Carlos Fuentes’ Smile

Carlos Fuentes grinning On top of El Angel, on top of the Monumento a la Revolucion, on top of the Catedral, Carlos Fuentes was always on top. When he was young, he was afraid of height even in June 1959, atthetime ofthe Cubanrevolution, in the same plane as General Cardenas, he asked Do you echo it is going to fall? We are already flying high. Since he was child, he was destined to be on top. He had just published Where the Air Is Clear, which caused rumpus in Mexico City.Back then, all the writers wrote sad stories. The sad Revolution with its useless massacre, the sad province in which the guava paste was cooked slowly in a perol, as Agustin Yanez wrote the sad leaders shadow and of all who had do the Revolution and now, in a luxurious office, they ignored the slow but steady push of their tummy. At this point, Fuentes made burst, he changed our small world as the Paricutin would have made and he reminded us that we had guts. He always has it.With an ambitious, audacious, agi le, and elegant step, he was on the stage in one jump. He always was in a hurry, he always plucked up courage. The word always seemstodo pretty wellto Fuentes and so we can tell to Silvia and Cecilia, in order and with a loud and strong voice, that Fuentes will always live wherever his books are, he will be always with us and that that arent words of encouragement, they are a reality. I see him in the distance, standing I see him here, beside me, he smiled.His smile was the smile of his father, don Rafael Fuentes, that following the publicationof Where the Air Is Clear he said Now Im the father of Carlos Fuentes. All surrender by the raindrops of Jalapa, that city where the grass grows up among the rocks Fuentes was from Veracruz from head to toe, from Veracruz with its table-glass full of cafe con leche from the Cafe de la Parroquia that the waiters filled and refilled at the sound of the spoon, ding, ding, ding, like in a Cri-Cris song1, as ifwewereallchild without the Original s in.Fuentes was kind of like that, he had an inner childthat was likethe apple ofhis eyes, his eyes shone, within his eyes on that point was his vigor, his excitement, his desire of embrace everything, his love for Mexico. His eyes cast sparks because Fuentes was a seducer, but as Angeles Mastretta said, a trustful seducer. 1 Mexican composer and performer of childrens songs, best known under the name ofCri-Cri El Grillito Cantor.