Stories That Make History

From covering the massacre of students at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the 1985 earthquake to the Zapatista rebellion in 1994 and the disappearance of forty-three students in 2014 Elena Poniatowska has been one of the most important chroniclers of Mexican social cultural and political life. In <i>Stories That Make History</i> Lynn Stephen examines Poniatowska's writing activism and political participation using them as a lens through which to understand critical moments in contemporary Mexican history. In her crónicas-narrative journalism written in a literary style featuring firsthand testimonies-Poniatowska told the stories of Mexico's most marginalized people. Throughout Stephen shows how Poniatowska helped shape Mexican politics and forge a multigenerational political community committed to social justice. In so doing she presents a biographical and intellectual history of one of Mexico's most cherished writers and a unique history of modern Mexico.