Proposed Topic: I am most curious how the Mexico City of the 1940s captured your imagination to bring it bustling to life in “City of Promises” as much as the undercurrent of the story led you to create Arturo? Were you inspired to resurrect this particular age of Mexico City’s history from your research pursuits or was it due to spending time in the city itself? How did “City of Promises” alight in your mind’s eye and how did it change you after you wrote its story?
I elected to enquire about City of Promises originally as I have fond memories of my week in Mexico, where I not only discovered the delights of the Federal District of Mexico City, but I found a lifeblood and infusion of culture, food, and a diverse collection of Mayan artifacts and architectural history etched into the legacy of their ruins. I fell in love with the ambiance of how relaxed the Mexicans approach life and how enthused they are to live each day not only to the fullest, but enriched by community, family, and food. They remind me a bit of Tuscany and Sicily, where families center their lives around the dinner table and/or thereto otherwise where food plays a center role in the gathering. There are others of course who believe in this as most of Europe approaches life in a similar vein, but I wanted to highlight Italy as like Mexico, there is such a passionate vibe towards earthen foods rooted in their local environment and in the stitchings of passed down recipes from one generation to another. The fusion of herbs in mixtures different than their European counterparts was nothing short of divine consumption on my part! I loved seeing how they would gather together their flavours and how elements like pink onions add dimension to open-faced grilled chicken fajitas and a root vegetable which tastes like a sweet potato can be transformed into a delish offering for breakfast!
I might not have been a cook when I was in Mexico, but I exited the country with a heart full of Mexican cuisine and a distinct taste for true Mexicali cooking!! I have not once since my travels there found a chef or restaurant who understands the local produce and infusions of Mexican cookery to whet my palette like the places I ate whilst I was there. Aside from the ready allure of food, what struck me was the remnants of living history in each street and historical site you visited, because modern Mexicans live amongst the ruins and the historical artifacts which have withstood time and weather. When I write my post about this novel for review on Friday, I shall include a bit of an antidote about being in the Yucatán and my first impression of Uxmal!
For you could say, part of me has remained curious about Mexico and about the legacies of the Mayans since my wanderings in the mid-1990s. My attachment to the 1940s in America and France grew out of my love of the Jazz Age and Flappers in pre & post war eras where life was set to a different beat and mindset. I was then further curious about how Mr. Fitter was inspired to enchant us with this tale!
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Is there an economic value of one’s soul? “By divine good fortune I live in the most glamorous era of a famously enticing city. By obscene misfortune I’m shut out by its ruling elite.” Daring ways to make it big are on offer in Mexico City in the 1940s, but best watch your back! If Arturo Fuentes barters virtue to maneuver in on the action, will the consequence of his choices be too much to bear?
The rebirth of one of the world’s most colorful cities forms the rich backdrop for this historically discerning tale of treachery, intrigue and political corruption.
“My entire family was stuck for generations in that isolated village south of Veracruz where I was born. When you’re fourteen, know you are a dreamer and learn to be a schemer, you can’t stay and so you start planning for the day.”
In 1941, 21-year-old Arturo Fuentes followed the beat to Mexico City.
Bottles of rum in smoke-filled bars, sultry women and impassioned conversation, music and bright show lights calling. Murder and corruption.
How Mexico & the 1940s inspired this story from the author
I am so glad to be invited to post on Jorie’s blog as part of my Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour. So far, there has been great reviews from bloggers who have read City of Promises on this tour and today I welcome the opportunity to talk briefly about the background behind what reviewers have been calling unique, dazzling, vivid and captivating.
As blogger/reviewer Ashley LaMar of Close the Cover said earlier this week, “The 1940’s Mexico City setting is fantastic! It’s unique, mesmerizing and vibrant allowing readers to easily fall in love with the locale and understand the excitement of young Arturo who left the country behind in order to seek his fortune under the lights of the big city”, as quoted from her book review of “City of Promises”.
So how is it that such an unusual place as 1940s Mexico City captured my imagination in such a way that I could bring it bustling to life in my novel?
Mexico City is so many things, but most of all it is an intriguing city of contradictions moved along by the amazing personalities that the Mexican people truly are. Just like their city, they can revel in a festival or stare down the barrel of despair with a smile, and it was my good fortune to work in Mexico City for years enough to find the people and the place irresistible. It is a huge, modern, iconic city of some twenty-two million with a contagious pulse and eclecticism that begs description.
I have strolled the finest of her streets, walked some of the worst and battled choking traffic. I have taken in the architectural delights of 900 years of history, enjoyed the artistic and cultural achievements on view even where one least expects, and the constant of music everywhere. Daily meals at sidewalk cafes, the art of conversation, business meetings surrounded by the influential at a chic restaurant or tradition steeped hacienda, or the magic of a street vendor taco have all contributed to and influenced my perception.
So, of course I had to at least try to understand it and with some good fortune, describe it. Get to know Mexico well and it becomes obvious the current incarnation of this place is connected through an almost suspended animation of the 1940s. That decade was in so many ways Mexico’s “Golden Years’ and the cultural, artistic, and sentimental attachment that lingers is much more, much different than a nostalgic one. The 1940s through its dance, its music, its film, its promise, is very much alive today.
It is the decade that defined a nation.
That is the feeling and the perception I knew I wanted to get across and it wasn’t very difficult to dive into the research of actual events leading to a storyline that would accomplish my goal. True to the ever-present contradictions of life here, the tale absolutely had to involve the darkly sinister undercurrent tugging and gnawing away at a peaceful existence. The overwhelming majority of locals and characters introduced in my story are true and the few that aren’t are an amalgamation of actual identities living in the novel under assumed names. My protagonist Arturo and his two girlfriends, Mercedes and Ana are the main ones and yes they are modeled after actual personalities, but they developed their persona as they dealt with situations history presented and they grew on me as the story progressed. I think their lives were mostly admirable and I became attached to them as they sorted out their future.
But I am probably rambling on here in a non-conformist style for the rapid-fire statement of an electronic blog post. Guess it happens when one loves the subject matter.
There, I said it. That is the essence of a living novel right there. I was inspired to resurrect this particular age of Mexico City’s history because of a love affair with the topic.
And that is why I enjoyed writing City of Promises so much.
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As Mr. Fitter was describing his memories of being in Mexico City, so too, did my own flit to life in front of my eyes of memory! The congested city streets where pedestrians never had the right away, and where there were more 1960s Beetles on the streets than I dare thought possible to have room to breathe! The pulse the author is speaking about was everywhere you walked and explored: as even though I was a teenager participating in an educational tour of Mexico, soaking up as much history as I attempted to soak up the everyday culture, being in Mexico is a life-changing experience. You see things through a different pair of eyes whilst your down there, as the dichotomy of those with and without is living out in stark contrast inasmuch as the raw beauty of their culture befit for admiration. You can walk a lifetime simply by moving from street to street, and stumbling across one neighbourhood after another or rather even, an excavation of the streets can reveal hidden mysteries of the past which had not yet been told. I loved the Square as well, a bit smaller than Red Square in Moscow, but with the presence that leaves you breathless. For all the splendors and beauty, even I could feel a sense of history yet told whilst I allowed my eyes to observe what was not yet readily known to mind. The street vendors were my best allies as well as little shoppes on corners as that is how I staid hydrated in the sweltering heat which was a switch of severity from my home state on the opposite side of the Gulf of Mexico! I always felt I *knew!* heat, but Mexico proved that I only had a hinting of what true heat can be! Oh, how I could have read more on behalf of Mr. Fitter’s reasons for digging into the past and finding himself engaged in the history of a country I shall always fondly remember as I had my own adventure there which shall never be anything but a joyous expedition of youth! Like Mr. Fitter, as he will soon realise if he visits my blog both after this goes live and on Friday when I post my book review, I am not the modern-age book blogger who writes with an absence of length, but rather a book blogger who harnesses the true joy of her designation as a blogger by allowing the breadth of a topic or subject a fitting well of unfiltered and unmonitored freedom of words! I never limit a Guest Post by an author anymore than I limit myself. There are times when words can falter to express how we feel, but in most cases, I find that I am a bubbly book blogger eagerly awaiting conversations to alight in her comment threads! May this keep you dear hearts until Friday, as I start my journey soon into “City of Promises”!
Blog Book Tour Stop, courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Return on Friday when I review “City of Promises”!
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Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
{SOURCES: City of Promises Book Cover, synopsis, tour badge, author photograph and HFVBT badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.
Inspiring Speech on behalf of the Earth Summit of 1992:
“Seeing Green” is Hertz’s first endeavor in historical fiction, much like the protagonist she introduces in “Seeing Green,” Hertz has delved into the world of politics with organizations involved in international relations and sustainable development. More recently, she served as a policy consultant, adjunct professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations and Global Governance Fellow at the World Economic Forum.
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Author Biography:
This is one reason why you will oft-times find me showcasing an author from every different side of publishing: mainstream, independent, self-published, and inspirational. Which are truly the four main branches in today’s publishing world, except to say, that I do not put more weight on any single branch, as I accept all writers and all stories on equal ground. Therefore, when I was first approached through the 
now speaking about is Etched On Me by