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The old gringo is set in historic Mexico during the Mexican revolution. This story took a couple of turns that I was not expecting, but it definitely kept me wanting more. The love tale told within the story had both passion, and deceit, which kept it interesting every step of the way. My expectation of …

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 I read The Old Gringo this week. The novel's content mainly revolves around the feelings and cultural conflicts of the three protagonists, Harriet Winslow, Tomas Arroyo and Ambrose Bierce (The Old Gringo). At the beginning of the novel, we meet Harriet Winslow, quietly thinking. So the author uses Winslow's perspective to describe everything that happened before in flashbacks. Ambrose Bierce (known in the novel as Old Gringo) is a journalist from the United States. While working for his employer, he constantly used his reporting to complete the task of attacking others. Still, when he continued to use sharp words to expose In the dark society, his relationship with his wife and children also drifted away. Finally, because of his reports, his two sons committed suicide. So Ambrose Bierce began to get tired of being a journalist. He vowed not to write again and came to Mexico to die. On the way to Mexico, he met Tomas Arroyo. Tomas Arroyo, a colonel of the Mexican rebels, took a document he didn't understand as evidence of his revolution and led revolutionaries through Mexican soil. The two then met Harriet Winslow, who came to teach in a pre-revolutionary landowner's estate and began an emotional entanglement. In this emotional tragedy, Bierce was shot by Arroyo, who was also killed by the general's execution at Winslow's whistleblower.

There are many repeated sentences in the novel. The "now she sits alone and remembers" at the beginning reappears at the end, making people feel that the whole story of the book has become a memory, which only exists in the memory of the heroine and is buried in one corner of history, and the other two in the story. The male protagonist has also been deeply buried in the soil. And the heroine returned to the United States like a lonely fire passer with this memory that will eventually be forgotten. And another sentence in the novel: "he came here to die." also keeps appearing in various scenes. Arroyo's first conversation with the soldier sounded like contempt and disdain for the old gringo. After Gringo showed his prowess and gained recognition, the phrase seemed like a nod to the future of his death on the battlefield. When this sentence appears in Arroyo and Winslow's conversation, it's like an excuse for Arroyo to persuade Winslow to give up Bierce. This sentence represents the admiral's evaluation of this American from a foreign land and emphasizes the purpose of Bierce's coming to Mexico, and implies the fate of old gringo's death. Although in the end, old gringo did not die in a glorious battle, but died at Arroyo's gun after burning Arroyo's documents and was killed again from the front by the general's orders. His death wasn't as complicated as I thought when I first read it, just as Arroyo's death wasn't supposed to be so easy.

Much of the novel also shows the cultural and historical conflict between the two countries. The United States had invaded Mexico, which caused the Mexican revolutionaries to be unfriendly to old foreigners at first. There is an important border between them, the creek between the United States and Mexico. They have a hard time understanding each other's culture. For the first time, the Mexican revolutionaries saw itself in the mirror of the landlord's estate, and Winslow from the United States could dance in this ballroom. Winslow aspires to teach native English but is questioned about its usefulness. Not to mention that at a later stage, the general in Mexico couldn't even understand some of the United States' laws and shot two people a second time to comply with the rules and bury the truth. This cultural divide adds to the sense of borders between the two Americans in the Mexican revolutionaries, and it's no wonder that two lonely strangers are drawn to each other.

My question for this novel is: Why is there so much physical detail added later in the article when describing Arroyo and Winslow's love? Do these details help explain the overall vibe of the relationship?

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 I read The Old Gringo this week. The novel's content mainly revolves around the feelings and cultural conflicts of the three protagonists, Harriet Winslow, Tomas Arroyo and Ambrose Bierce (The Old Gringo). At the beginning of the novel, we meet Harriet Winslow, quietly thinking. So the author uses Winslow's perspective to describe everything that happened before in flashbacks. Ambrose Bierce (known in the novel as Old Gringo) is a journalist from the United States. While working for his employer, he constantly used his reporting to complete the task of attacking others. Still, when he continued to use sharp words to expose In the dark society, his relationship with his wife and children also drifted away. Finally, because of his reports, his two sons committed suicide. So Ambrose Bierce began to get tired of being a journalist. He vowed not to write again and came to Mexico to die. On the way to Mexico, he met Tomas Arroyo. Tomas Arroyo, a colonel of the Mexican rebels, took a document he didn't understand as evidence of his revolution and led revolutionaries through Mexican soil. The two then met Harriet Winslow, who came to teach in a pre-revolutionary landowner's estate and began an emotional entanglement. In this emotional tragedy, Bierce was shot by Arroyo, who was also killed by the general's execution at Winslow's whistleblower.

There are many repeated sentences in the novel. The "now she sits alone and remembers" at the beginning reappears at the end, making people feel that the whole story of the book has become a memory, which only exists in the memory of the heroine and is buried in one corner of history, and the other two in the story. The male protagonist has also been deeply buried in the soil. And the heroine returned to the United States like a lonely fire passer with this memory that will eventually be forgotten. And another sentence in the novel: "he came here to die." also keeps appearing in various scenes. Arroyo's first conversation with the soldier sounded like contempt and disdain for the old gringo. After Gringo showed his prowess and gained recognition, the phrase seemed like a nod to the future of his death on the battlefield. When this sentence appears in Arroyo and Winslow's conversation, it's like an excuse for Arroyo to persuade Winslow to give up Bierce. This sentence represents the admiral's evaluation of this American from a foreign land and emphasizes the purpose of Bierce's coming to Mexico, and implies the fate of old gringo's death. Although in the end, old gringo did not die in a glorious battle, but died at Arroyo's gun after burning Arroyo's documents and was killed again from the front by the general's orders. His death wasn't as complicated as I thought when I first read it, just as Arroyo's death wasn't supposed to be so easy.

Much of the novel also shows the cultural and historical conflict between the two countries. The United States had invaded Mexico, which caused the Mexican revolutionaries to be unfriendly to old foreigners at first. There is an important border between them, the creek between the United States and Mexico. They have a hard time understanding each other's culture. For the first time, the Mexican revolutionaries saw itself in the mirror of the landlord's estate, and Winslow from the United States could dance in this ballroom. Winslow aspires to teach native English but is questioned about its usefulness. Not to mention that at a later stage, the general in Mexico couldn't even understand some of the United States' laws and shot two people a second time to comply with the rules and bury the truth. This cultural divide adds to the sense of borders between the two Americans in the Mexican revolutionaries, and it's no wonder that two lonely strangers are drawn to each other.

My question for this novel is: Why is there so much physical detail added later in the article when describing Arroyo and Winslow's love? Do these details help explain the overall vibe of the relationship?

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I’m very confused. Though I appreciate the lecture video providing historical context for this novella, it does not assuage the bulk of my confusion. I suppose some stories don’t provide, nor should they have provide, clear answers in their endings. However, I would have appreciated some sort of explanation regarding the meaning of the trenchcoat, […] read full post >>

This week I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. The story is the memory of Harriet Winslow, an American school teacher who finds herself in the middle of the Mexican revolution. She meets a group of revolutionaries led by … Continue reading → read full post >>

 For this week, I decided to read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. It touches on themes including memory, regret, war, and family. The Old Gringo, who turns out to be the American author Ambrose Bierce, travels to Mexico at the time of the civil war to die in the revolution. I found this reading to be a little difficult to read, but still quite interesting.

 I enjoyed how we were able to trace how each The Old Gringo, General Arroyo, and Ms. Winslow’s pasts played a role in how they all ended up encountering each other. For the Old Gringo, his past actions and the downfall of his family and the lifestyle that led to the death of his sons brought him across the border.  It is often repeated in the text how “to be a gringo in Mexico is one way of dying,” (89). The old man comes to Mexico with the intent to die, but before he does he builds a relationship with Ms. Winslow. There are many times within the story that we see one of the character’s identities being impacted by their parents. Especially for Ms. Winslow and Arroyo who were abandoned by their fathers and try to compensate for this through their respective relationships with the old man. This is made clear when Ms. Winslow has the old gringo buried as her father, I think it’s an act of closure for her to have someone to put to rest in that grave. However, because of this father/daughter dynamic, I was confused by their suggested romantic relationship. 

I found it really interesting to learn that this story was based on a real American short story writer, journalist, and soldier. Also, the concept that Carlos Fuentes used of taking a real narrative and filling in the gaps with a fictional story to answer the mystery of the circumstances of his death. This along with the poetic style Fuentes wrote in, made it a unique narrative that allows the reader to reflect on the greater themes. I think because the story was told from Ms. Winslow's point of view, the readers were able to have a better understanding of both the old man and General Arroyo from the perspective of a woman who understands and was exposed to both their perspectives. 

My question for the class is why do you think Fuentes used Ambrose Bierce’s story as a point of view for the Mexican revolution?

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 For this week, I decided to read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. It touches on themes including memory, regret, war, and family. The Old Gringo, who turns out to be the American author Ambrose Bierce, travels to Mexico at the time of the civil war to die in the revolution. I found this reading to be a little difficult to read, but still quite interesting.

 I enjoyed how we were able to trace how each The Old Gringo, General Arroyo, and Ms. Winslow’s pasts played a role in how they all ended up encountering each other. For the Old Gringo, his past actions and the downfall of his family and the lifestyle that led to the death of his sons brought him across the border.  It is often repeated in the text how “to be a gringo in Mexico is one way of dying,” (89). The old man comes to Mexico with the intent to die, but before he does he builds a relationship with Ms. Winslow. There are many times within the story that we see one of the character’s identities being impacted by their parents. Especially for Ms. Winslow and Arroyo who were abandoned by their fathers and try to compensate for this through their respective relationships with the old man. This is made clear when Ms. Winslow has the old gringo buried as her father, I think it’s an act of closure for her to have someone to put to rest in that grave. However, because of this father/daughter dynamic, I was confused by their suggested romantic relationship. 

I found it really interesting to learn that this story was based on a real American short story writer, journalist, and soldier. Also, the concept that Carlos Fuentes used of taking a real narrative and filling in the gaps with a fictional story to answer the mystery of the circumstances of his death. This along with the poetic style Fuentes wrote in, made it a unique narrative that allows the reader to reflect on the greater themes. I think because the story was told from Ms. Winslow's point of view, the readers were able to have a better understanding of both the old man and General Arroyo from the perspective of a woman who understands and was exposed to both their perspectives. 

My question for the class is why do you think Fuentes used Ambrose Bierce’s story as a point of view for the Mexican revolution?

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For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was "the closest we have here to a romance if that's your thing." Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.

The book's narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who "sits alone and remembers." The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo's intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.

The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father's name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship. 

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For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was "the closest we have here to a romance if that's your thing." Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.

The book's narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who "sits alone and remembers." The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo's intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.

The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father's name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship. 

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I think the historical background of this novel is a bit difficult to understand for readers who do not know the history of the United States and Mexico, so I also read the events of that period while reading the book. Carlos Fuentes’ depiction of the desert is almost treasured, as if I, too, am … Continue reading Review of Old Gringo from Carlos Fuentes → read full post >>

I was way too excited to read The Old Gringo because I love anything set during the Mexican Revolution. It’s such an interesting struggle of democracy, land, and freedom strongly rooted in colonialism and foreign intervention. (If any of you want more context and liked the book, I highly recommend taking SPAN280: Revolution! It’s mostly … Continue reading "Thoughts on Fuentes’ The Old Gringo" read full post >>

Hey Everyone,  I decided to download this book as a PDF from the internet, which caused some very strange spacing issues. Throughout the book, there were gaps that I don’t think were meant to be there as well as paragraphs separated mid-sentence. While this likely negatively impacted my overall reading experience, I really enjoyed this […] read full post >>

Throughout the readings in this course, we have been repeatedly exposed to storylines set during periods of conflict and civil war. This novel is no exception as it occurs during the Mexican civil war. On the theme of war, we often see the accompanying theme of hopelessness. We learn early in the novel that the […] read full post >>

Norman Manea’s The Trenchcoat presents the traumatic excruciation of living under the communist regime for several decades in 20th century Romania. In the opening section, the discussion about temporality is noteworthy. The future is described as a conjugation of uncertainty. It is associated with the past and present, on a scale that can be reduced […] read full post >>

The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as "Old Gringo" who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo's intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers." I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it's Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it's an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers" is, and who maybe is the one remembering? 

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