Judith Adler Hellman's Mexican Lives

Judith Adler Hellman's Mexican Lives is composed of information in narrative form gathered from interviews with fifteen Mexicans which give the reader a fascinating and often moving portrait of life and work in contemporary Mexico. Hellman allows her subjects to speak for themselves, although her commentary and conclusions are rich not only with compassion and insight, but also with her talent as a clear and straightforward writer of powerful but accessible prose. Her skillful interviewing technique gives her subjects the confidence to express themselves candidly and to do so with clarity and purpose.

Most significant is that each of the interviews gives the reader a portrait not only of a human being, his or her work and life, what matters to him or her, and how he or she is trying to achieve a dream or simply survive, but also of a facet of the country itself. Hellman is able to give this double portrait in each interview because she focuses on the intersection of the subject's life and the nation's society, economy and politics, as well as, at times, on the international forces which affect the nation and its people. Her interviews are intriguing and compelling as portraits of individual lives, but she is just as intent on exposing changing national and global forces which create a society rife with economic and social injustice, with gaping differences between the haves and have-nots.

The author summarizes the questions with which she is particularly concerned. She wr

Related Essays

The Mexican Revolution .... Brenner, Anita. The Wind that Swept Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971. Hellman, Judith Adler. Mexican Lives. New York: The New Press. (1473 6 )

The Mexican Revolution .... Austin: University of Texas, 1971. Original publication 1943. Hellman, Judith Adler. Mexican Lives. New York: The New Press, 1994. (1538 6 )

The Mexican Revolution and Modern Mexico .... Austin: University of Texas, 1971. Original publication 1943. Hellman, Judith Adler. Mexican Lives. New York: The New Press, 1994. (1538 6 )

Impact of The Mexican Revolution on Mexico .... Austin: University of Texas, 1971. Original publication 1943. Hellman, Judith Adler. Mexican Lives. New York: The New Press, 1994. (1520 6 )

uals who . . . relied for their well-being or their very survival only on themselves and their kin (11). The most striking feature of these people is their resiliency in the face of truly overwhelming stress. Their problems seem in almost every case rooted in economics, and this fact results in most other problems in their lives being associated in some way with worry about money. For example, the story of Lupe Gonzalez, the opening interview in the book, is a gripping and tragic tale of a woman who seems to be coping well under a mountain of oppressive worries. Her story is significant because it seems to combine all the factors with which the author is concerned--from the international factors of trade treaties to the hard choices a mother must make as she decides where to spend her money, which problem should be dealt with first. Lupe will be the recipient of a small windfall soon, and she has four major concerns which call for that money, although only one of those concerns can be realistically managed with the money. One of her concerns is especially telling. She wants to take the money, go to the United States on a bus, "return with an industrial sewing machine," and then, with that machine she and her sister "plan to po

Category: Foreign - J