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| Juan Rulfo Pedro Pramo
Carlos Fuentes Old Gringo
Octavio Paz an essay tba |
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Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone." - Octavio Paz
The Yucatan Peninsula is home to North America's largest indigenous Indian population, the Mayans, who still speak their own language in addition to Spanish. For centuries, the people living in the Yucatan were isolated from the rest of Mexico. Set in-between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico the Yucatan Peninsula is a symbol of ambivalence, difference and ambiguity. The mix of the Mayan with traditional Mexican and Spanish influence has created a culture unique to this part of the world. We will explore this proud and unique land, a fusion of rich civilizations, through guided and independent excursions, and in-depth discussions of some of its most creative literature by Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, and Octavio Paz.
Juan Rulfo (1918-1986) is considered to be one of Mexicos and Spanish America's most esteemed authors. Rulfo's reputation is based on two slim books, El llano en llamas (1953, The Burning Plain), a collection of short stories, and the novel Pedro Pramo (1955), one of the models for Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. After publishing the work, Rulfo fell silent as a novelist. He is considered to be one of the fathers of the Latin American boom.
Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was a Nobel Prize winning poet, novelist and essayist. The essays included in The Labyrinth of Solitude concern themselves with Mexican solitariness and quest for identity and are considered some of the finest he ever wrote.
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