by Elena Poniatowska

Elena Poniatowska Amor was born in Paris, France, in 1932, the daughter of Paulette Amor Iturbe, an aristocratic Mexican nationalist, and Jean Evremont Poniatowski Sperry, a French citizen of royal Polish ancestry, descended from King Stanislaus II, the last king of Poland. Elena and her younger sister were raised in France, where they began their primary education. In 1942 their mother took her children to Mexico, where Poniatowska has lived ever since. She began her literary career as a journalist for the Mexican daily Excelsior. After a year she joined the newspaper Novedades, where she continued writing about social and cultural events, and honed her skills at what would become her preferred genre: the interview. Poniatowska first achieved literary renown with the publication in 1969 of Hasta no verte Jesús Mío (Until We Meet Again), a testimonial novel based on the life...