More Reading Lists

Over the past 16 weeks, the students in my literature class at the Universidad de Guanajuato have read The Professor's House by Willa Cather, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, The Chinchilla Farm by Judith Freeman, and Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. They have also expanded my own reading list, as they have told me about the research they are doing for their licenciatura and maestría theses. Just a few of the recommended authors and works include:

Amadis de Gaula (14th century; unknown author, though partly attributed to Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo) - A story of chivalric romance in Spain. This work is not Mexican, but one of my students is studying the medieval literature of knights and chivalry, based, of course, in Spanish literature. This book precedes and is satirized in Don Quijote.

Gilberto Owen (1904-1952; Sinaloa, México) - poet (and diplomat!); part of the Mexican poetic school called "los contemporáneos." Poetry collections include Perseo vencido (1948).

Juan José Arreola (1918-2001; Jalisco, México) - a master of the short story, known for his experimental language and use of fantasy and magical realism. One prominent collection of his short stories is Confabulario (1952).

Inés Arredondo (1928-1989; Sinaloa, México) - perhaps the greatest Mexican woman short-story writer of the 20th century, and yet my student who is writing her thesis on this author cannot obtain her books - they are largely out of print - and so this student is working from photocopies. One short story collection is Río subteráneo (1979).

And right now I am reading El llano en llamas (The Field in Flames, 1953) by Juan Rulfo, which is considered one of the most important works in Mexican literature. The short stories are set in the dry, rugged, and lonely countryside of Jalisco, México, and they relate desperate tales of the campesinos at the time of the Mexican revolution and la Guerra Cristera. They are haunting stories, sometimes darkly humorous, that cast an unflinching eye on rural poverty and forgotten people.