June 1992
Carlos Fuentes searches for
Spain's cultural past
in 'The Buried Mirror'
Interview by Julie Braun Kessler
Even in open collar and jeans, Carlos Fuentes appears a dapper figure, his dark eyes the more expressive as his hair and mustache go gray. The eminent Mexican novelist has recently stepped into what is for him a whole new world -- that of nonfiction. He's touring the continent, discussing his new work, The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World (Houghton Mifflin, $35). Having also written the television series to accompany it, the writer has set out on a passionate search for his own heritage.
Fuentes remembers -- in truth is unable to forget -- that back in the 1960s, when Sir Kenneth Clark presented us with his renowned TV program Civilization, the great art historian traveled to many continents, sought out ancient cultures, yet omitted any mention of the flourishing Spanish world that, Fuentes feels, created him and all his many and varied Latin American peoples.
"You understand," says the novelist, "that Sir Kenneth left us out altogether, because it seems Spain and Spanish America were involved more with repression and intolerance than with enlightenment and civilization. Whatever the justice of such a historical point of view may be, it would seem high time to redress the balance."
Fuentes is willing enough to concede that there was a great gap between "the very good-natured aboriginal peoples found in the Caribbean" and the "subsequent empires based upon oppression, human sacrifice, brutal uses of power by their Spanish conquerors." Still, he must remind us as well that "Nobody has a monopoly on good and evil. We seem to have forgotten," he protests, "that we are tragic beings, that we can make terrible mistakes. If you think about it, since the 18th century, the West has been so enamored of progress and perfectibility that it was not prepared for the horrors of the 20th century, for Auschwitz, for the Gulag, and for the violence which every single nation in the world without exception has shown itself capable of inflicting on other nations!"
The author has determined that he himself would seek out and celebrate the rich contributions of the Hispanic culture despite its violent past; he would travel through not only his own continent, but visit his neighbors to the north and east. Thus, when he was approached by the BBC's Michael Gill, the producer responsible for Sir Kenneth Clark's series, Fuentes was immediately challenged.
"Culture is, after all, the product of many races and many traditions. Its vitality must be sought everywhere. We are all descendants of Greeks and Romans, Arabs and Jews -- all of whom created the face of Spain. We of the New World must examine those roots to discover who we are today."
The result of his far-ranging search is The Buried Mirror, a beautiful volume, grandly illustrated and printed on glossy paper. It might at first be taken for a coffee-table book: nice to look at, but not really to read or study. That would be a pity. Fuentes's text is thoroughly innovative and engrossing from cover to cover. It is filled with insight about historical events, imaginative interpretations of art, and a fascinating theory about the role artists have played in the various repressive societies of each period. It details as well the daily life common to the era of the explorations of the New World.
We learn, for example, of early Roman observations regarding the character of the Spanish population, a "tough and sober but honorable people, the Iberians," says Fuentes, "yet so individual, so unorganized they could never band together to repel an enemy, and thus, in effect, conquerable by the Roman legions." We learn too of the symbolic significance of bullfighting, its ritual importance, and its early heroes, great figures like Pedro Romero, whose portrait was painted by Goya, and who, though the slayer of 5,558 bulls, was never gored and died at the age of 80 without a scar on his body. Romero started modern bullfighting at Ronda and was influential in the establishment, back in the 18th century, of the strict rules of the sport, rules subsequently applicable from Madrid to Lima, Caracas and Mexico City even today.
The author examines as well the erotic aspects of bullfighting, pointing to the exhibitionism that is so much a part of the traditional costume, with its tight-fitting trousers emphasizing genitals and buttocks. He describes the initiations of young contenders, who are encouraged to wade across a river naked and enter the bullpens in the middle of the night, a dangerous sensual exercise designed to bolster their courage in the presence of the huge animals. And there is more in Fuentes's lively exposition, all sorts of insightful discussion on other importations, such as the cult of the Virgin, for example, or the flamenco dancer as temptress.
Above all, however, Fuentes is much concerned with continuity, what we can take from each period to understand ourselves. Like the "buried mirror" of his title, and like those mirrors found both in the Mediterranean and in the tombs of ancient American Indians, ostensibly placed there to guide the dead through the underworld, he wants his journey through the past to be a guide for us in finding our image and identity in the present.
He is thinking of tomorrow, too. As he concludes: "We of the Americas have a special role to play in the 21st century because we are unique human beings who have descended from a great many heritages. All of them are combined in each of us."
Julia Braun Kessler writes on the arts for many magazines, among them World & I, Family Circle, and Travel & Leisure.
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