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Barnard
Professor Michael Schuessler’s Latest Book on Mexican
Bestseller List
 New
York, NY, February 4, 2004— Barnard professor Michael
K. Schuessler’s recent book on Elena Poniatowska, one
of Mexico’s leading writers, climbed to No. 3 on Mexico’s
nonfiction bestseller list last month. Schuessler was also
recently honored with a Fulbright García-Robles grant
for research in Mexico on Alma Reed, the American journalist.
Schuessler’s book, Elenísima: ingenio y figura
de Elena Poniatowska, published by Mexico’s Editorial
Diana, with a prologue by Carlos Fuentes, is an intellectual
biography of Elena Poniatowska, a prominent figure in contemporary
Mexican literature. She is the author of more than 30 works,
including award-winning chronicles, novels, short stories,
and essays, but is best known for her testimonial narratives:
Massacre in Mexico, a chronicle of the Mexican government’s
brutal repression of rallying students in 1968; Nothing,
No One: Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake, and Here’s
to You, Jesusa. Poniatowska is one of the founders of
the Cineteca Nacional, the newspaper La Jornada, and
Siglo XXI, one of Mexico’s most prestigious publishing
houses. She was also a Gildersleeve Lecturer at Barnard in
the late 1990s.
The Mexican daily La Jornada points out that "Schuessler’s
book fills an enormous gap vis-à-vis Poniatowska’s
trajectory…and his affirmations will become obligatory
reading and difficult to refute because they are based on
his access to her personal archives." The book is structured
as a type of testimonial collage, in homage to the form that
many of Poniatowska’s books have taken.
"I initially decided to write a book on Poniatowska in
the mid-1990’s while looking over all of her notebooks
and albums that document 50 years of journalistic and literary
endeavors. At the time, I was completing research for my book
on celebrated Mexican poet Guadalupe Amor, Elena’s aunt,
and this led Elena to open up all of her archives for my research.
I was greatly impressed by her achievements - I could not
understand why no one in Mexico had written a book about her,"
said Schuessler.
Schuessler’s book was published last November and is
already in its third edition, having been presented in Mexico
City, Oaxaca, and at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara
last December.
 Schuessler,
has been an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American
Cultures at Barnard since 2000. He is using his Fulbright
grant to conduct research in Mexico City on a scholarly edition
of the autobiography of Mexico’s "Peregrina:"
Alma Reed, which he discovered in 2001 in an abandoned Mexico
City apartment. Reed was a journalist for The New York
Times in the early 20th century, and is remembered for
her tragic romance with socialist governor Felipe Carrillo
Puerto of Yucatán, known as the "red dragon with
green eyes," who was murdered in 1923 by reactionary,
anti-revolutionary forces.
In July, Schuessler will be the curator of an exhibition dedicated
to Reed’s life and work at the Instituto Mora
in Mexico City, which will also include a conference series
dedicated to other important American women who were also
honorary citizens of Mexico.
"The cultural significance of Reed’s work may be
compared to that of other outstanding women who came to Mexico
during the first decades of the 20th century, including Italian
photographer and political activist Tina Modotti, American
novelist Katherine Anne Porter, and Frances Toor, founder
of the Mexican Folkways magazine. Reed provides the
unusual opportunity to highlight the cosmopolitanism mixed
with political euphoria that defined early 20th century Mexico,
and her work is exemplary of the cultural goals of that time,
as formulated by her friend and sponsor José Vasconcelos,"
said Schuessler.
Schuessler received his Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures
from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1996, with
a specialization in the literature of colonial Spanish America.
After completing his studies he moved to Mexico, and with
the award of his first Fulbright, was head of Liberal and
Interdisciplinary Studies at the United States International
University, and coordinator of their Latin American Studies
Program. He is the author of two other books: La undécima
musa: Guadalupe Amor and El universo de sor Juana,
the latter co-authored with Perla Schwartz, both published
in Mexico by Editorial Diana.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi; Barnard Public Affairs, 212-854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
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