, in Mexico City, on November 6, 2008. Mexico launched, on November 11, 2008, a series of events including discussions, presentation of art works, operas, and conferences to pay tribute to the 80-year-old Fuentes, one of the most prolific Latin American writers, and also to celebrate the book which established his reputation 50 years ago, "La región mas transparente" ("The Most Transparent Region"). (AFP PHOTO/Ronaldo SCHEMIDT)" data-image-copyright="MEXICO-LITERATURE-FUENTES-CELEBRATIONS" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/escritores-carlos-fuentes-impreso-elnuevodiario-com-ni-760x528.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235.jpg" data-image-caption="Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, at home in London, 1985. (© Christopher Cormack/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001235-760x500.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5322580645161" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes in the study of his London home, 1985. (© Christopher Cormack/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236-248x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-AK001236-496x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5353535353535" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-DWF15-499421.jpg" data-image-caption="November 26, 2003: Carlos Author Carlos Fuentes speaks at the Gielgud Theatre in London, England: November 24, 2003. (© Rune Hellestad/Corbis) " data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes Speaks at The Orange Word" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-DWF15-499421-248x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-DWF15-499421-495x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66842105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes at home in Mexico City in the 1980s. (© Sergio Dorantes/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-IH058883-760x508.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5141955835962" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-LJ001167.jpg" data-image-caption="Mexico's foremost man of letters, Carlos Fuentes, photogrpahed in 1990. (© Abilio Lope/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="Mexican Writer Carlos Fuentes" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-LJ001167-251x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-LJ001167.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0065501.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes poses at his home, San Geronimo, in Mexico City, February 2001. (Photo by Henry Romero © Reuters/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="MEXICAN WRITER CARLOS FUENTES IN MEXICO CITY FOR FEATURE MEXICO PEOPLE FUENTES" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0065501-380x263.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0065501-760x527.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.7140625" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes listens to questions during a UNICEF conference, "Latin America between two millenniums, challenges and hopes." Guatemala City, August 28, 2001. The eyes shown on the poster behind Mr. Fuentes are his own. (Photo by Jorge Silva © Reuters/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="MEXICAN WRITER CARLOS FUENTES IN GUATEMALA CITY" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953-380x271.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fuentes-Corbis-UT0087953.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/fuentes_e15051240.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes (Universal Agency)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes (Universal Agency)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/fuentes_e15051240-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/fuentes_e15051240-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4448669201521" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes, 2003 (Sassier/Gallimard)" data-image-copyright="Carlos Fuentes, 2003 (Sassier/Gallimard)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web-263x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FUENTES-web-526x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387.jpg" data-image-caption="Author Carlos Fuentes addresses the Academy of Achievement in Los Angeles, 2006. (© Academy of Achievement) " data-image-copyright="wordpress_06Academy_387" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_06Academy_387-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.80789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176.jpg" data-image-caption="Carlos Fuentes is presented with the Golden Plate of the Academy of Achievement by Carlos Slim Helú, Chairman of Teléfonos de México, in Los Angeles, 2006. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="06Academy_1176" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176-380x307.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/08/06Academy_1176-760x614.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i 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Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190107133144/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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