Everything Mexican

The 1930s were a remarkable time across the globe. The violence upheavals of the first world war were more than 10 years away, but from the second half of the decade the events that would lead to the Second World War were bubbling up in Europe and Asia. In Mexico, political radicalism also held sway. In the first half of the decade President Plutarco Elías Calles led a violent suppression of the Roman Catholic Church and in the second half of the decade President Lázaro Cárdenas nationalised the oil industry. However, in this somewhat chaotic atmosphere, a great cultural flowering took place.

Most of us are familiar with the extraordinary Mexican artists and intellectuals at work in the country during the 1930s such as Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo, a few of us may even be familiar with foreigners such as Leon Trotsky and the circle that existed around him. What many may not know about is that Mexico inspired two English authors to write books that have been called the among the best written in the 20th century.

In 1940 Graham Greene published The Power and The Glory, a short novel about a desperate 'whisky priest', a man who has succumbed to many temptations, especially hard liquor, but still has a kernel of spiritual truth buried deep in his heart. Without giving the game away, the priest is being chased by the anti-Catholic Lieutenant of the police. Unfortunately for him, he cannot hide away in a hotel and play Party Poker until the purges are over. Firstly the internet has not been invented yet, and secondly he will probably get found by the police. The novel was chosen as one of the best 100 novels written in English from 1923 to 2005 by Time magazine.

The second great novel both written in English, and by and Englishman, in the 30s in Mexico is Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. While The Power and Glory was situated in the province of Tabasco, Under the Volcano was set in Cuernavaca. Lowry was an alcoholic and so was his anti-hero, Geoffrey Firmin, an ex-consul who is visited by his ex-wife while he drinks himself to oblivion. Although the story is simple, the writing is extremely poetic and vivid. The book is also in Time Magazine's 100 best books from 1923 to 2005.

Two books, both born of troubled times, but which have gone on to touch the hearts and minds of millions. And without Mexico, they would never have come about.