Terra Nostra (1975), a modernist novel by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, tells a far-reaching story of the evolution of the Hispanic world, shifting between the first century, A.D. and the present day. The novel’s title, which translates to “Our Earth” in English, reflects its interest in investigating the dramatic archaeology of Hispanic consciousness in the Western world. Described as labyrinthine, spiritual, and cinematic, it has been compared to the works of author James Joyce. The novel received the Xavier Villarrutia Award and Romulo Gallegos Prize, two of the highest honors in Hispanic fiction. The book begins on July 14, 1999. In this futuristic Paris, Pollo Phoibee encounters a young woman named Celestina. Perceiving him as a wise man, Celestina asks Pollo to teach her how modern civilization developed. Before he can, he falls into the river Seine, an allusion to the Fall of Icarus in Greek mythology. This event triggers a brief narrative shift to the first century, A.D., during the assassination of Tiberius Caesar, and quickly shifts thereafter to the sixteenth century, in which King Philip II, “El Señor,” is engaged in building his famous Escorial, a palace and tomb on the outskirts of Madrid. Pollo finds himself embodying one of the bastard sons of Philip I, Philip II’s father. He begins a secret affair with King Philip’s wife, Queen Elizabeth I. Then, word reaches the kingdom that one of Philip I’s sons has been found washed up on a beach in America. For many, the news confirms the existence of the New World; moreover, it is said that the son has been exalted by the Aztecs as the worldly embodiment of their serpent-god, Quetzalcoatl. However, the king denies that such a world could exist, preferring to cling to his image of the Old World. Felipe continues working on the Escorial out of a vain and impossible hope that he will be able to contain within its walls the entire world, thereby asserting total dominion. Queen Isabel locks herself in her room, carrying out her deepest sexual fantasies as a way of coping with the insanity of the Church, which has driven her husband’s obsession with his palace. She is afflicted with a recurring nightmare, in which a mouse relentlessly violates her genitals. Realizing that she cannot challenge her husband within the broken system of religious law, she decides to play the role of the devil as a form of protest. Later in the book, Felipe dies, and his spirit imagines that he has finished construction on his mausoleum. The staircase to the doorway is endless: he climbs it, and on each step is given a chance to reconsider his life choices and make alterations to his past. He proceeds without making these changes, obstinate in the belief that he has a divine right to exercise utter freedom and rule over the world. He also continues to deny the existence of the New World, insecure that such a free place might have existed independently of his lineage and his will. At the novel’s close, the narrator returns to the futuristic Paris, 1999. Paris lies in ruins after a series of endless wars, violent political revolutions, and famines. These events signal Fuentes’ prediction of a broader collapse of the Western world. In Paris’s rubble, Celestina and Pollo meet again. Here, the novel takes an allegorical turn that defies logic and appeals to the mythological origins of the Western World. Pollo and Celestina make love so passionately that they fuse souls and bodies, becoming a chimerical creature that transcends sex and time. Once fused, they dramatically give birth to a new child, the symbolic New World of the twenty-first century. Their carnal demonstration of love removes all ego from the world and reverses the progress of human evolution, returning reality to a primordial state. Terra Nostra ends in this moment of hopeful nihilism, suggesting that reaching a utopia or paradise is tantamount to sacrificing history and individuality.

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Terra Nostra

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