Mexico City Reading and Viewing
Are you eager to learn more about Mexico City, its people, art, and culture? Below is a collection of titles that I’ve found from a variety of websites. The subject matter is Mexico in general and Mexico City in particular and ranges from musings on the national psyche to studies of the Aztec empire to the complicated landscape of politics and drug trafficking in the current day. Titles can be found on your favorite book-selling website and probably even through your local bookstore or library.
Fiction
Recollections of Things to Come, Elena Garro. This remarkable first novel depicts life in the small Mexican town of Ixtepec during the grim days of the Revolution. The town tells its own story against a variegated background of political change, religious persecution, and social unrest.Octavio Paz, the distinguished poet and critic and author of The Labyrinth of Solitude (see below), has written that it "is truly an extraordinnary work, one of the most perfect creations in contemporary Latin American literature."
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A chilling, atmospheric thriller set in 1950s Mexico about a young socialite who travels to a remote, creepy mansion to investigate her cousin’s mysterious illness.
The Murmur of Bees, Sofía Segovia. A historical fiction novel set in early 20th-century Northern Mexico. It blends magical realism with the backdrop of the Spanish Flu and the Mexican Revolution.
Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo. A monumental, hallucinatory classic about a man who travels to his father's hometown, only to find a ghost town inhabited by the spirits of its tragic past. It’s considered one of Latin America’s first magical realist novels.
The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, Mariano Azuela. The greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution follows the life of a young doctor, Demetrio Macías, who becomes a revolutionary leader. It explores themes of social injustice, political upheaval, and the struggles of the underprivileged during one of the most pivotal periods in Mexican history.
The Death of Artemio Cruz, Carlos Fuentes. Fuentes was a central figure in the lit boom of the 60s and 70s alongside Gabriel García Márquez and Julio Cortázar. This masterpiece, thought to be a criticism of the post-revolutionary political class, follows Artemio Cruz, a powerful politician on his deathbed reflecting on the corruption and violence that have defined his career. While Fuentes can be intimidating reading for some, this historical novel is a fairly accesible read for context on the modern political landscape of Mexico.
Non-Fiction
The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz. A brilliant nine-part essay by the Nobel laureate that deconstructs Mexican identity, history, and the psychology of its people. While to a 21st century reader some of the claims he makes strike one as essentialist and, in places, deeply sexist, nevertheless, Paz gives great insights into Mexican culture and identity.
The Devil's Highway: A True Story, Luis Alberto Urrea. A gripping and deeply researched account of a group of Mexican immigrants attempting to cross the treacherous Arizona desert, from a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It was described as "the single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy" (The Atlantic). Named a Best Book of the 21st Century by Kirkus Reviews.
Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico, Juan Villoro. A sweeping and intimate cultural portrait of Mexico City, written by one of the country's most celebrated contemporary journalists.
The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Habsburg Archduke Who Created a Kingdom in the New World, Edward Shawcross. An engaging historical account of the ill-fated Archduke Maximilian of Austria and his brief, tragic 19th-century Mexican empire.
La Capital: The Biography of Mexico City, Jonathan Kandell. If you’re interested in a more straightforward, all-encompassing history of the city, La Capital is your best bet. Though it stops in the 1980s — it was published in 1990, after all — this book covers the entire history of the city up to that point, starting with the geological conditions that formed the city in the first place. The book is on the longer side at over 600 pages, but it’s still a feat to condense so much of the city’s past into one tome.
Mexico: Biography of Power, Enrique Krauze. Written by one of the country's most respected public intellectuals, this comprehensive history of Mexico covers the pre-Columbian era to the 90s. It provides a detailed account of the country’s political, social, and cultural evolution, and how it has shaped the modern Mexican state. A great primer for anyone interested in understanding Mexico’s complex history.
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, Camilla Townsend. A history of the Aztec Empire, from its rise to its fall, through the eyes of indigenous people that provides a unique perspective on the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish, examining the events and individuals involved in this historical transformation.
The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade, Benjamin T. Smith. Exposes how an illicit industry that started with farmers, families and healers came to be dominated by cartels, kingpins and corruption. The book traces an unforgettable cast of characters from the early twentieth century to the modern day, whose actions came to influence Mexico as we now know it.
Essential Feature Films
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) (1992): Directed by Alfonso Arau and based on the novel by Laura Esquivel. It tells the story of a family whose youngest daughter channels her intense emotions into making meals that magically affext those who eat them. Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution.
Amores Perros (2000): Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, this masterpiece is a cornerstone of Mexican cinema. It weaves three distinct stories together following a horrific car crash, capturing the raw, chaotic, and unequal realities of modern life in Mexico City.
Roma (2018): Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, this visually stunning, Oscar-winning film is a love letter to the Roma neighborhood of 1970s Mexico City. It follows the life of a domestic worker for a middle-class family during a time of political and social upheaval.
Noche de Fuego (Prayers for the Stolen) (2021): Directed by Tatiana Huezo, this heartbreakingly beautiful narrative film explores the realities of growing up in a rural Mexican town affected by cartel violence, seen entirely through the eyes of young girls.
Documentaries
A Cop Movie (Una Película de Policías) (2021): This genre-bending documentary blends fact and fiction to explore the realities of systemic corruption and the day-to-day challenges within the Mexico City police force.
The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo (2020): A masterful and gripping true-crime documentary that follows a mother’s relentless pursuit of justice for the feminicide of her daughter in Mexico, highlighting systemic state failures.
Midnight Family (2019): This thrilling documentary follows the Ochoa family, who operate an underground, for-profit private ambulance service in Mexico City, navigating the chaotic and underfunded city emergency system at night.
Mexico City: 600 Years of Urban Glory (2018): Episode 6 in the “In The Americas with David Yetman” PBS series, this episode describes Ciudad de México’s rich cultural and ethnic history.
Podcasts
Radio Ambulante: Hosted by NPR, this Spanish-language podcast tells extraordinary, intimate stories from all over Latin America, with a heavy focus on daily life, politics, and culture in Mexico.
Duolingo Spanish Podcast: While targeted at learners, this podcast features beautifully produced, accessible stories told entirely in intermediate Spanish, with many episodes detailing the rich history and cultural vibrancy of Mexico City.
The Rest is History - Fall of the Aztecs Series: An 8-part historical deep dive podcast series (hosted by historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook) that is highly recommended by listeners for its brilliant and exhaustive breakdown of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
I hope you enjoy these recommendations. ¡Buena lectura y buena vision!