A Reflection of Landscape in Carlos Fuentes’s The Old Gringo Anonymous College

As one of the many literary voices illustrating Lo Real Maravilloso, commonly known as magical realism, Carlos Fuentes’s novel The Old Gringo captures imagery of the Mexican landscape through vivid language that enhances associations between religious faith, cultural contrasts, and the monetary value of Mexico’s natural resources. These associations drive and develop the religious, social, and cultural conflict in the novel between the American and Mexican people by building on Mexico’s imperialist history with the Spaniards and indigenous people. The Old Gringo asserts the contrast between the Spanish imagination of Mexico and the harsh reality of the barren desert to emphasize the modern implications of imperialist Spanish exploitation. In addition, the physical landscape reflects the Spanish Catholic conquest of indigenous land and the growing religious tension between American Protestant and Mexican Catholic portrayals of faith. Lastly, the associations of natural resources with the Mexican people encapsulate the nation’s landscape, tradition, and its conflicts with itself and different cultures outside of the country.

In The Old Gringo, Fuentes facilitates a juxtaposition between the idealistic image of Mexico imposed...