Mirages of Modernity: Mexico City in "Los fuereños" by José Tomás de Cuéllar

Abstract

Los fuereños, published in 1883, represents one of the last narrative incursions of the prolific writer José Tomás de Cuellar. In this novel, the author not only reflects about the material circumstances of Mexico City during the beginning of the Porfirian era, but also analyzes, through the views of an immigrant family, society’s moral status, right as it is going through a critical modernization process. In these pages, Facundo warns about the economic and human risks of imposing in Mexico, a budding country, a capitalist system based solely on the values of change and material progress.