Mexico
Fifth Sun - Camilla Townsend
In November 1519, Hernando Cortés walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story - and the story of what happened afterwards - has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards. After all, we have been taught, it was the Europeans who held the pens. But the Native Americans were intrigued by the Roman alphabet and, unbeknownst to the newcomers, they used it to write detailed histories in their own language of Nahuatl. Until recently, these sources remained obscure, only partially translated, and rarely consulted by scholars. For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves.
The Labyrinth of Solitude - Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz has long been acknowledged as Mexico's foremost writer and critic. In this international classic, Paz has written one of the most enduring and powerful works ever created on Mexico and its people, character, and culture. Compared to Ortega y Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses for its trenchant analysis, this collection contains his most famous work, The Labyrinth of Solitude, a beautifully written and deeply felt discourse on Mexico's quest for identity that gives us an unequaled look at the country hidden behind "the mask."
Conquistador - Buddy Levy
In this astonishing work of scholarship that reads like an edge-of-your-seat adventure thriller, acclaimed historian Buddy Levy records the last days of the Aztec empire and the two men, Hernán Cortés and Montezuma, at the centre of an epic clash of cultures perhaps unequaled to this day. The story of a lost kingdom, a relentless conqueror and a doomed warrior, Conquistador is history at its most riveting.
Frida Kahlo's Love Letters - Suzanne Barbezat
‘I don’t know how to write love letters. But I wanted to tell you that my whole being opened for you. Since I fell in love with you everything is transformed and is full of beauty . . . love is like an aroma, like a current, like rain’. Since her death Frida Kahlo has become an iconic cultural figure, renowned for her expressive, highly personal paintings. Her art drew on her often tumultuous private life and while painting was her main form of creative expression, she was also a prolific and moving letter writer. Though married to fellow artist Diego Rivera for most of her life, they both had numerous affairs, and Frida wrote frequently to her lovers. This book includes a selection of her letters, some of which were also decorated with small drawings.
Mexico: The Passenger - Europa Editions
The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, and reportage from around the world. Its aim, to break down barriers and introduce the essence of a place. Packed with essays and investigative journalism; original photography and illustrations; charts, and unusual facts and observations, each volume offers a unique insight into a different culture, and how history has shaped it into what it is today. Mexico: once synonymous with escape and freedom, better known nowadays for widespread violence, narco-traffic and migration. Sea, beaches, ancient ruins, tequila: under the patina of mass tourism there's a complex, neurotic country trying to carve out a place for itself in the shadow of its hulky neighbour.