In contrast to many Mexican writers of the early part of this century, Carlos Fuentes did not grow up nor spend any appreciable time in the rural countryside. Those authors, most of whom were eventually drawn to the city (Azuela, Yáñez, Rulfo), had rural experiences from their childhood and youth to draw upon. Others (Martín Luis Guzmán) would live in the interior during the emotion-filled years of the Revolution and would often return to this unique occurrence in their fiction.

Not so with Fuentes, who in fact seldom resided in Mexico. By the time he was a teenager, he had spent more time in the United States than in any Latin country. At this crucial period of his life Fuentes was almost to the point of losing his native language, thus motivating his parents to send him to summer school...