By Carole Reedy—

Living in Mexico for 30 years hasn’t only settled my understanding of the country; rather, it has expanded it. New research and reading continually reshape my previous viewpoints. Novels and nonfiction narratives are my guide, although numerous personal encounters have enhanced my knowledge.

An education is never complete.

Here are some contemporary histories and classic texts to guide your understanding of this great land.

Mexico by Paul Gillingham
This new tome surprises with a topsy- turvy view of our nation. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that now, 500 years later, Mexico survived the literary earthquake we call our history.

Milenio, the popular and prestigious Mexican daily newspaper, calls Mexico “unique and, from now on, indispensable for anyone who wants to explore Mexican history with sincerity.”

It is so easy to get things wrong when writing or relating stories orally. Peter Frankopan from The Telegraph tells us that this “fine account does well to remind that the best history is about fact, not fiction.”

Gillingham begins with the misconceptions of the role of the Spaniards in the early 1500s: their original goals and intentions and their relationships with various communities across the country. Over the next 700 pages, Mexico recounts great human displacements and epic battles. Most important, Gillingham constantly stresses the global economic forces that shaped each period of the country’s history.

Álvaro Enrigue, respected author of the brilliant novel You Dreamed of Empires, in his New York Times review says: “Gillingham’s 700-page book is imposing, yet it is an absorbing read, from the amusing and skeptical cadence of the first line that describes the embellished estimates made by the Spanish of the indigenous armies they encountered.”

Buy a copy and slowly read the unimaginable 500-year history of Mexico. As has been suggested in my other book column recommendations, also pick up a copy of You Dreamed of Empires as an accompaniment.

The Lawless Roads and The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Few people are familiar with the Cristeros War (1926-1929). Mexican history often stresses the importance and dominance of the Catholic Church, brought to Mexico from Spain in the 1500s.

The Cristeros War was a reaction to the Calles laws, introduced by the then-president (from 1924 to 1928) Plutarco Elías Calles, which reduced the power of the church. The short rebellion in rural Mexico was eventually settled with the help of Dwight Morrow, ambassador to Mexico from the US.

You might recall that President Benito Juárez in the previous century severely limited the power and extreme wealth of the Catholic church.

British citizen Graham Greene thought of himself as a Catholic Agnostic. These two controversial novels describe different aspects of this short but significant time in the complicated history of Greene’s travels to Mexico to see what the effects of the conflict on Catholicism there had been.

The Lawless Roads is an account of Greene’s Mexican journey that takes him from the northern border towns to San Luis Potosí and Mexico City. From there he goes to the nearby rural state of Puebla and then to Chiapas. But his primary interest was in Tabasco, home of the atheist activist and cacique of the state, Tomás Garrido Canabal.

In 2005, The Power and the Glory was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923. John Updike calls The Power and the Glory, “Graham Greene’s masterpiece…The energy and grandeur of his finest novel derive from the will toward compassion, an ideal communism even more Christian than Communist.”

For Graham Greene fans, this novel of southern Mexico it is often cited as their favorite by the author.

The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz is virtually a household name in Mexico, admired and respected by people from all walks of life. Through his remarkable literary skill, Paz brings Mexico’s complex and fascinating history to life, offering richly crafted narratives that illuminate the essence of Mexican identity.

In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.”

His most famous work, The Labyrinth of Solitude, is an indispensable and deeply illuminating read for anyone who lives in Mexico, visits, or seeks to truly understand the country. With a gentle yet compelling force, Paz draws readers into the deepest chord of the Mexican people, revealing the inner workings of their collective. Paz observes that solitude is responsible for the Mexican’s perspective on death, fiesta, and identity. Published first in 1950, the book explores difficulties of integration and cultural belonging.

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
Regular readers of The Eye may notice that this title pops up from time to time in my recommendations. The novel touches on many different aspects of Mexican life, especially the spiritual.

The appearance of a dead witch is the impetus for a story that is full of rumors, mythology, suspicions, and traditions of violence. It is Melchor’s style, however, that brings to life the mysterious workings of the people who live in the pueblo.

The Guardian review says it well. “A brutal portrait of small-town claustrophobia, in which machismo is a prison and corruption isn’t just institutional but domestic, with families broken by incest and violence. Melchor’s long, snaking sentences make the book almost literally unputdownable, shifting our grasp of key events by continually creeping up on them from new angles. A formidable debut.”

Mexico City Noir, edited by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
I recently ran across this anthology of short stories. These dark, acidic short stories reflect some unique-to-Mexico situations. Take note of the title of the book! This is a dark, somber series about police corruption, drug trafficking, the homeless, and the ultra-rich, to name just a few of the unforgettable characters.

All of the stories, told in different narrative styles, have one thing in common: they speak to, and about, a city the authors love.

The brilliant foreword by the much-loved editor of these stories, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, establishes the basis for these stories with a diverse cast of characters. Perhaps more important is the emphasis on the neighborhoods that drive the narrative.

Each chapter has a subtitle of a colonia (neighborhood): Roma, Condesa, Centro Histórico, Colonia de Valle, Doctores. Don’t look for a list of cafes or clubs or a discussion about gentrification in these stories; a more brutal agenda is at stake here.

Despite the barbarous themes, editor Taibo relates that while “Mexico City Noir may not be sponsored by the city’s department of tourism; but if anyone, from anywhere on earth, were to ask whether the writers recommend visiting Mexico City, the response would be both firm and passionate: ‘Yes, of course.’ Because this is the best city on the planet, in spite of itself.”

Taibo also observes that the writers “take refuge in humor, a very dark humor, acidic, which allows us enough distance to laugh at Lucifer.”

Poems and Sonnets of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
An article about Mexico, especially in an issue emphasizing the spiritual, cannot be written without a discussion about the monumental figure in our country, Sor Juana, philosopher, writer, and poet. We have written about her often over the past 15 years.

Considered the first feminist in the Americas as well as one of the most important writers in the Spanish language, in the 17th century she was defending the rights of women against the patriarchal norms of the time.

If you are a first-time reader of this significant figure in history, I would start with the poems and sonnets, especially the poem Hombres Necios that argues that men’s taste and censorship are inconsistent and that they accuse women of what they themselves cause. It exposes the inequality and injustice that women suffer through sexism and discrimination against women.

Then, continue on to the 975-line monumental poem Primero Sueño (First Dream), an extensive philosophical allegory about the search for knowledge.

Learn from Sor Juana’s most famous words: “I don’t study to know more, but to ignore less.”

Well said, sister!