Classic Mexican Books

My idea to compile this list of classic Mexican books first came up while I was talking about Japanese authors. I had been thinking of doing an informal miniseries where I focus on the specific literary traditions and histories of different ethnicities and nationalities, when, during a workshop I was attending, I had mentioned that the first recorded novel in history came from a Japanese noblewoman. This, of course, set us down a path of not only the history of Japanese literature, but also the context in which said novel—The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, in case you didn’t know—sprang from. But more on that another time. Through this conversation, I was reminded of how many people don’t know about rich literary traditions, even when—as is the case with Mexico and the U.S.—they come from nearby places. The thing with books and literature is that they are just as much of their time as they can point towards the future. Through Mexican literature, you can hear the rhythm of the pre-Colombian Nahuatl poets, feel the consequences of war and colonialism, and see what happens as a land and a people are forced to forget their language and learn a new one. And, how that new language i...