Hurricanes and Carnivals
216 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:22 Mar 2007
ISBN:9780816526253
CA$24.95 Back Order
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Hurricanes and Carnivals

Essays by Chicanos, Pochos, Pachucos, Mexicanos, and Expatriates

Edited by Lee Gutkind; Introduction by Ilan Stavans
The University of Arizona Press
“In Mexico,” writes Ilan Stavans in the introduction to this provocative new collection on Mexican culture and politics, “[the essay] is embraced as passionately as a sport.” While the American essay may be personal and confessional or erudite and academic, it is presumed to be truthful. By contrast, the Mexican essay pushes the boundaries between fact and fiction as writers seek to make their opinions heard—in literary journals, in newspapers, and even on cereal boxes. “What is real and what isn’t in a Mexican essay, only God knows,” concludes Stavans. In Hurricanes and Carnivals, Lee Gutkind, a pioneer in the teaching of creative nonfiction, brings together fifteen essays by Mexican, Mexican American, and Latin American writers that push the boundaries of style and form, showing that navigating “truth” is anything but clear-cut. Although creative nonfiction is widely thought to be an American art form, this collection proves otherwise. By blending fact and fiction, story and fantasy, history and mythology, these writers and others push the bounds of the essay to present a vision of Mexico rarely seen from this side of the border. Addressing topics that include immigration, politics, ecology, violence, family, and sexuality, they take literary license on a whirlwind adventure. C. M. Mayo shows us Mexico City as seen through the eyes of her pug, Picadou; Juan Villoro examines modern Mexico through the lens of demography; Homero Aridjis uses the plight of nesting sea turtles to document a slowly changing Mexican attitude toward natural resources; and Sam Quinones documents the decline of beauty-queen addiction in Mazatlán and tells us about the flower festivals where, according to lore, only two things matter: hurricanes and carnivals. For readers interested in a literary view of contemporary Mexico, as well as students of the creative nonfiction genre, this volume is essential
Preface: On Crossing Borders
Introduction: Hurricanes and Carnivals
Ilan Stavans
Group Photo: 100 Million Mexicans
Juan Villoro
Héctor and the Beauty Queens (1998)
Sam Quinones
Vigil in Tehuantepec
Alberto Ruy Sánchez
Liberace’s Sink
Rigoberto González
About the Egg
Hugo Hiriart
The Woman Who Loved Water
Kathleen Alcalá
Of Sea Turtles: A Cautionary Tale
Homero Aridjis
The Essential Francisco Sosa, or, Picadou’s Mexico City
C. M. Mayo
Sienna Revisited
Sergio Pitol
Hotel de México
Susan Briante
On Becoming a Book at Forty
Ilan Stavans
Introduction from Here’s To You, Jesusa!
Elena Poniatowska
Tlilli, Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink
Gloria Anzaldúa 174
The Brown Study
Richard Rodriguez
About the Contributors
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