Suggested reading

Archeology and Art

Mexico:  From the Olmecs to the Aztecs
Coe, Michael and Rex Koontz
A well-illustrated survey of Mexico’s ancient civilizations by two distinguished archaeologists who have worked in the country for many years.  It doesn’t include the Maya, on which Dr. Coe has written a separate book entitled simply, The Maya.

Frida
Herrera, Hayden
An excellent biography of Mexico’s most famous woman artist, Frida Kahlo.  The wife of the muralist Diego Rivera, Frida’s story and her art are interesting in their own right.  A film biography based on the book, starring Selma Hayek, is available on DVD.

Latin American Art of the 20th Century
Lucie-Smith, Edward
During the 1920s and 30s, Mexico saw an extraordinary flowering of revolutionary mural art led by artists such as Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco which still influences Latin American art today. This book dips just a toe into these sometimes turbulent waters. See especially chapter 3 (Mexican Muralism) and Chapter 6 (Mexico:  Four Women and One Man).

The Art of Mesoamerica, from Olmec to Aztec
Miller, Mary Ellen
An art historian’s view of the legacy of the region’s ancient cultures.

The Cities of Ancient Mexico:  Reconstructing a Lost World
Sabloff, Jeremy A.
An interesting attempt to recreate the daily lives of the people who lived in Mexico’s great pre-Columbian cities.

History and Politics

In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution
Aguilar Camin, Hector and Lorenzo Meyer
Modern Mexican history from the perspective of two distinguished Mexican writers.

Life in Mexico
Calderon de la Barca, Frances
The British/American wife of the Spanish Ambassador to Mexico from 1839-1842, Calderon de la Barca’s sharp-eyed account of Mexico in the 19th century is a classic; as Preston and Dillon argue, Mexico’s past is its present, and much of what she writes is timely today.

Opening Mexico:  The Making of a Democracy
Preston, Julia and Samuel Dillon
This husband and wife team, both reporters for the New York Times, recount Mexico’s recent history, especially the origins and events of the first truly democratic election in 2000 which broke the stranglehold of the one-party system which (mis?)governed the country for most of the 20th century.  If you only read one book on Mexican history and politics, I suggest this one!

Fiction

Like Water for Chocolate
Esquivel, Laura
A movie based on this novel, made in 1993, received great critical acclaim; the novel itself is a story of family life in Mexico wrapped around recipes for Mexican food.

Fuentes, Carlos
Any of his novels, but especially Where the Air is Clear and The Death of Artemio Cruz.  He writes with a critical eye of the problems of modern Mexico.

The Power and the Glory
Greene, Graham
Set in the wake of the 1926 banning of the Catholic church by Mexico’s revolutionary government, this is one of Greene’s “Catholic” novels which examines the meaning of religion from the point of view of the persecuted.

The Xibalba Murders
Hamilton, Lyn
Ms. Hamilton has written a series of archaeological mysteries which show evidence that she has done her homework; this one is set in the Yucatan.  Good airplane reading for mystery lovers.

The Plumed Serpent
Lawrence, D. H.
A 40-year old widow travels to Mexico and falls passionately in love with its ancient culture and a Mexican who wants to restore the old gods.  A classic by a great writer.

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