Cartas a Clara

A vulnerable portrait of the Mexican author, as unveiled through letters penned to his beloved

In January 1945 the Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer Juan Rulfo (1917-86) wrote: "I don't know what is going on inside me, but every moment I feel that there is something great and noble to fight for and to live for. That something great, for me, is you." This profound declaration of devotion is a snippet from a love letter addressed to his girlfriend, and eventual wife, Clara Aparicio. Cartas a Clara compiles a series of letters Rulfo penned to his beloved, granting the reader access to the dreams, feelings, concerns, desires and personality of one of the great writers of the 20th century. The volume encourages readers to embrace the miracles of literature: intensity and lucidity, imagination and perfect form, subtle irony and depth. Illustrated with black-and-white archival photographs of Rulfo and Aparicio, it also elucidates the customs of postwar Mexican society and the shifts it underwent upon the arrival of foreign investment. Essayist and poet Alberto Vital pens a reverent foreword, painting a touching portrait of one of the last novelists of the Mexican Revolution.