Mexico
Last updated: November 13, 2025
Mexico, with a population of over 126 million, is the largest Spanish speaking country in the world. Here you can find book recommendations to help you understand and explore this fascinating country.
We asked the award-winning Mexican novelist Ave Barrera to recommend five classic Mexican novels which includes a book by Carlos Fuentes.
The explorer, filmmaker and writer, Hugh Thomson, chooses his best five books on the country, covering everything from the Conquistadores to the Revolution of 1910 and more. As he explains, the 1910 revolution was of great importance, as it lasted from 1910 to 1920 and was the first modern Latin American revolution, providing Mexico with its political direction for most of the 20th century and having implications for the whole of Latin America. He also talks about retracing the steps of the early Conquistadors from the coast to what is now Mexico City. He discusses how various European, particularly British writers have viewed Mexico, choosing books by Malcolm Lowry and Evelyn Waugh.
Elsewhere Regina Marchi looks at the best books on the Day of the Dead, a festival celebrated throughout Latin America, but most famously and most spectacularly in Mexico. It is now widely celebrated in the United States, too, brought by Mexican immigrants.
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1
The Essential Codex Mendoza
by Frances Berdan & Patricia Anawalt -
2
Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar
by Diego Duran -
3
Aztec Imperial Strategies
by Elizabeth Hill Boone, Frances Berdan, Mary G. Hodge, Michael E. Smith & Richard E. Blanton -
4
The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries
by James Lockhart -
5
The Offerings of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan
by Leonardo Lopez Lujan
The best books on The Aztecs, recommended by Michael E. Smith
The best books on The Aztecs, recommended by Michael E. Smith
The history of the Aztecs is the best documented of all the Native American peoples, shedding light on life in the Americas before the arrival of the conquistadors. Professor Michael E. Smith, an archaeologist at Arizona State University, introduces books about the Aztec Empire — with a focus on documentary sources and artefacts that reveal not only how the elites lived, but also ordinary people.
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1
Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in the Conquest of Mexico
by Camilla Townsend -
2
Los Conspiradores
by Jorge Ibarüengoitia -
3
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
by Friedrich Katz -
4
Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story
by Ruth Behar -
5
The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade
by Benjamin Smith
The best books on Mexican history, recommended by Timo Schaefer
The best books on Mexican history, recommended by Timo Schaefer
In Mexican history, power developed in marginal locations away from the center has often played a major role in critical historical events, says award-winning historian Timo Schaefer. He recommends some of the best books on Mexican history, from a biography of the extraordinary Malintzin (c1500-1529) to a myth-busting history of the drug trade.
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1
The Skeleton at the Feast
by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloë Sayer -
2
The Days of the Dead
by John Greenleigh and Rosalind Beimler -
3
Día de los Muertos: A Cultural Legacy, Past, Present & Future
Curated by Linda Vallejo and Betty Brown -
4
On the Path of Marigolds: Living Traditions of Mexico's Day of the Dead
by Ann Murdy -
5
El Corazon de la Muerte
by Oakland Museum of California
The best books on The Day of The Dead, recommended by Regina Marchi
The best books on The Day of The Dead, recommended by Regina Marchi
As long as they live in our memories, family members and loved ones who have died remain with us. That’s what is celebrated on the Day of the Dead, an indigenous Latin American tradition that survived both Catholic missionaries and the modernizing state to flourish in recent years, featuring in more than one Hollywood blockbuster. Regina Marchi, a professor at Rutgers University and author of Day of the Dead in the USA, talks us through the origins, evolution and contemporary celebrations of the Day of the Dead.
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1
Recollections of Things to Come
by Elena Garro, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms, illustrated by Alberto Beltrán -
2
Cartucho
by Nellie Campobello, translated by Doris Meyer -
3
Balún Canán
by Castellanos Rosario -
4
Pedro Páramo
by Juan Rulfo, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden -
5
Aura
by Carlos Fuentes, translated by Lysander Kemp
Five of the Best Classic Mexican Novels, recommended by Ave Barrera
Five of the Best Classic Mexican Novels, recommended by Ave Barrera
We asked the award-winning Mexican novelist Ave Barrera—whose latest book, The Forgery, has recently been translated into English—to recommend five classic Mexican novels. Here she discusses her choices, which include books by Juan Rulfo, Elena Garro and Nellie Campobello.
The best books on Mexico, recommended by Hugh Thomson
Explorer, film-maker and writer, Hugh Thomson, picks the best books on Mexico, from the revolution in 1910, to the conquistadors, to gold mines, to the fatalism of Mexico and more.
