Elena Poniatowska: An Intimate Biography (review)

Elena Poniatowska: An Intimate Biography has nine chapters, including a foreword by Carlos Fuentes, a preface, and an introduction. Each chapter has a title that gives an idea of what it will address. From his introduction, Schuessler familiarizes the reader with the life and background of one of the most, if not the most, renowned female writers of contemporary Mexico. Schuessler is able to capture the human warmth, sense of humor, and humbleness that have characterized Elena Poniatowska throughout the years. He takes the reader through the parts of Poniatowska’s life that he considers important to become familiar with the person, the journalist, the testimonial writer, and the oral interviewer.

Chapter 1 presents Poniatowska’s royal background (Polish), life experiences, and her contact with and learning from the poor which, as Schuessler points out, becomes part of what has made her writing important. She possesses the ability, despite being a true princess, to capture the language of the poor, as well as that of the educated and intellectual. Chapter 2 presents the initiation and development of Poniatowska as a newspaper journalist of Excelsior in the society section. The interviews used here help the reader become acquainted with not only the journalist but also some of the most important artists and writers of that epoch, such as María Izquierdo and Alfonso Reyes. Schuessler utilizes interviews and analysis to show Poniatowska’s sensibility toward women’s issues, as well as topics related to class and inequalities. In using this method, the author allows the non-Spanish reader to become acquainted with Mexican culture, politics, and society in the 1950s. This is the period in which Poniatowska begins to fuse testimonial work with journalism. Chapter 3 presents her transition to Novedades and her progress in writing narrative. Poniatowska’s command of Spanish and French also bring out important aspects of her interview skills. Here, Schuessler shows her passion for documenting what happens in the life of working class and poor Mexicans. Again, Schuessler uses published interviews, strong analyses, as well as his close relationship with the writer. The long interview in this chapter allows non- Mexicans and non-Spanish readers to see culture through someone (Poniatowska) who has captured the pain, poverty, and challenges of Mexicans living under the corruption of the Mexican government. Chapter 4 introduces books such as Palabras cruzadas, a collection of Poniatowska’s most successful interviews with personalities in literature, visual arts, film, politics, and more. Schuessler successfully brings out the thriving interviewer that Poniatowska has been throughout her career. This chapter also permits Schuessler to tap Poniatowska’s memory to relive and recover information related to Mexican corruption and censorship during the 1960s. Schuessler successfully conveys Poniatowska’s thinking behind her categorization of how or what interviews are adequate for politics, culture, etc. One can see that Poniatowska believes in the personal connection between the interviewer and the interviewee. Other qualities underlined here are those that Poniatowska considers essential in oral history—her drive to know firsthand the experience of the factory worker, the peasant, ordinary people, etc. Chapter 5 focuses on Palacio de Lecumberri, Poniatowska’s interviews with railroad workers, and Josefina Bórquez, the subject of Hasta no verte Jesús mío (1969). This section truly captures Josefina’s antipathy to interviews and how little by little Poniatowska’s personality, humbleness, and oral history interview techniques won her trust and thereby allowed Josefina to encapsulate Mexican history and its effects on the poor. As Schuessler points out, through these interviews Poniatowska comes to know not only the other reality of Mexico but also her own as a privileged individual, along with her consciousness and awareness of being Mexican. This, as Schuessler indicates, situates Poniatowska as one of the early writers of testimonial literature. Chapter 6 concentrates on 1968 and Tlatelolco. Schuessler’s compilation of interviews, articles, and information explain the writing of La noche de Tlatelolco, the effects of the massacre of hundreds of Mexicans, and...