From Poland to France with Amo(u)r: Elena Poniatowska’s Mexican Crónicas

In France and Poland where journalisme littéraire and reportaż have enjoyed long and rich traditions, it is curious that Elena Poniatowska’s literary journalism has attracted little attention. The reasons differ in degree, but translations efforts in both countries suggest that the French and the Poles see Poniatowska strictly as a Latin American Boom writer and, as such, favor her fiction over her socially-engaged literary journalism. By examining the international literary journalistic and reportage traditions inscribed within Poniatowska’s most celebrated crónica, La noche de Tlatelolco, this article attempts to counter these current trends in France and in Poland. A daughter of France with royal Polish blood, Poniatowska might have focused her attention this past half century on the troubled history of her adopted nation, Mexico, and on its victimized and marginalized peoples, but her journalistic themes, oral histories, interviewing techniques and literary talents are as universal as those from any French or Polish grand reporter.