mexico is about bright colors and living life to the fullest, sometimes with anger, sometimes with laughter, but never in between. five best books to read before traveling to mexico.
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1
jack kerouac’s ‘mexico city blues’
jack kerouac spent a few weeks in mexico in 1955. it was there and then, when he was in direct contact with the heartbeat of the city, that he wrote, or composed, most of the ‘mexico city blues’ . as its name indicates, it is a musical book. a collection of poems, ‘mexico city blues’ consists of 262 stanzas whose rhythms are inspired by the fashionable music of the time: jazz and bebop. is a 20th-century ode to the energy of an extraordinary city.
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2
‘under the volcano’ by malcolm lowry
british author malcolm lowry traveled the world, and the largely autobiographical work ‘under the volcano’ was conceived in mexico. In fact, the history of the book is as chaotic as that of its author: it was in Mexico, in 1936, that Lowry wrote the first version, but it was rejected by publishers. the second version was lost in a bar and the third in a house fire. it was not until 1947 that the fourth version was finally (and successfully) released. In 600 pages, ‘Under the Volcano’ chronicles 24 hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin, a melancholy alcoholic who drags the woman he loves with him. All of this happens under the watchful eye of Popocatepetl, an 18,000-foot-high volcano in central Mexico. it is a dark thriller.
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3
‘frida kahlo’ by frida kahlo
multiple biographies have been written about the Mexican painter; some are more general, while others focus on the turbulent relationship between frida and diego riveira. Here, through his letters, Frida paints a literary self-portrait to sit alongside the many portraits he conceived. he writes about painting, his complicated relationship with the surrealists, his illness and his love, all in his own language, which ranges from profanity to poetry and vice versa. While you’re in Mexico, complete your reading by visiting Frida Kahlo’s Blue House in Mexico City, where you can enter his universe and almost feel her laugh and suffer by your side.
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4
‘the conquest of mexico’ by hernán cortés
Go back a few more centuries with another book of letters: the letters that the most famous of conquerors sent to their King Charles V. The conquest began on February 10, 1519, when, a quarter of a century after Columbus’ voyage, Hernán Cortes sailed from Havana to the Mexican coast in command of a fleet of ships. there began the conquest of the continent. the rapid conquest -and the systematic ethnocide- was carried out in barely two years. Through reports to the monarch, the bloody conquerors revealed their fascination with the mighty Aztec empire.
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5
‘five soles’
go back in time and let the Aztecs speak for themselves. ‘five suns’ is a text in Nahuatl that explains the creation myths of the Aztecs. The story goes that before the time of the Aztecs the world had already been destroyed four times. For their fifth attempt to be successful, the gods accompanied the fifth sun, that of the Aztec era, with the creation of men, who in turn had to maintain the cosmic balance, assisted by ritual sacrifices. if you want to follow their pilgrimages, the aztecs left behind the island of aztlán, a ‘place of whiteness’, which is generally considered a purely mythical place, but which some researchers believe is janitzio island in the middle of the magnificent patzcuaro lake, or perhaps mexcaltitan, the ‘mexican venice’ in the coastal lagoon of the san pedro river. Next, go in search of the scattered ruins of Tenochtitlan, the great Aztec capital destroyed by Cortes to build Mexico City. builders digging in the city continue to find artifacts to this day.
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