The Death of Artemio Cruz

The Death of Artemio Cruz
Author(s)	Carlos Fuentes
ISBN	NA

The Death of Artemio Cruz (Spanish: La muerte de Artemio Cruz) is a novel written in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes and is considered to be a contributor to the Latin American literary movement known as the Latin American "Boom".

Plot summary

Artemio Cruz—soldier, politician, journalist, tycoon, lover: all corrupt—lies on his deathbed, recalling the shaping events of his life, from the Mexican Revolution through the development of the PRI—the Party of the Institutional Revolution. His family crowds around, pressing him to reveal the location of his will; a priest provides extreme unction, angling for a deathbed confession and reconciliation with the Church (while Artemio indulges in obscene thoughts about the birth of Jesus); his private secretary has come with audiotapes of various corrupt dealings, many with gringo diplomats and speculators. Punctuating the sordid record of betrayal is Cruz's awareness of his failing body and his keen attachment to sensual life.

Seventy-one-year-old Artemio Cruz is dying. He is a very rich and powerful man, made ruthless, godless and corrupt by his hard childhood and his soldiering during the Mexican revolution during which he had cheated death several times and had done, and suffered, betrayals. After the revolution, through corrupt wheeling and dealing and use of force for self-aggrandizement he became extremely rich. He now owns vast tracks of land, companies, a newspaper and, by himself, he is a major political player.

He has a wife and a daughter whom he hates and whom he knows hate him. His wife blames him for the death of their only son who died fighting in the Spanish civil war, perhaps trying to imitate his father's (fraudulent) heroisms during the Mexican civil war but wasn't able to duplicate his survival. Artemio Cruz loved his son. He had another love: a prostitute, during the civil war, whom he had kidnapped yet learned to fall in love with him. He valued this memory of her because it was a love given to him when he was still a nobody.

It is not made clear what struck him (perhaps a stroke or cancer). Artemio Cruz hears, recalls and vaguely see images. But he's in pain, can't talk and is immobilized. The narrator is in a state of perpetual delirium, like mutterings of a brilliant poet with a soaring fever, hovering between life and death, describing glimpses of heaven and hell.

The end sees his thoughts decay into a drawn-out death.

The Death of Artemio Cruz is dedicated to great Sociologist and Humanist C. Wright Mills. "The true voice of North America and great friend in the struggle for the people in Latin America," as Carlos Fuentes writes in the foreword.

Literary significance & criticism

"...a dominating theme in his work is the search for Mexican national identity. Of his eleven novels, it is in The Death of Artemio Cruz that this mindset is expressed most strongly", says reviewer Jim Tuck.^[1]

Tuck goes on further to say,

"A grim story--but one that dramatically showcases the intensity of the author's desire to lock into the most poignant period of Mexico's history".^[1]

References

• Fuentes, Carlos (2 February 2001). La muerte de Artemio Cruz (Spanish ed.). Suma. ISBN 978-8466301961. 
• Fuentes, Carlos (May 1991). The Death of Artemio Cruz (English translation ed.). Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-0374522834. 
• Cunniffe, Kathleen. "The Fragmented Psyche of Mexico: The Narrative Structure of La Muerte de Artemio Cruz Through The Lens of Francisco González Pineda". Middle Atlantic Council for Latin American Studies. http://www.maclas.vcu.edu/journal/Vol%20XVI/cunnife.dwt. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b} Tuck, Jim (1999). "Rebel, Internationalist, Establishmentarian: The Meandering Road of Carlos Fuentes". Mexico Connect. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtcfuentes.html. Retrieved 2007-03-22. 

External links

• Carlos Fuentes discusses The Death of Artemio Cruz on the BBC World Book Club
• (Spanish)La muerte de Artemio Cruz : novela política. Lectura totalizadora o parcial?