The Old Gringo (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Carlos Fuentes
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1913-1914
- Setting: Chihuahua, Mexico
- Principal Characters: Harriet Winslow, Ambrose Bierce, General Tomás Arroyo, Pancho Villa
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Revolutionaries, Sex or sexuality, Authors or writers, Revolutions, 1910’s, Mexico or Mexicans, Soldiers, Machismo, Latin America or Latin Americans
- Locales: Mexico, Chihuahua, Mexico
The Novel
The Old Gringo is a novel fashioned as a tribute by one writer to the memory and courage of another, the cynical American journalist and storyteller Ambrose Bierce; the book offers a fictive speculation about Bierce’s mysterious disappearance in Mexico in 1913 during the civil war. Carlos Fuentes imagines that Bierce, at first referred to only as the “old gringo,” went to Mexico seeking Pancho Villa. His motives for going are ambiguous. He is seeking a new frontier and the adventure of fighting for the revolution, but what he seems to be seeking most is a...
[The entire page is 2811 words long]
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