Class Privilege and Social Class Awakening in Paseo de la Reforma

In this reading of Elena Poniatowska’s Paseo de la Reforma, the plot goes beyond a love story and personal transformation of the protagonist to represent a metaphor in microcosm for Mexico City. Although a shorter work than her more highly recognized novels and testimonies, the tensions between social classes and the unearned privileges of the elite in this novel stand in contrast to the suffering of the masses.