Mexican history, and particularly the nation's Aztec origins, form the subject matter and supply much of the imagery for Fuentes's novels. The Aztec god Quetzlcoati is a character in Terra Nostra, a fictionalized account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico that deals with events in eras ranging from feudal Spain to present-day Mexico.

"He wants to portray the relation of the Old World and the New," Donald L. Fanger, a professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature, noted adding that Fuentes is extremely well-versed in European literature, especially French fiction.

Fanger added that Fuentes is intimately familiar with North American culture and literature Fanger, who has corresponded with Fuentes since the two met at a Harvard conference two years ago, called Fuentes "one of a relative few Latin American intellectuals who feel really and deeply at home in America. He knows our habits of thought."

And Jaime Alazraki, professor of Romance Literatures and Languages, listed Americans John Dos Passos, and William Faulkner as two writers who have helped shape Fuentes's own style.

"In The Death of Artemio Cruz, Fuentes used Faulkner's techniques of fragmented point of view and multiple narrators. In Where the Air is Clear he works with Dos Passos's camera eye techniques," Alazraki added.

Fuentes's work has also been heavily influenced by motion pictures. A movie trivia expert and a close friend of the great Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel, his most recent play. Orchids in the Moonlight, tells the story of two aging Mexican movie actresses as they struggle to come to terms with their fading stardom.

"He's interested in the relationship between the image on the screen and reality," Fanger explains Bunuel's surrealism has had a substantial influence on Fuentes's prose style, Soto-Duggan added.

Fanger added that Fuentes' 1978 novel. The Hydra Head, "was a tribute to the film noire. It can't be understood unless you keep in mind that Fuentes was looking at that genre of film."