Mexico mourns death of Carlos Fuentes The prolific Fuentes wrote his first novel, "Where the Air is Clear," at age 29, laying the foundation for a boom in Spanish contemporary literature during the 1960s and 1970s. He published an essay on the change of power in France in the newspaper Reforma on Tuesday, the same day he died. His generation of writers, including Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa, drew global readership and attention to Latin American culture during a period when strongmen ruled much of the region. "The Death of Artemio Cruz," a novel about a post-revolutionary Mexico, brought Fuentes international acclaim. He was asked in an unpublished 2006 interview why he didn't mention in the book the target of his criticism, the long-ruling, autocratic Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by its Spanish initials PRI. The PRI is now poised to take back the presidency in July 1 elections. "There was no need to mention the PRI," Fuentes answered. It is present by its absence. The strapping, mustachioed author dressed smartly, ate well and moved easily between the capitals of Europe and Mexico City with his equally elegant wife, journalist Silvia Lemus. His other classics included "Aura," "Terra Nostra" and "The Good Conscience." Many American readers know him for "The Old Gringo," a novel about San Francisco journalist Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared at the height of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution. That book was later made into a 1989 film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. Mexican historian Enrique Krauze was considered Fuentes' harshest critic, saying the writer had sold out to the PRI regime and was out of touch with Mexico. But Krauze acknowledged his talents on Tuesday, calling Fuentes an "author of lasting novels and short stories, a vigorous, enriching presence." "That's all I should say," he told The Associated Press. Mexican writer Hector Aguilar Camin said on his Twitter account: "One of a kind. An era, his own genre. A writer for all seasons. To Silvia, all my affection. Fuentes himself ventured into Twitter only one day, March 19, 2011. His last message there read: "There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it."