The pieces collected in Mexican Writers on Writing present a cross section of Mexican authors’ thoughts on writing, from Carlos Fuentes’s instructional Decalogue, to Bernardo de Balbuena’s flowery dissertation on the beauty of poetry, to Octavio Paz’s analysis of the essence of translation. From the time of the chronicles of the conquistadors to the contemporary movement Crack, these writers reveal ever-changing views of Mexico, a country in which poetry and fiction were not written until the seventeenth century. Margaret Sayers Peden offers fresh insights into how Mexican writers view their roles in their country’s literature and in the process provides the reader with an understanding of how three centuries of Mexican writing have evolved.