Carlos Fuentes Macías, famed Mexican novelist and essayist, died on May 15. Among his works are The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), Aura (1962), The Old Gringo (1985) and Christopher Unborn (1987). In his obituary, the New York Times described him as “one of the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking world” and an important influence on the Latin American Boom, the “explosion of Latin American literature in the 1960s and ’70s”, while The Guardian called him “Mexico’s most celebrated novelist”. His many literary honors include the Miguel de Cervantes Prize as well as Mexico’s highest award, the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor. He was often named as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though he never won.
