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Where the Air Is Clear | Introduction

The publication of Carlos Fuentes's debut novel in 1958 created much controversy with its critical and loosely Marxist look at the social strata and history of Mexico City. Where the Air Is Clear deals with the issues of Mexican identity and need for self-knowledge, and paints a society torn between its ancient mythology and the contemporary modernity, severely shattered on social, political, economic, and spiritual levels. The novel, often called one of the primary works of the magic realism tradition, also established Fuentes as Mexico's leading contemporary novelist and one of the founders of "El Boom'' in Latin American literature.

The thorough blend of myth, history, and modernity in the novel, as in Fuentes's other works, signifies the author's search for the viable identity of his country which would encompass its ancient roots as well as its present society. The characters of Where the Air Is Clear present diverse personal experiences as affected by the Mexican Revolution of 1910. From Ixca Cienfuegos, a mysterious embodiment of the Aztec war god, to Federico Robles, a revolutionary turned business tycoon who rejects his Indian heritage, Fuentes examines Mexican history and society through his characters whose names and individual memories comprise the novel's chapters. Vacillating perspectives and montage-like sections compose Fuentes's experimental narrative style, giving it a surreal tone and enabling him to present the vast and self-contrasting spectrum of personal memoirs and lifestyles in Mexico City. The fragmentary nature of his fiction reflects the author's vision of his country; Fuentes told John P. Dwyer in an interview, ‘‘our political life is fragmented, our history shot through with failure, but our cultural tradition is rich, and I think the time is coming when we will have to look at our faces, our own past.’’

Where the Air Is Clear Summary

Ixca and Gladys Garcia
Through a collection of character sketches in Mexico City, Fuentes shows the dynamism of post-revolutionary Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s as it tries to sort itself out. The characters can be seen as deities struggling for control of Mexico. The figure tying them all together, Ixca Cienfuegos, discounts the present and future to believe in the past. He is in fact a doorway for the reemergence of the Aztec gods who want revenge for their overthrow by the Spaniards. In keeping with Aztec mythology, Ixca needs a blood sacrifice to bring about a return to the past and an overthrow of the new gods, the jet set. Ironically, the other figure looming throughout the novel is Gladys Garcia, a verifiable descendant of the Aztecs, a prostitute whom Ixca, in all his wanderings, never meets. But Ixca wanders through the jet-set class and the lower classes as he tries to find a suitable sacrifice.

Navel of the Moon
The jet set gathers at Bobo's party for a night of fun; intellectuals, artists, ambitious beauties, tycoons, old aristocracy and the nouveau riches (‘‘newly rich’’) mingle and exchange social favors at the event. As aged bon vivants seduce novices and well-dressed women exchange "class for cash'' at Bobo's, in the city's poor neighborhoods a cab-driver takes his family to dinner because he gambled on a horse race and won, and an illegal immigrant worker returns from California with gifts his family can't use because they don't have electricity. At the party, Norma breaks Rodrigo's heart, while her husband Federico ‘‘takes care’’ of Librato, an associate injured at work, in an example of business cruelty. Other characters are introduced in respective loneliness: Federico's mistress Hortensia, Rodrigo's mother Rosenda, and the cabdriver's wife Rosa—whose husband dies in a car crash after their dinner. Ixca scans the party with disgust, noting the social role-playing that all engage in, because everybody needs favors to maintain their own social status. The morning after the party, Ixca visits his friend Rodrigo who is considering suicide and views the decadence of the de Ovandos family.

Ixca Shows the Lower Class
Federico Robles tells Ixca about his childhood memories of hardship in rural Mexico, his apprenticeship with the local priest and expulsion when he got involved with his niece, his experiences of fighting in the revolution, and the transition afterward described in terms of progress. Federico becomes a wealthy and powerful banker in the corrupt new economy.

Norma Larragoiti recalls her poor background, her... » Complete Where the Air Is Clear Summary