I Need, Therefore I Imagine.

Art Gives Life To What History Killed. Art Gives Voice To What History Denied, Silenced, Or Persecuted. Art Brings Truth To The Lies Of History.

The Mexicans Descend From The Aztecs; The Peruvians Descend From The Incas; The Argentineans Descend From The Boats.

The Mexican Revolution Was A Break With The Past To Recover The Past. We Were Trying To Deny We Had An Indian And A Black And A Spanish Past. The Mexican Revolution Accepted All Heritages. It Allowed Mexico To Be Mestizo.

For Me, Life Without Literature Is Inconceivable. I Think That Don Quixote In A Physical Sense Never Existed, But Don Quixote Exists More Than Anybody Who Existed In 1605. Much More. There's Nobody Who Can Compete With Don Quixote Or With Hamlet. So In The End We Have The Reality Of The Book As The Reality Of The World And The Reality Of History.

Things Have Changed In Latin America Now. We Mostly Have Democratic Governments In Latin America, So The Position Of The Writer Has Changed. It Is Not As Neruda Used To Say, That A Latin American Writer Walks Around With The Body Of His People On His Back. Now, We Have Citizens, We Have Public Means Of Expression, Political Parties, Congress, Unions. So, The Writer's Position Has Changed, We Now Consider Ourselves To Be Citizens - Not Spokespeople For Everybody - But Citizens That Participate In The Political And Social Process Of The Country.