Written in part in the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, The Death of Artemio Cruz expresses Carlos Fuentes' disappointment in the revolution in his own country which changed nothing as far as the average Mexican was concerned. Desperately poor before the conflict, he was equally impoverished and repressed in the decades following the end of fighting. A change of oppressors took place in which ruthless opportunists practiced the same methods that the Revolution was supposed to end.

Artemio Cruz, originally from the very lowest strata of Mexican society, simultaneously proclaims the glories of the Revolution in the newspapers he controls and betrays its principles in his business practices. The common people of the country seem doomed to a misery which political upheavals never alter.