Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes dies
The late Carlos Fuentes. — AFP picMEXICO CITY, May 16 — Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, one of the Spanish-speaking world's best known novelists, died here Tuesday, President Felipe Calderon said.
He was 83.
"I profoundly regret the death of our dear and admired Carlos Fuentes, writer and universal Mexican. May he rest in peace," Calderon said on his Twitter account.
Local media said he had passed away in a hospital in the south of the Mexican capital as a result of heart problems. Calls to the family home were not immediately answered.
Fuentes, the son of a diplomat who grew up surrounded by books, published his first collection of short stories, "Masked Days," under the guidance of his father Rafael.
With his 1958 "The most transparent region," a portrayal of Mexico City experiencing explosive growth, the then 30-year-old author achieved international renown.
He followed up with "Good Consciences" (1959), "Aura" (1962) and then "The Death of Artemio Cruz" (1967), which won both critical and public acclaim and became his best known work.
He later would win several prestigious literary prizes.
A leading figure in the 1960s Latin American boom in Spanish-language literature, Fuentes managed to befriend both Colombian leftist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Peruvian conservative Mario Vargas Llosa, taking time to criticise both the harsh side of capitalism and the tough realities of communism. — AFP-Relaxnews
