Guadalupe Nettel

Guadalupe Nettel by Vogler from Wikimedia Commons

15 Most Famous Mexican Authors Everyone Should Know About


 

Mexican Literature is celebrated worldwide but it begins at home. Many streets in Mexico’s neighborhoods are named in honor of authors, poets, and other famous artists. The rich culture of this country makes it the center of literary works.

Before colonization, they passed on their heritage through storytelling. After that era, modernization began to influence the communities’ activities hence better ways of narrating past accounts were invented. Thus the creative space grew into what is celebrated today.

Moreover, every genre is taken care of. So whether you are looking to expand your bookshelves, have a summer read on vacation, or relax with a good read anytime these Mexican literary masters have your back.

Further, these authors have descriptive events that connect with an audience and will leave you feeling as though you are part of their environment. The likes of Carlos Fuentes, and Juan Rulfo and find out who else in our round-up of the most famed Mexican authors.

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Here are the 15 most famous Mexican authors everyone should know about.

1. Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes

Mexican Writer Carlos Fuentes in 2009 by Abderrahman Bouirabdane from Wikimedia Commons

He was born in Panama on November 11, 1928. His father was a diplomat so he had the chance to live in different Latin American capital cities during his childhood. Fuentes first lived in Mexico when he was a teenager and enrolled to study law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). While studying he wrote short stories for a daily newspaper called Hoy.

Additionally, he served at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs as head of cultural relations in 1957. His first published work was Where the Air Is Clear in 1958. It was his rise to fame that saw him quit his diplomatic career to concentrate on his writing. But from 1975 to 1977 he made a return to diplomacy as Mexico’s ambassador to France but later resigned.

Carlos also taught at Cambridge, Harvard, and many other institutions while still writing. He died on May 15, 2012, but remains Mexico’s most celebrated novelist according to his obituary in The Guardian. While The New York Times said he had a huge impact on the Latin American Boom. They added that he ranked among the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking scene.

Best works: The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), Aura(1962), Terra Nostra (1975), The Old Gringo (1985), Christopher Unborn (1987)

Awards: Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor in 1999

2. Juana Ines de la Cruz

This Mexican writer was a headline philosopher, composer, and poet. Her contribution to the Spanish art industry earned her “The Tenth Muse” or “The Phoenix of America” nicknames. But her popular address was Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. She was born on 12 November 1648 in Mexico.

What’s more, Sor Juana self-taught in her library inherited from her grandfather. By the time she was in her teens, she was popular in the Philosophy circles. She was versatile and joined a nunnery in 1667. While there, she converted her nun’s quarters into a salon attracting the intellectual elite of New Spain at the time.

She died on 17 April 1695 and was forgotten for centuries until Octavio Paz brought out her significance in the modern day. She is now appreciated and a center of feminist advocacy subjects like women’s religious authority, education rights, and more. To boot, Sor Juana has been featured in pop culture through films and literary pieces.

3. Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo by Unknown Author from Wikimedia Commons

Besides writing Rulfo doubled as a photographer and screenwriter. He was born on 16 May 1917 in Mexico. His parents died when he was still young leaving him to be raised by his grandmother.

His early career duties were working as an immigration file clerk and at some point joining the military as advised by his relative. In 1944, he co-founded Pan, a literary journal.

Rulfo’s breakthrough came when he received a fellowship at the Centro Mexicano de Escritores, affiliated with the Rockefeller Foundation. It was there that he wrote his first two books that gained him prominence in the writing arena henceforth. He died on 7 January 1986.

Best works: Pedro Páramo a 1955 novel, El Llano en llamas-1953 short stories collection and Tell Them Not to Kill Me is the highest rated in that collection

4. Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz in 1984 by Rafael Doniz from Wikimedia Commons

Paz was a Mexican poet born near Mexico city on March 31, 1914. He was born to a prominent and liberal political family in Mexico yet they shared both Spanish and indigenous Mexican roots.

He was exposed to literature at an early age and often read his grandfather’s library collection. So when he was a teenager, he published his first poem Cabellera in 1931.

On top of that, he studied at the University of California at Berkeley and later took up a career in diplomacy. While on duty in Paris, he wrote one of his renowned pieces, The Labyrinth of Solitude. He served as a diplomat and poet and died on April 19, 1998.

Best works: 1957  Piedra de sol (English: Sunstone), El mono gramático (The Monkey Grammarian), Ladera este (Eastern Slope)

Awards: 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1977 Jerusalem Prize, Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 1981, Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1982

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5. Luis Spota

Spota was born on 13 July 1925 in Mexico City. He prided himself on many talents such as writing, journalism, boxing official, and film director.  The writing was a natural gifting for him because he wrote over 30 books yet he never completed his primary school education. From February 1963 to September 1968, Spota served as the president of the World Boxing Council (WBC).

Over the years films have been created based on his works like the En La Palma de Tu Mano (In the Palm of Your Hand). This film won many categories in the Ariel Awards of 1951. He lost the battle to pancreatic cancer on 20 January 1985 in Mexico City.

Best works: Más cornadas da el hambre (1949) translated and published in 1961, La sangre enemiga (1959) translated as, The enemy blood, El tiempo de la ira translated as The Time of Wrath

Awards: Más cornadas da el hambre won the Premio Ciudad de México

6. Guadalupe Nettel

Guadalupe Nettel

Guadalupe Nettel by Mely Avila from Wikimedia Commons

This Mexican writer was born in 1973 in Mexico City. Her eye suffered a congenital disorder which caused her to be bullied in her early years. So she sought refuge in books and writing. She is quite a scholar and has a Ph.D. in linguistics.

Furthermore, Nettel boasts of fiction and nonfiction works that have been translated into over 17 languages. She contributes to publications like The New York Times, Granta, and more. She is the editor of one of Mexico’s oldest cultural magazines, Revista de la Universidad de México.

Best works: The Body Where I Was Born (2011), After the Winter (2014)

Awards: Premio Herralde in 2014, named on Bogotá 39(promising Latin American writers under 39 listing)

7. Jaime Sabines

Sabines was born on March 25, 1926, in Chiapas, Mexico. According to Octavio Paz(earlier), Jaime was one of the greatest contemporary poets of the Spanish language. He was dubbed the “sniper of literature” and wrote about everyday life.

Many people related to his writing because he talked of people on the streets, in hospitals, in playgrounds, and more real-life experiences. He also served as a politician. He died on 19 March 1999 in Mexico.

Best works: Adam and Eve, Weekly Diary and Poems in Prose, Nuevo recuento de poemas (poems collection)

Awards: Chiapas Award (1979), Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 1972, Elias Sourasky Award in 1982, National Literature Award (1983), Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor in 1995

8. Martin Luis Guzmán

Martín Luis Guzmán

Martín Luis Guzmán by Tatehuari from Wikimedia Commons

The Mexican novelist cum journalist was born on October 6, 1887. He is one of the pioneers of the revolutionary novel genre. This genre was inspired by the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Additionally, He is remembered as the founder of newspapers, magazines, and publishing companies. There were periods he spent in exile in the United States and Spain. Guzmán died on December 22, 1976.

Best works: La sombra del caudillo (1929), El águila y la serpiente (1928), Crónica de mi destierro

Awards: Mexico’s National Prize in Literature in 1958

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9. Laura Esquivel

This Mexican writer cum politician was born in Mexico City on September 30, 1950. Laura’s first novel Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)was her rise to recognition. The book became a bestseller in Mexico and the United States.

Over and above that, the book captures the place of magic in the ordinary and shows how it merges with the supernatural. Later, the novel was adapted into a film that saw great success in the industry. Esquivel also served in the Chamber of Deputies from 2015 to 2018.

Best works: Like Water for Chocolate, Tan Veloz como el deseo in 2001 (English: Swift as Desire), A Lupita le gustaba planchar in 2014 (English: Pierced by the Sun)

10. Valeria Luiselli

She was born in Mexico on August 16, 1983, but her family moved to Madison, Wisconsin when she was very young. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She later furthered her literature studies at Columbia University, where she received her Ph.D.

On top of that, Luiselli has many awards under her name. Her works have appeared in global publications like The New York Times, and Granta, among others. Further her books have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Best works: Faces in the Crowd, The Story of My Teeth in 2015, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions, Lost Children Archive in 2020

Awards: Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” award, Folio Prize, Vilcek Prize

11. Juan Villoro

Juan Villoro

Juan Villoro in 2022 by EneasMx from Wikimedia Commons

He is a Mexican writer born on 24 September 1956 in Mexico. He is praised for his novels, short stories, essays, and children’s books. The Herralde Prize is what brought him global recognition though he was a household name in Mexico, Latin America, and Spain for a long time.

Villoro has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. During his early career years, his love for rock music prompted him to work as a DJ for a radio program. In 1991, he published his first novel El disparo de argon (The Shot of Argon).

Throughout his career, he has contributed to different Mexican periodicals and has ventured into theater writing. Further, he has collaborated with the Mexican rock band, Café Tacuba and doubles up as a professor.

Best works: Los once de la Tribu (The Eleven of the Tribe) in 1995, El testigo (2004), Espejo Retrovisor (2013)

Awards: Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award

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12. Yuri Herrera

Yuri Herrera

Yuri Herrera by Moquijano from Wikimedia Commons

Herrera is a contemporary Mexican writer born in 1970 in Mexico. He has an academic background in political science and creative writing. He is a holder of a Ph.D. in Hispanic Language and Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

His first work was the novel Trabajos del Reino in 2004. The book won the 2004 Premio Binacional de Novela Joven prize during the same year. He also teaches at Tulane University.

Best works: Trabajos del reino (2004), Señales que precederán al fin del mundo in 2009(English: Signs Preceding the End of the World), Diez planetas in 2019 (English:Ten Planets)

Awards: 2015-The Guardian’s Best Fiction of 2015, NBC News  Ten Great Latino Books, 2016 Best Translated Book Award, all awards are for Signs Preceding the End of the World book.

13. Rosario Castellanos

Castellanos was born on 25 May 1925 in Mexico City. The poet was committed to addressing cultural and gender oppression issues in her work.

Subsequently, she paved way for women in Mexican literature, a legacy that lives on. Her creations cut across poetry, essays, a play, and several novels. She died on 7 August 1974, in Tel Aviv due to an electrical accident that some critics claim was a suicide mission.

Best works: Balún-Canán (The Nine Guardians), Oficio de tinieblas, (The Book of Lamentations), Rito de iniciación

Awards: 1958 Chiapas Award and 1960 Xavier Villaurrutia Award for Balún Canán, 1962 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award, 1967 Carlos Trouyet Award of Letters, 1972 Elías Sourasky Award of Letters, public spaces like libraries named in her honor

14. Mariano Azuela

Mariano Azuela

Mariano Azuela by Unknown Author from Wikimedia Commons

The Mexican writer was born in Jalisco, Mexico on January 1, 1873. He is saluted for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The novels he wrote before 1910 such as Maria Luisa, in 1907 were themed on fate.

After his first-hand encounter with the revolution, Azuela changed his writing to a sarcastic and disillusioned style. His first post-revolution work was Andrés Pérez, maderista in 1911. Mariano maintained the Mexican Revolution writing which he is famed for. He died on March 1, 1952.

Best works: Los fracasados (The Failures) in 1908, Mala yerba (Weeds) in 1909, Sin Amor (Without Love) in 1912, Los de abajo (The Underdogs) in 1915

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15. Don Miguel Ruiz

This Mexican author was born in Mexico on August 27, 1952. Miguel Ruiz resonates with the New Thought movement which is aimed at ancient teachings as a way to gain spiritual understanding.

1997’s The Four Agreements became a New York Times bestseller which saw Miguel earn popularity. In 2018 he was ranked among the Watkins 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. He is a surgeon by profession having completed medical school studies.

Best works: The Four Agreements in 1997, The Mastery of Love, The Voice of Knowledge, The Circle of Fire, The Four Agreements Companion Book, The Fifth Agreement

You can also take a look at Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Cesar Millan- New York Times best-selling author who has his line of dog products and instructional material. Fictional writer Cristina Rivera Garza is also a good contender for this listing of the most famous Mexican authors. Who else should we feature?

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