Mexico City Reader

By Rubén Gallo

Book Overview

Mexico City is one of Latin America's cultural capitals, and one of the most vibrant urban spaces in the world. The Mexico City Reader is an anthology of "Cronicas"--short, hybrid texts that are part literary essay, part urban reportage--about life in the capital. This is not the "City of Palaces" of yesteryear, but the vibrant, chaotic, anarchic urban space of the1980s and 1990s--the city of garbage mafias, necrophiliac artists, and kitschy millionaires.
Like the visitor wandering through the city streets, the reader will be constantly surprised by the visions encountered in this mosaic of writings--a textual space brimming with life and crowded with fl?neurs, flirtatious students, Indian dancers,
food vendors, fortune tellers, political activists, and peasant protesters.
The essays included in this anthology were written by a panoply of writers, from well-known authors like Carlos Monsiv?is and Jorge Ibag?engoitia to younger figures like Fabrizio Mej?a Madrid and Juieta Garc?a Gonz?lez, all of whom are experienced practitioners of the city. The texts collected in this anthology are among the most striking examples of this concomitant "theory and practice" of Mexico City, that most delirious of megalopolises.

"[An] exciting literary journey . . ."--Carolyn Malloy, Multicultural Review

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299197107
• ISBN13: 9780299197100
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Best narrative modern history of Mexico City

Awesome book. This books paints a picture of Mexico City like no other. It's a collection of 30-some essays and reportage. Some have a historical perspective (e.g., the Metro system just after it was built), while others are very recent. This isn't a guidebook, but it will give you a better understanding of the city's underpinnings than a stack of Lonely Planets ever will. Most of the authors are Mexicans; a lot of the essays are famous in Mexico, and appearing in English for the first time. There is a level of authenticity here that is not reached by competing books (e.g., David Lida's 'First Stop in the New World' -- which is more of an American journalist's perspective on things.) The writing is exciting, artistic, and well-chosen.