Puga, María Luisa (1944–2004)

María Luisa Puga (b. 3 February 1944; d. 25 December 2004), Mexican writer. Born in Mexico City, Puga has published literary criticism, essays, short stories, and novels. She is most widely known for her first novel, Las posibilidades del odio (The Possibilities of Hate, 1978), about Kenyan society, and for Pánico o peligro (Panic or Danger, 1983). The latter novel, which received the Premio Xavier Villaurrutía in 1983, explores social relations in contemporary Mexico City through the experiences of a middle-class secretary. Puga's other works include three collections of short stories, Inmovil sol secreto (Immobile Secret Sun, 1979), Accidentes (Accidents, 1981), and Intentos (Attempts, 1987), and four other novels, Cuando el aire es azul (When the Air Is Blue, 1980), La forma del silencio (The Form of Silence, 1987), Antonia (1989), and Las razones del lago (The Reasons of the Lake, 1991). Puga's concern with the implications of racial, class, and gender differences constitutes the basis of her social criticism. Her critical view of Mexican society is shared by a generation of Mexican writers marked by the tragic results of the Mexican student movement in 1968.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fabienne Bradu, "Todos los otros, el otro," in Señas particulares: Escritora (1987), pp. 118-135.

Danny J. Anderson, "Cultural Conversation and Constructions of Reality: Mexican Narrative and Literary Theories after 1968," in Siglo XX/20th Century 8 (1990–1991): 11-30.

Additional Bibliography

De Beer, Gabriella. Contemporary Mexican Women Writers: Five Voices. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Ibsen, Kristine. The Other Mirror: Women's Narrative in Mexico, 1980–1995. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

López, Irma M. Historia, escritura e identidad: la novelística de María Luisa Puga. New York: P. Lang, 1996.

Ortega, Julio and Carlos Fuentes. The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.

Poniatowska, Elena. "Réquiem por María Luisa Puga, a un año de su muerte." La Jornada (2005).

                                    Danny J. Anderson