Southern Wonderland (Post 3)

Carlos Fuentes grew up with the notion that "Mexico" was one of those places that a child hears about in a bedtime story. It was a land of fairytales, a seperate reality so far off from the present that was the United States, that his native language and history were of the least importance. What mattered to him was, at the time, was being popular; it mattered that he be accepted and seen as another person. He essentially became this, and the physical appearance difference became almost nonexistant. Everything was going just fine in his advancing world, until Lázaro Cárdenas announced the nationalization of the oil reserves. When all of Carlos' world turned against Mexico, he was grouped with them, even though that is a life he never knew. Suddenly, the realization of Mexico as an actual place, much less, a place where he was from, materialized over the course of a few months. While traveling with his father in his diplomatic duties, Carlos encounters things that would tie him back to his past, and allow him to better reconnect with his roots. In Chile, Carlos discovers how the Spanish Language, which had been lost to him for a good portion of his conformist childhood, becomes "the language of the free men." Argentina became the antithesis of his experiences in the United States (on a surface level) as conditions were very poor due, mostly, to the political unrest at the time.