Mexican author Carlos Fuentes dead at 83

BBC News 15 May, 2012

Fuentes' works gave an insight into Mexican identity

The Mexican author Carlos Fuentes has died aged 83.

Fuentes was one of the most prolific Latin American writers known equally for his fiction and his essays on politics and culture.
His most famous works were The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo.
He was associated with the Latin American Boom - a literary movement made up of mainly young authors whose politically critical works broke with established traditions.

Carlos Fuentes, Legendary Mexican Writer, Dies - NPR - May 15, 2012

by Eyder Peralta

Alfredo Estrella /AFP/Getty ImagesMexican writer Carlos Fuentes takes part in a tribute to Mexican writer and anthropologist Fernando Benitez in December 2011.

Carlos Fuentes, one of the most prolific and best known Spanish-language authors, has died. His death was reported on Twitter by Mexican president Felipe Calderon. The Mexican daily Reforma, which Fuentes often wrote for, reports the author died after experiencing heart problems.
He was 83.
"I am profoundly sorry for the death our loved and admired Carlos Fuentes, writer and universal Mexican. Rest in peace," Calderon wrote on Twitter.
El País, the Spanish newspaper that carried some of his essays, confirmed his death.
El Universal spoke to Consuelo Saizar, director of the National Council for Culture and Arts, who said Fuentes possesed a "great literary body of work."
"He was a vital man like his prose," Saizar said. "And dies without his very much deserved Nobel prize."
In the United States, Fuentes is best known for his novel Gringo Viejo, or The Old Gringo, which was made into a film in 1989 starring Gregory Peck.
Among his major literary awards was the Cervantes Prize in 1987.
More at NPR.