Crystal Frontier

¶ … Crystal Frontier: A Novel in Nine Stories by Carlos Fuentes. Specifically, it will contain a book report on the book, consisting of a general summery, character analysis, and author background. "The Crystal Frontier" is really nine short stories put together as a novel. The stories are all connected by one character a businessman named Don Leonardo Barasso. The crystal frontier itself is the border between Mexico and the United States, which Fuentes shows can change from place to place and person to person. (The author calls it "illusory").

This book is really kind of like reading several short stories all put together. At first, they do not seem to fit very well, but then they come together around the main character, Don Leonardo. Each story has some connection to him, and he affects each person's life somehow as he moves through the stories.

Don Leonardo is in his 50s, and it is clear from the start of the story he is a powerful businessman, because he has his own jet, and he has served as a government official, among other things. In the first story, he brings his goddaughter, Michelina, to meet his son, who he wants her to marry, but he really wants her for his mistress, too. He does not seem to have many morals, and that shows throughout the book.

Some of the characters in the other stories have a relationship to him, like Juan Zamora, who Don Leonardo helps put through medical school because Juan's father was Don Leonardo's administrative lawyer. Another man washes windows in New York City and remembers Michelina in school, and another character is a relative of Don Leonardo's who is forced to cross the border in El Paso each day to work in a television assembly plant.

Each of these characters has their own version of the crystal frontier, and Don Leonardo, with his wealth and influence, has had an effect on their lives, somehow. In the end, and the last chapter, many of the characters come back together after Don Leonardo is shot. Juan Zamora is the first doctor to reach him, and Michelina is with him when he dies. Then, the author writes a poem that ties the book together.

Sometimes, the book is hard to understand, but it is interesting and sad at the same time, and the Mexican characters are not stereotypical, they are all unique, and all looking for something better, except Don Leonardo, because he has everything. The book is about Americans too, and most of the Mexicans do not understand them.

One thinks to himself, "How would the country put itself in order when it was full of religious lunatics who believed beyond doubt that faith, not surgery, would take care of a tumor in the lungs?" (Fuentes 65). It is funny, but it makes the reader think about what Fuentes is really saying about the borders between us, and how we all have them. Don Leonardo is described as powerful, good looking, and commanding. He is wealthy, and he uses his wealth for various things, from scholarships to keeping mistresses.

He has limousines, drivers, and anything and everything he could possibly want in life, but somehow, he never seems very happy. He seems like he is addicted to power, and that he is addicted to wealth, and when things, like terrorists and drug cartels threaten his wealth, he uses his power to try to stop them, but it does not work. He is arrogant, because he has never dealt with anyone like this before, and so, he underestimates them.

Don Leonardo is really a sad character, because he is so powerful that most people are either afraid of him, in awe of him, or dislike him. He seems to love his mistress, but it does not seem that he has many friends. He always seems to be alone, or with people who want something from him, or with his mistress.

He is powerful, and he is used to having things his way, but he is also sad and pathetic somehow, because his only motivations seem to be sex and money, and they, in the end, are not that fulfilling. He has many dealings with other businessmen, both Mexican and American, and he always tried to be in control. When he deals with the American businessmen at his plant, he is cheerful, but condescending underneath.

He says, "Look here Ted, you're new at this game, but your partners in the States must have told you what the real business is here" (Fuentes 129). It seems like he will do anything to make money, because money is power, and he is really all about power in the end. Another part of Don Leonardo is his fancy lifestyle. He lives like an American, shops at the finest stores, flies first class, and employs servants.

He is not like most of the people of his country, and in fact, he cannot relate to them. He does not even know his own relatives that work in his plants. He is sad really, because he has forsaken his own country for wealth and power, and he does not even know it. He uses people, even his own son and his daughter-in-law/mistress, and he does not care. He is sometimes cruel and demanding, and it is not surprising that people want to kill him.

What is surprising is that he has managed to last so long in a violent country like Mexico. Fuentes ends his novel with the statement, "Poor Mexico / poor United States / so far from God / so near to each other" (Fuentes 266), and it is clear he is talking about the countries, but it also seems like he is talking about the late Don Leonardo, because he too was "far from Go" and near to no one. Fuentes makes Don Leonardo seem very.