The Buried Mirror (1992)

This is a wonderful, lavishly illustrated, look at the relationships, historical, cultural, artistic, etc, between Spain and Latin America; other influences are not forgotten, but are secondary. It begins with a history of Spain and the Iberian Peninsula prior to the Roman Empire. (The Basques may be annoyed that they are omitted from the lists of peoples.) He recounts the history up to founding of the Latin American colonies, which gradually take over center stage. The history is not comprehensive for all the nations, but rather considers the the continent as a whole; there is perhaps a certain tendency to emphasize his native Mexico. Coming up to the twentieth century, Fuentes has a chapter on the relationship of the Latin nations and the United States, especially the emigration of illegal aliens. I had to laugh a little in this chapter, at his characterization of the United States as a homogeneous society prior to the great Latin immigrations of this era. Even if one discounted the Hispanic populations incorporated as the United States expanded, this seems like a curious statement. It seems to me that any group of people appears far more monolithic to outsiders than they do to themselves, but I am surprised to read this from Fuentes. His plea for the acceptance of the would-be immigrants could have been written yesterday. In all, a very worthwhile book. ( )