Suggested Reading for Mexico
Are you planning to attend the IFUW Triennial Conference in Mexico City in 2010? Having lived there from 1959-1961 and visited it a couple of times since, I have maintained a lively interest in our neighbor to the south. Here is a list of books on Mexico available in English that I have found useful and/or entertaining. I hope you will find some good reading among them.
–Bonnie Lincoln
GENERAL BACKGROUND
Two useful documents can be found on the Department of State’s web site:
The Background Notes are a brief sketch of basic information on Mexico.
The Library of Congress country study is a book-length analysis of the history, politics, economics, culture, etc., of Mexico.
To access, go to www.state.gov. Look under the quick links for the A-Z country pages and click on Mexico.
Hoyer, Daniel, Culinary Mexico: Authentic Recipes and Traditions
Penland, Paige R., Oaxaca: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide (Paperback)
SPIRITUAL
Jaffe, Matthew (Author), Haden, Judith Cooper (Photographer), Oaxaca: The Spirit of Mexico
Sievert, April Kay, Maya Ceremonial Specialization: Lithic Tools from the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, Yucatan (Monographs in World Archaeology, No. 12)
Starr, Mirabai, Our Lady of Guadalupe (Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom) -Illustrated
HISTORY AND POLITICS
Day, Nancy, Your Travel Guide to Ancient Mayan Civilization
Day, Nancy, Passport to History
Diaz, Gisele and Rodgers, Alan, The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript
Headrick, Annabeth, The Teotihuacan Trinity: The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City (William and Bettye Nowlin Series)
Merrim, Stephanie, Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Ines De LA Cruz
Olsen, Patrice Elizabeth, Artifacts of Revolution: Architecture, Society, and Politics in Mexico City, 1920-1940 (Latin American Silhouettes)
Reck, Gregory G., In the Shadow of Tlaloc Life in a Mexico
Sodi, Demetrio, Tulum: The Mayas: History and Art (Panorama Guidebooks, English Edition)
ARCHAELOGY AND ART
Colle, Marie-Pierre, Urquiza, Ignacio, and Winkelmann, Maki, Houses of Puebla: The Cradle of Mexican Architecture
Denver Art Museum, Painting a New World: Mexican Art and Life, 1521-1821
Herrera, Hayden, Zamudio-Taylor, Victor Carpenter, Elizabeth and Halbreich, Kathy, Frida Kahlo
Herrera, Hayden, Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
Herrera, Hayden, Frida Kahlo: The Paintings
Ines de la Cruz, Sor, Peden, Margaret Sayers and Stavans, Ilan, Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)
Kaplan, Professor Flora S. B.A. M.A. Ph.D, A Mexican Folk Pottery Tradition: Cognition and Style in Material Culture in the Valley of Puebla
Kettenmann, Andrea, Diego Rivera, 1886-1957: A Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art (Taschen Basic Art)
Lozano, Luis Martin and Rivera, Juan Coronel, Diego Rivera, The Complete Murals
Michel de Guerrero, Joanne E., Is there Pre-Columbian Writing at Teotihuacan?
Miller, Arthur Painting of Teotihuacan
Nicholson, La, H. B. Mixteca-Puebla: Discoveries and Research in Mesoamerican Art and Archaeology, International Congress of Americanists (47th: 1991 : New Orleans, Eloise Quinones Keber, and Eloise Quinones Keber
Noel, Bernard, Mexican Art: II – Teotihuacan - Tajin, Monte Alban (89)
Seler, Eduard, Bowditch, Charles, P., Mexican And Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems And History
Solis, Felipe, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
Weigle, Marta, Parsons, Jack, and Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Spanish New Mexico: The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Collection
Vergara, Miguel Angel and Guemez, Vicente Martin, Chichen Itza: Astronomical Light and Shadow Phenomena of the Great Pyramid
Coe, Michael and Rex Koontz, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. A well-illustrated survey of Mexico’s ancient civilizations by two distinguished archaeologists who have worked in the country for many years. It doesn’t include the Maya, on which Dr. Coe has written a separate book entitled simply, The Maya.
Herrera, Hayden, Frida. An excellent biography of Mexico’s most famous woman artist, Frida Kahlo. The wife of the muralist Diego Rivera, Frida’s story and her art are interesting in their own right. A film biography based on the book, starring Selma Hayek, is available on DVD.
Lucie-Smith, Edward, Latin American Art of the 20th Century. See especially chapter 3 (Mexican Muralism) and Chapter 6 (Mexico: Four Women and One Man). During the 1920s and 30s, Mexico saw an extraordinary flowering of revolutionary mural art led by artists such as Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco which still influences Latin American art today. This book dips just a toe into these sometimes turbulent waters.
Miller, Mary Ellen, The Art of Mesoamerica, from Olmec to Aztec. An art historian’s view of the legacy of the region’s ancient cultures.
Sabloff, Jeremy A., The Cities of Ancient Mexico: Reconstructing a Lost World. An interesting attempt to recreate the daily lives of the people who lived in Mexico’s great pre-Columbian cities.
HISTORY AND POLITICS
Aguilar Camin, Hector and Lorenzo Meyer, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revoluntion. Modern Mexican history from the perspective of two distinguished Mexican writers.
Calderon de la Barca, Frances, Life in Mexico. The British/American wife of the Spanish Ambassador to Mexico from 1839-1842, Calderon de la Barca’s sharp-eyed account of Mexico in the 19th century is a classic; as Preston and Dillon argue, Mexico’s past is its present, and much of what she writes is timely today.
Preston, Julia and Samuel Dillon, Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy. This husband and wife team, both reporters for the New York Times, recount Mexico’s recent history, especially the origins and events of the first truly democratic election in 2000 which broke the stranglehold of the one-party system which (mis?)governed the country for most of the 20th century. If you only read one book on Mexican history and politics, I suggest this one!
FICTION
Esquivel, Laura: Like Water for Chocolate. A movie based on this novel, made in 1993, received great critical acclaim; the novel itself is a story of family life in Mexico wrapped around recipes for Mexican food.
Fuentes, Carlos: any of his novels, but especially Where the Air is Clear and The Death of Artemio Cruz. He writes with a critical eye of the problems of modern Mexico.
Greene, Graham: The Power and the Glory. Set in the wake of the 1926 banning of the Catholic church by Mexico’s revolutionary government, this is one of Greene’s “Catholic” novels which examines the meaning of religion from the point of view of the persecuted.
Hamilton, Lyn: The Xibalba Murders. Ms. Hamilton has written a series of archaeological mysteries which show evidence that she has done her homework; this one is set in the Yucatan. Good airplane reading for mystery lovers.
Lawrence, D. H: The Plumed Serpent. A 40-year old widow travels to Mexico and falls passionately in love with its ancient culture and a Mexican who wants to restore the old gods. A classic by a great writer.