The Death of Artemio Cruz (Spanish: La muerte de Artemio Cruz, pronounced[aɾˈtemjoˈkɾus]) is an historical fiction novel published in 1962 by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. An English translation by Sam Hileman was published in 1964, and a new translation by Alfred MacAdam in 1991. It is considered to be a milestone in the Latin American Boom.
Artemio Cruz, a corrupt soldier, politician, journalist, tycoon, and lover, lies on his deathbed, recalling the shaping events of his life, from the Mexican Revolution through the development of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. His family crowds around, pressing him to reveal the location of his will; a priest provides extreme unction, angling for a deathbed confession and reconciliation with the Church (while Artemio indulges in obscene thoughts about the birth of Jesus); his private secretary has come with audiotapes of various corrupt dealings, many with gringo diplomats and speculators. Punctuating the sordid record of betrayal is Cruz's awareness of his failing body and his keen attachment to sensual life. Finally his thoughts decay into a drawn-out death.
The Death of Artemio Cruz is today "widely regarded as a seminal work of modern Spanish American literature".[1] Like many of Fuentes' works, the novel used rotating narrators, a technique critic Karen Hardy described as demonstrating "the complexities of a human or national personality".[2] The novel is heavily influenced by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, and attempts literary parallels to Welles' techniques, including close-up, cross-cutting, deep focus, and flashback.[1] Like Kane, the novel begins with the titular protagonist on his deathbed; the story of Cruz's life is then filled in by flashbacks as the novel moves between past and present. Cruz is a former soldier of the Mexican Revolution who has become wealthy and powerful through "violence, blackmail, bribery, and brutal exploitation of the workers".[3] The novel explores the corrupting effects of power and criticizes the distortion of the revolutionaries' original aims through "class domination, Americanization, financial corruption, and failure of land reform".[4]
The Death of Artemio Cruz is dedicated to the sociologist C. Wright Mills, whom Fuentes called "the true voice of North America and great friend in the struggle for the people in Latin America."[5]
Aizenberg, Edna (1990). "The Untruths of the Nation: Petals of Blood and Fuentes's "The Death of Artemio Cruz"". Research in African Literatures. 21 (4): 85–103. JSTOR3819323.
Castañeda, V. Émilio (1986). ""The Death of Artemio Cruz": The False Gods and the Death of Mexico". The Centennial Review. 30 (2): 139–147. JSTOR23738707.
Girgen, Cynthia (1995). "The Magic Word in Carlos Fuentes' "The Death of Artemio Cruz"". Hispanic Journal. 16 (1): 123–134. JSTOR44284413.
Cuevas, Marco Polo Hernández (2004). "Modern National Discourse and 'La muerte de Artemio Cruz': The Illusory 'Death' of African Mexican Lineage". Afro-Hispanic Review. 23 (1): 10–16. JSTOR23054524.
Longo, Teresa (1991). "When Opposites Unite: Fuentes' 'La muerte de Artemio Cruz'". Chasqui. 20 (1): 87–94. doi:10.2307/29740329. JSTOR29740329.
Morton, Adam David (2003). "The Social Function of Carlos Fuentes: A Critical Intellectual or in the 'Shadow of the State'?". Bulletin of Latin American Research. 22 (1): 27–51. doi:10.1111/1470-9856.00063. JSTOR27733552.
Payne, Judith (1994). "Laura's Artemio: Failed Sexual Politics in "La Muerte de Artemio Cruz"". Hispanófila (112): 65–76. JSTOR43806877.
Schiller, Britt-Marie (1987). "Memory and Time in 'The Death of Artemio Cruz'". Latin American Literary Review. 15 (29): 93–103. JSTOR20119446.
Solomon, Irvin D. (1989). "A Feminist Perspective of the Latin American Novel: Carlos Fuentes' "The Death of Artemio Cruz"". Hispanófila (97): 69–75. JSTOR43808241.
