APRIL 14, 2008

Famed Writer Carlos Fuentes to Speak at UC San Diego April 24
One of the globe's leading contemporary intellectuals and Mexico's greatest novelist, Carlos Fuentes, will at speak at UC San Diego April 24 addressing the topic "Globalization: A New Deal for a New Age."
The event will take place beginning at 7 p.m. in Mandeville Auditorium on the UCSD campus and is free and open to the public.
For more than 40 years, as a novelist, essayist, scholar and diplomat, Fuentes has focused on the identity of his home country and on its relationship with the United States and the world. His lectures are as current as daily newspaper headlines and imbued with a marvelous sense of history. "Culture is the product of many races and many traditions.," he has written. "We are all descendants of Greeks and Romans, Arabs and Jews. We must examine those roots to discover who we are today."
In speaking on the new world order in the age of globalization, Fuentes explores responsibilities and opportunities for all on either side of the economic divide. A self-described optimist, Fuentes will bring a new perspective to current debates.
Fuentes is an independent political voice with an instinct for social justice. As the son of a Mexican diplomat, he spent most of his childhood in Washington, DC. After earning his law degree, he served in a number of governmental posts, including Mexican Ambassador to France. Fuentes has been a visiting professor at Princeton and is currently professor-at-large at Brown University.
Fuentes is the author of "The Old Gringo," a bestseller in the United States which was made into a feature film starring Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck. He has written numerous other books, including "This I Believe: A Life From A to Z" in which he surveys art and ideology and the history that shaped our time. This volume was awarded the Spanish Royal Academy's prize for the best book of 2004. His latest novel is "The Eagle's Throne," a darkly comedic indictment of modern politics.
Fuentes' talk at UCSD is sponsored by the UCSD Division of Arts and Humanities and its Center for the Humanities, as well as UCSD's Revelle College and the Consulate of Mexico in San Diego.
UCSD News on the web at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu