Born in Panama City, the son of Rafael Fuentes Boeltiger, a Mexican diplomat, and Berta Macías Rivas, Carlos Fuentes spent most of the first decade of his life in Washington DC, summering in Mexico. He was an avid reader from a young age and claims to have started writing at the age of 7. Ferried from country to country by his father’s profession, the young Fuentes also lived in Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, among other Latin American cities. Fuentes graduated high school in Washington and started writing as a journalist. He studied law in Geneva, where he learned French, and he was later a student at UNAM where he founded the Law School Journal while continuing his reading. At the age of 24, Fuentes became a Marxist and joined the Communist Party of Mexico,…

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Citation: Lavoie, Sophie M.. "Carlos Fuentes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 April 2009; last revised 06 July 2014. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1650, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1650 Carlos Fuentes 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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