Why this antagonism between the United States and Latin America? Fuentes asks himself the question and concludes that the United States is not living up to its ideals. "Latin American writers such as [Gabriel] Garcia Marquez and myself spend out lives promoting American values," he says. "We have said that you have the best movies, a wonderful jazz, great artists and still we have all sorts of political problems."

In his latest novel "The Old Gringo," Fuentes explores the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. In the original Spanish language version, the parts of the two American characters are actually written in English. In spite of Fuentes' efforts in his novels to bring the U.S. and Mexico together with his characters, there remains a constant tension between the two cultures throughout the novel. The inherent antagonism between cultures is captured in the old gringo's words, "To be a gringo in Mexico, that is suicide."

Fuentes criticism of the U.S. is not cultural. His problems with the U.S. are political and relate to the role the U.S. has played so far in Latin America. The problem is between a country with well established political institutions and a continent which is struggling to set the foundations for a system of its own.

"[The United States] does not live up to its great capacity to negotiate its own internal conflicts, to find a political solution," he says. Fuentes cites the United States shaky support for the so-called Contadora process as an example. The Contadora agreement drawn up between Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela represented a Latin American solution to ongoing crises in Central America. Among the proposed conditions was the withdrawal of foreign military advisers from Nicaragua. Yet as soon as Nicaragua agreed to sign the agreement, the U.S. withdrew its support. "The United States does not allow us to be what it allows itself to be," says Fuentes. "They do not allow us the self-determination, the political and diplomatic capacity which they give themselves."

One problem which characterizes both North and South America, according to Fuentes, is that neither has discovered the meaning of tragedy. And to those who insist that Latin American literature is full of tragedy, Fuentes replies: "Not tragedy, but crime... Tragedy means to recognize that both we and our opponent are right. We do not have that which Prometheus, Oedipus and Antigone had because we have been incapable of giving our opponent the same worth which we give ourselves."

Fuentes says North Americans believe people are good or bad, cowboy or Indian, communist or capitalist. This intolerance and failure to recognize the qualities of the opponent is the source of many of today's problems both within Latin America and between Latin America and the U.S., he says.

One message which comes across clearly in Fuentes' work is that we can't escape our history. Yet, just as man has made his past, he also has the present and the future at his disposal. And if the literary creativity which has characterized Latin America can be extended to politics, there is a possibility for emerging from the present crisis. "I believe that political life is also an art, a book, a painting we must make and it is our responsibility to do so."