Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes’ “How I Started to Write” touches on all 5 of the BIG AP English questions. The one he uses most interestingly is Style. The way he portrays his life in the essay is so complex and yet I could imagine him perfectly as this hodge-podge of cultures. We are not meant to be told what he wants to express, but by giving us his personal stories we are shown his purpose. The purpose of this essay to me is “cultures are not isolated, and perish when deprived of contact with what is different and challenging”. In simpler terms he is pointing out that culture is not culture if there is nothing to compare it to. It is not culture if it is not different from other customs and traditions. This purpose however is widespread for other ideas. We as human beings are not who we are, are not unique, if we have no one to compare ourselves with. Fuentes has another purpose though. He is trying to convey the importance of language in order to express culture and history. Through this expression we create our own cultural identity. Fuentes love of Argentinean and Latin poets is because of their expression of what their country was, who it came from. Early in the essay Fuentes speaks of America and what it was in his mind and its reality. America was “ the impression of a country identified with its own highest principles: political democracy, economic well-being, and faith in its human resources…” The reality of America was unemployment and starvation caused by the Dust Bowl. Having read the book “The Grapes of Wrath”, this image is all too real to me. Fuentes lived in America in the time of the writing of Mark Twain and John Steinbeck and came to know the truth of America through these authors. His love and connection with words and language only flourished thereafter.