Carlos' father, Rafael Fuentes Boettiger, embarked upon a long and distinguished career as a diplomat in the 1920s and served with every president of Mexico from the Revolution to the 1950s. The main action of La región más transparente transpires in the years 1951 and 1953, during the presidency of Miguel Alemán, Mexico's 58th president and the first civilian since Juárez to hold the office for a full term. Mexico was passing through a period of unprecedented change and growth. Alemán, who was known as the businessman's president, remains to this day the center of impassioned controversy, but during the fifties his dynamic personality and colossal enterprises seemed to bedazzle the multitude. Skyscrapers began dotting the skyline, the magnificent new campus of the National University rose up on a former lava bed, and North American tourists arrived in increasing...