The Life and Times of Mexico
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004. "A work of scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico."--History Today\ The Life and Times of Mexico is a grand narrative driven by 3,000 years of history: the Indian world, the Spanish invasion, Independence, the 1910 Revolution, the tragic lives of workers in assembly plants along the border, and the experiences of millions of Mexicans who live in the United States. Mexico is seen here as if it were a person, but in the Aztec way;...
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A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004. "A work of scope and profound insight into the divided soul of Mexico."—History Today Publishers Weekly This threatens to be one more of those hefty tomes that Mexico has a way of inspiring. But fear not: this 3,000-year history not only distinguishes itself in a field of worthy contenders but does so with flair and insight. An essayist, novelist (Under the Fifth Sun), sociologist (Latinos: A Biography of the People) and National Humanities Medal recipient, Shorris employs his Renaissance man-of-letters credentials to great effect here. Eschewing a more traditional political point of entry to the U.S.'s southern neighbor, he structures a series of narratives, vignettes and analysis around the Aztec concepts of head, heart and liver. Tonalli, the center of vital power, is the section on history and philosophy. Teyolia, the soul located in the heart, treats art and literature, family and essential character. Ihiyotl, located in the liver, is the center of survival and covers education, economics, politics, corruption and race. Shorris closes with a look to the future and two oral histories, deliberately contrasting "other, far less edited" voices with his own. Though there are more than a few moments when Shorris's prose veers dangerously close to purple, the overall effect is a beautiful, passionate and powerful account of a nation that American readers can ill afford to ignore. 32 pages of illus., 3 maps not seen by PW. (Aug. 16) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Saturday storiesFirst homage to the memorious old man of Agua PrietaBk. 1The head (Tonalli)1Definitions52In the beginning...173Realpolitik and dreams354An imperfect likeness505The shaman's apprentice666The god of bread and the god of corn777Mesoamerican origins of generosity878The envious origins of generosity949The chosen people11010The fate of independents12311The conception of the Aztec13712His royal highness15213Centripetal forces16714The defeat of Auguste Comte18915Revolutionary dreams21516The spirit of Madero22717The land of Zapata24518Villa's angels25319Carranza, Obregon, Calles, and the constitution26820The dream of a word27521Totalitarian threads284Bk. 2The heart (Teyolia)22The Werejaguar34523Diego Rivera's dogs35524The nationality of the rose36325Once there was a circle38326Real magic39927The reinforcement of the worst428Bk. 3The liver (Ihiyotl)28Indio, Lepero, Pelado, Naco : four stages of race and class45929A savage bite48030A dearth of beginners50231Maquiladora nation52732Where the future falls54433The science of dismal prospects56634Alternations59135Doctors63236The ninth Mexican645Bk. 4Tonalamatl37The book of predictions681AppTwo oral histories
\ Publishers WeeklyThis threatens to be one more of those hefty tomes that Mexico has a way of inspiring. But fear not: this 3,000-year history not only distinguishes itself in a field of worthy contenders but does so with flair and insight. An essayist, novelist (Under the Fifth Sun), sociologist (Latinos: A Biography of the People) and National Humanities Medal recipient, Shorris employs his Renaissance man-of-letters credentials to great effect here. Eschewing a more traditional political point of entry to the U.S.'s southern neighbor, he structures a series of narratives, vignettes and analysis around the Aztec concepts of head, heart and liver. Tonalli, the center of vital power, is the section on history and philosophy. Teyolia, the soul located in the heart, treats art and literature, family and essential character. Ihiyotl, located in the liver, is the center of survival and covers education, economics, politics, corruption and race. Shorris closes with a look to the future and two oral histories, deliberately contrasting "other, far less edited" voices with his own. Though there are more than a few moments when Shorris's prose veers dangerously close to purple, the overall effect is a beautiful, passionate and powerful account of a nation that American readers can ill afford to ignore. 32 pages of illus., 3 maps not seen by PW. (Aug. 16) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThe history and culture of Mexico from prehistory to the present are brilliantly presented in this comprehensive work by respected author Shorris (Under the Fifth Sun). The author points out that the past has always had a pervasive influence in Mexico and that the country looks to its history to define itself. To emphasize this aspect of the Mexican outlook, Shorris skillfully interweaves examples of modern Mexican life with a chronological historical narrative in a seamless exposition of the factors that have led to the modern Mexican worldview and to current trends in its politics, religion, social issues, and the arts. Shorris's insightful and perceptive analysis probes the depths of the Mexican character in a way that brings new understanding of a people who have endured a turbulent past. Through his detailed examination of the many facets of Mexican history and life, Shorris successfully captures the vibrant nature of the spirit of Mexico. Highly recommended for history and Latin American studies collections in academic and large public academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/04.]-Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsA superb portrait of Mexico, a nation still in the process of being built-perhaps, hopes Shorris (In the Yucatan, 2000, etc.), by "inserting freedom and fairness into its past in order to change its future."It is an old trope, old even in Octavio Paz and Alfonso Reyes's time, to suggest that Mexico is a country haunted by history. But so it is, and Shorris points out with reason that "everything that happens in Mexico today has roots in the clash of civilizations that took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century, from the choice of a president to the killing of Indians in the jungles of Chiapas." That clash had improbable results, writes Shorris; the conquistadores, only a few hundred in number, under the lawyer Cortez should not have been able to overwhelm the great Aztec Empire. Yet it happened, and Mexico's post-conquest history has been marked by struggle between Europeans and Indians for political power; the lowliest Spanish arrivals, however poor and disreputable, were socially superior to the best-educated and wealthiest creoles, to say nothing of the indigenes. Shorris's narrative approach is at once journalistic (he's spent a lot of time on Mexican ground over more than half a century) and historical (he's read every book ever written, it seems, on Mexico's past). It is also exquisitely literary, for Shorris believes that Mexico is driven by ideas such as the revolutionary antipositivism of the Flores Mag-n and the quasi-anti-Mexicanism of the newest generation of authors, who call themselves the Crack Generation (which "refers not to 'crack' as 'rock cocaine,' but to 'crack' as in la Ruptura"). He is not so literary, though, as to explain away with metaphor some ofMexico's darkest secrets, among them the Dirty War of the 1970s, when government stooges murdered liberals at a rate to rival Argentina and Chile. Shorris closes by considering Mexico's binational future (one in ten citizens now live in the US), the battle to end corruption, and the struggle to replace creaky authoritarian parties with democratic ones. As useful in its time as Alan Riding's Distant Neighbors was 20 years ago.\ \
