Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juan Rulfo’s Mexico | 1984 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 2 | The Buried Mirror | 1992 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 3 | A New Time for Mexico | 1994 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 4 | The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait | 1995 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 5 | Voluptuario | 1996 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 6 | Territories of Time | 2003 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 7 | This I Believe | 2004 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 8 | Fragile Demon: Juan Soriano in Mexico, 1935 to 1950 | 2008 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
| 9 | Frida Kahlo: National Homage 1907-2007 | 2008 | Carlos Fuentes | Buy |
Carlos Fuentes’s non-fiction writings cover a wide range of subjects connected to Mexican and Latin American culture. The Buried Mirror (1992), originally a companion to a BBC television series, traces the history of Hispanic civilization from pre-Columbian times through the modern era. A New Time for Mexico (1994) collects his political essays on Mexican society and governance.
Several of these works focus on visual art and individual artists. Juan Rulfo’s Mexico (1984) pairs Fuentes’s prose with photographs by the author of Pedro Paramo, while his writings on Frida Kahlo and Juan Soriano examine the lives of two of Mexico’s most important visual artists. This I Believe (2004) offers a more personal collection of essays on Fuentes’s own beliefs and experiences. Together, these non-fiction works give readers a sense of the intellectual range that informed his novels.