(This was written in early March 2009. Follow the ‘more’ ink to read the full note, which is on the long side…)
Not long ago, I came across a review of Mexican High: A Novel by Liza Monroy, soon to be published in paperback by Doubleday. I started getting more and more interested as I figured out it was based on the High School I attended. As people asked me about whether I knew her (to which “no” was my initial answer), I eventually figured out who the author was.
I went to High School at the American School Foundation (ASF) in Mexico City from 1993 to 1997 (characterized as ISM, the International School of Mexico, in the book). Both new students, I first met Liza Gennatiempo (that was her name then, so I guess she might have changed it or gotten married—beyond her marriage-for-green-card-and-LGBT-rights-statement) at new student orientation in what was probably late August 1993. I last saw her—to the best of my recollection—at graduation or prom, whichever was after, around June of 1997. Thus, we shared a pretty similar High School experience, from which she came up with the book. So much so that in the story, one character is “Jaime, whose father ran GasMex [in reference to PEMEX], the country’s petroleum giant;” and later in an interview in WNYC, Mrs Monroy again highlights that she went to school with the “sons and daughters of [...] the person that ran PEMEX [...] these fresas”. My father was CEO of PEMEX from December 1994 to December 1999. This “me” both times serves to help define the fresas, in the book and in the interview. The author characterizes these, for example, as “Eurotrash with Mexican passports”—when pulling her punches. Reading the rest of the novel and hearing the WNYC interview, I take offense. I do.
But, back to the book… Continue reading ‘The Mexico that isn’t’
