Description
In 1932 Frida Kahlo, living in Detroit, painted a self-portrait, “On the Borderline Between Mexico and the United States,” which visually suggests the differences between the two countries. John Steinbeck also considered these differences in his Mexican narratives. Over a third of his work is either about Mexico or includes characters of Mexican origin, such as his 1935 novel set in Monterey, Tortilla Flat.
His writing on Mexico is varied and poses interesting questions about cultural engagement: from his 1940 trip to Baja with marine biologist Edward F. Ricketts, Sea of Cortez (1940), to three films he worked on, all located in Mexico: The Forgotten Village (1940), La Perla (1947), and Viva Zapata! (1952). This talk will consider the reasons for Steinbeck’s fascination with Mexico as well as the range of his Mexican narratives.
About Susan Shillinglaw
Susan Shillinglaw has written extensively on the life and work of John Steinbeck, including Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage (University of Nevada Press, 2013); On Reading The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin, 2014); and A Journey into Steinbeck’s California (3rd edition, 2019). She has co-edited collections and written introductions for several Penguin Classics editions. Most recently she edited a collection of essays on Travels with Charley (University of Alabama Press, 2024) and completed a study of Steinbeck’s landscapes, forthcoming from Timber Press (2025).
She is Professor Emerita of English at San Jose State University, where she taught for 37 years and, for 18, was Director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies. In 2013 she was honored as SJSU President’s Scholar. From 2015-18 she was Director of Salinas’s National Steinbeck Center, and she is currently active on the boards of the Western Flyer Foundation and Robinson Jeffers’s Tor House Foundation.
