Reviews

• Maravilloso libro

  Un gran libro y para extranjeros conocer a Mexico es de gran utilidad

• Most Insightful Book Ever!

  I've always wanted to read about my own culture, and having moved overseas I've wanted to return to some Mexicanese of some sorts, and this has definitely allowed me to reflect on the culture I was born into and at the same time question a lot of my current beliefs.

• Great book

  Work of art

• ''Desire to return to chaos rises incessantly. There is much to defend, and the faithful are much needed.'' (26)

  ''The captive Elements and the ancient Laws of the Earth break loose Like maddened horses. And then a desire to return To chaos rises incessantly. There is much To defend, and the faithful are much needed.'' - Hölderlin (26) Laws need 'faithful defenders'. Chaos does not. ''The faithful are much needed because there is ''much to defend''. . . . But exile, expiation and penitence should proceed from the reconciliation of man with the Universe. Neither the Mexican nor the North American has achieved this reconciliation.'' (26) Paz is here expressing religio/philosophical ideas. These are not ecomonic/political concerns. Takes some adjusting. Great! ''What is even more serious, I am afraid we have lost our sense of the very meaning of all human activity, which is to assure the operation of an order in which knowledge and innocence, man and nature are in harmony. If the solitude of the Mexican is like a stagnant pool, that of the North American is like a mirror.'' (27) Mirror only reflects what is already there. Can't give anything more. Paz consistently provides comparison; Mexican/American, etc.,etc.. Effective teaching method. ''We have ceased to be springs of living water.'' (27) (Probably Biblical reference to Jeremiah's warning to apostate Jews . . . ‘Because my people have done two bad things: They have abandoned me, the source of living water, And dug for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns, that cannot hold water.’) Paz received Nobel prize for this work. Comes from deep within his soul. Heartfelt, insightful, torn from anguish and love. Astounding! Chapters - The Pachuco and other extremes Mexican Masks The Day of the Dead The Sons of La Malinche The conquest and Colonialism From independence to the revolution The Mexican Intelligentsia The present day The Dialectic of Solitude Paz starts with a psychological/philosophical explanation of the Mexican mind. For example . . . ''Past epochs never vanish completely, and blood drips from all their wounds, even the most ancient. Sometimes the most remote or hostile beliefs and feelings are found together in one city or one soul, or are superimposed like those pre-Cortesian pyramids that always conceal others.'' (12) Paz then adds a fascinating footnote . . . ''In our history there are many examples of this superimposition: the neofeudalism of the Porfirio Díaz regime, using positivism to justify itself historicaly; Antonio Caso and José Vasconcelos, the intellectual initiators of the revolution, using the ideas of Boutroux and Bergson to combat positivism; socialist education in a country at least incipiently capitalist. These apparent contradictions all demand a new examination of our history and also our culture.'' (12) Think of the breadth of reading and depth of insight revealed in this paragraph! This work includes the essay - ''Mexico and the United States''. . . ''In 1917 the October revolution in Russia kindled the hopes of millions' in 1979, the word ''gulag'' has become synonymous with Soviet socialism. The founders of the socialist movement firmly believed would put an end not only to the exploitation of men but to war' in the second half of the twentieth century, totalitarian ''socialism'' have enslaved the working class by stripping it of its basic rights. . . . The ideological wars of the twentieth century are no less ferocious than the wars of religion of the seventeenth century.'' (374) Many scholars have now made the same connection. ''When I was young, the idea that we were witnessing the final crisis of capitalism was fashionable among intellectuals. Now we understand that the crisis is not of a socioeconomic system but that of our whole civilization.'' (374) ‘Crisis of civilization’! Who can doubt it? ''The sickness of the west is moral rather than social and economic. . . . But the real, most profound discord lies in the soul. The future has become the realm of horror, and the present has turned into a desert.'' (374) ‘Moral sickness’! Why? ''The empty place left by Christianity in the modern soul is filled not by philosophy but by the crudest superstitions.'' (375) What ‘crude superstitions’? Well . . . nationalism, racism, materialism, scientism; i.e. - ‘worship of abstract nouns’. This edition has no bibliography or index. (See also, ''Portrait of Mexico'', by Diego Rivera/Bertram Wolfe; ''The Revolt of the Masses'' by Jóse Ortega y Gasset. Fascinating!)

• Transformative and enjoyable

  An interesting read, if a bit reductive and over-negative about the Mexican identity. A professor of mine criticized some Mexican schools' decision to have high school students read it--he thinks they are too young and will internalize negativity and become desolate of their heritage/history. Even still, I found this book extremely transformative and enjoyable. I bought a copy in the original Spanish for my father.

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