Recently I had the honor and pleasure of being the guest-speaker for the Book Women's Readers on the Road group that came down to Mexico City. I talked about the true story behind my forthcoming novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, about Tameme, and the anthology Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. Over the guacamole and "chanclas" vegetarianas, questions abounded, mostly about Mexican women writers, literary translation, and Mexican history, and one of the most pressing questions for these avid readers was, where to begin reading about Mexican history? My two top recommendations:
---> Mexico: Biography of Power (A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996) by Enrique Krauze
---> La Capital: The Biography of Mexico City by Jonathan Kandell.
(Alas, both by men. But I won't hold that against them!) More anon.
