Enrique Krauze Kleinbort (born 16 September 1947) is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: Mexico: Biography of Power, Redeemers, and El pueblo soy yo (I am the people). He has also produced more than 500 television programs and documentaries about Mexico's history. His biographical, historical works, and his political and literary essays, which have reached a broad audience, have made him famous.
He received his bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1965-1969). He received a Doctorate in History from the Center of Historical Studies in El Colegio de México (1969-1974). He is a member of the Mexican Academy of History and the Mexican National College (El Colegio Nacional). He is also director of the publishing house ClÃÂo and director of Letras Libres, a cultural magazine. The Engineering Faculty shortly before the start of Mexican Movement of 1968 elected him university councillor. In 1979 he obtained the Guggenheim Fellowship.
He has been a professor and researcher for El Colegio de México in 1977; guest professor at St Antony's College, Oxford, from October to December in 1981 and 1983; guest professor at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, from October to December 1987. Similarly, he was visiting professor at Princeton UniversityâÂÂs Program in Latin American Studies in the autumn of 2013.
At 24 years old, he obtained his first publication in Siempre! magazine, titled: âÂÂLa saña y el terrorâ (âÂÂThe viciousness and terrorâÂÂ), which tells of the Corpus Christi Thursday Massacre (which he witnessed). A year later he started to collaborate at Plural, ExcélsiorâÂÂs monthly cultural magazine. He started working at Vuelta in 1977, invited by Octavio Paz. He collaborated at Vuelta for more than 20 years, first as an editorial secretary from 1977 to 1981 and then as deputy director from 1981 to 1996.
In 1991 he launched the publishing house and television producer ClÃÂo, of which he is the director. Since 1999, after Octavio PazâÂÂs death, he has directed VueltaâÂÂs cultural heir: Letras Libres, with editions in Mexico, Spain, and online. Since 1985 he has been an editorial writer for The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, El PaÃÂs, and Reforma.
In 1990 he was elected member at the Mexican Academy of History and since 2005 he is a member of the Colegio Nacional in Mexico. Among other tasks, he has been a member of the board of directors at the Instituto Cervantes, the board of directors at Televisa, and the board of directors at Grupo Financiero Santander México (Mexican Bank).
His essays have been collected by the Debate label of Penguin Random House Editorial Group in the Liberal Essayist collection, while his historical works are part of Enrique KrauzeâÂÂs Historical Library series by Tusquets Editores.
In his article titled "La misión de la televisión" (âÂÂTelevisionâÂÂs missionâÂÂ), published in 2013 in Reforma, Krauze quotes his stance on this media that he has been tied to for three decades: He debuted on television in 1987 as the author of the series BiografÃÂa del Poder (Biography of Power), produced by the Film Production Center, and transmitted through the stateâÂÂs network Imevisión. The following year he served as an advisor for the series Mexico, produced by Public Broadcasting Service (WGBH) in association with Blackwell Corporation from Boston.
Along with Fausto Zerón-Medina in 1994, he wrote a soap opera titled El vuelo del águila (The Eagle's Flight) based on Porfirio DÃÂazâÂÂs life, produced by Ernesto Alonso for Televisa, starring Fabián Robles (young Porfirio DÃÂaz), Humberto Zurita (Porfirio DÃÂaz), and Manuel Ojeda (old Porfirio DÃÂaz). Krauze is a producer of documental series México siglo XX, México nuevo siglo y ClÃÂo TV presenta since 1998, broadcast weekly on open television through TelevisaâÂÂs network.
Along with Alvin H. Perlmutter, Krauze produced Beyond Borders, Undocumented Mexican Americans (2016) directed by Micah Fink, co-produced by The Independent Production Fund (US), ClÃÂo (Mexico), and La Fábrica de Cine (Mexico). He is also the executive producer of the documentary El pueblo soy yo, Venezuela en populismo by director Carlos Oteyza (2018).
Editorial ClÃÂo, Libros y Videos, S.A. de C.V., was born in 1991 by the initiative of Emilio Azcárraga Milmo and Enrique Krauze as a project aimed at disseminating the past and present of Mexico that, in its name, pays tribute to the muse of history.
Originally conceived as a publishing house, since 1998 it began the production of documentaries that through its series ClÃÂo TV presenta and Hazaña, el deporte vive, reach hundreds of thousands of homes weekly through open broadcasting throughout the country and other national and international media.
Throughout its history, ClÃÂo has published nearly 200 printed titles and has broadcast more than 500 documentaries.
Enrique Krauze published his first article in Vuelta magazine, directed by the poet Octavio Paz, in its first issue corresponding to December 1976 ("CosÃÂo Villegas and Excélsior"). In 1977, starting from the fourth issue, Krauze was hired as the editorial secretary. From 1981 to 1996 he held the position of deputy director, his participation being indispensable from an operative point of view since he dedicated most of his time to moving Vuelta forward as a company, which allowed it to reach a long existence by giving it continuity and economic independence. In Vuelta more than 60 articles saw the light throughout twenty years, among them the controversial âÂÂPor una democracia sin adjetivosâ ("For a Democracy without Adjectives") and âÂÂLa comedia mexicana de Carlos Fuentesâ (Carlos Fuentesâ Mexican Comedy), which discussed Mexican democracy and literature.
After Octavio PazâÂÂs death, on April 19, 1998, Vuelta ended its cycle and Enrique Krauze undertook the organization of its successor: the monthly magazine Letras Libres, which published its first issue in January 1999. Two years later, in October 2001, he added a Spanish edition (that received the National Prize for Promoting Reading in Spain in 2014) to the Mexican edition.
Letras Libres has published 254 issues up to February 2020 (221 in the Spanish edition), which according to the magazine, âÂÂcalls the brightest minds to tackle, in its pages, urgent and necessary subjects of global debate, and at the same time offers readers samples of the best prose and poetry.âÂÂ
Enrique Krauze has named himself a critic of power, of presidential power to be precise, that has been exercised itself in Mexico as authoritarian throughout decades. His historical works Siglo de caudillos, BiografÃÂa del poder, and, especially, La presidencia imperial (The Imperial Presidency) can be interpreted as a critical review of power and its exploits, since the War of Independence until Carlos Salinas de GortariâÂÂs government.
His essay âÂÂEl timón y la tormentaâ (âÂÂThe Rudder and the StormâÂÂ), published by Vuelta in October 1982, alluded to the president José López PortilloâÂÂs phrase when Mexico fell into a deep financial crisis: âÂÂI am responsible for the rudder, not the stormâÂÂ. In it, he criticized the current six-year termâÂÂs abuses, its rash economic policies, its irresponsibility by not admitting its part in the shipwreck, the âÂÂoil pharaonismâÂÂ, the generalized corruption, and the lack of leadership during the crisis, marking MexicoâÂÂs only historical option to âÂÂrespect and exercise political liberty, rights, and above all, democracyâÂÂ.
Following that text he published âÂÂPor una democracia sin adjetivosâ (âÂÂFor a Democracy without AdjectivesâÂÂ) (Vuelta 86, January 1984), during the president Miguel de la Madrid HurtadoâÂÂs term, where he proposed that democracy was a simulation in the country:
âÂÂFor a Democracy without AdjectivesâÂÂâ received a rebuttal from the government through Manuel Camacho SolÃÂs (who published on VueltaâÂÂs 90th issue in May 1984: âÂÂThe Democratic BattleâÂÂ), and produced a controversy with other intellectuals like Rolando Cordera, Carlos Bazdresch, Rafael Segovia, Manuel Aguilar Mora, and Eduardo Valle.
About Carlos Salinas de GortariâÂÂs government, in his article âÂÂNeoconservativesâ (Reforma, April 21st, 1996), Krauze said that âÂÂthe privatizations and the North American Free Trade Agreement where coherent measures in the world we live inâÂÂ, an open and modern world. But he points out that Salinas âÂÂimplemented a lot of [those measures] in a vertical, despotic, discretional, and capricious mannerâÂÂ. Krauze saw âÂÂthose reformsâ purposeâ as âÂÂthe only possible at the end of the XX CenturyâÂÂ, in front of the socialist project, that had already crumbled. The approval of these economic policies, however, was not the same in the political landscape:
Criticism towards Krauze has its origin in different aspects of his work. One of them is a reproach to the Academy for its theory of history, exacerbation, self-referential quotes, the majestic âÂÂusâÂÂ, and his elaborate style (as seen in âÂÂUNAM and Bicentenary. Historic DeliriumâÂÂ, Letras Libres 108, December 2007).) Similarly, his interest in historic essays and divulgation of history through more accessible formats, like illustrated books and television documentaries. Another is his liberal conviction, which he tackled since the 1980s not only with the PRI regimeâÂÂs officialdom but with ample left-wing sectors that didnâÂÂt commune with his vision of democracy. About the subject, Gabriel Zaid wrote:
About KrauzeâÂÂs popularity, literary critic Christopher DomÃÂnguez Michael has written:
Historian Claudio Lomnitz has pointed out his biographic inclination: "The biographies of power written by Enrique Krauze argue that in Mexico, psychology and the presidentâÂÂs personality have determined the course of historyâÂÂ. Krauze on the other hand, has pointed out that it is undoubtedly âÂÂimpossible to reduce history to a biographyâÂÂ, but âÂÂwithout biography, there is no historyâÂÂ, and that âÂÂhis attention to the individual does not come from a cultist reverence to heroes, but from a conviction that people in history matter just as much or more than the vast impersonal forces and collective entitiesâÂÂ.
In recent decades, his portrayal of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a populist has generated a strong reaction among his supporters. As a defender of the process of democratization that Mexico started to live at the end of the 1980s (which had its most important milestones in 1997 with the first Congress election dominated by the opposition, and candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano elected as mayor of Mexico City (Distrito Federal), as well as with the election of the first president in 71 years in the year 2000 not from the official party, Vicente Fox Quesada), shortly before the 2006 Mexican general election, Krauze published the essay âÂÂThe Tropical Messiahâ (Letras Libres 57, June 2006), where he criticized López ObradorâÂÂs attitudes as âÂÂpopular and populist, charismatic leader, messianic, provincialist, authoritative, with little regard for the law", which he perceived as an autocratic temptation to dissolve Mexican democratic institutions, including non-reelection.
The essay elicited controversy, and Krauze was accused as part of the âÂÂDirty Warâ against the presidential candidate from Tabasco. In an interview after the elections, López Obrador called Krauze a âÂÂreactionary lump totally devoted to the right-wingâÂÂ. Some of the historianâÂÂs critics, like VÃÂctor M. Toledo, rated the essay as an âÂÂideological montage made to generate fearâ with racial prejudice:
In response, Krauze pointed out that ToledoâÂÂs interpretation left out âÂÂany reference to the medullar subject of the essay, AMLOâÂÂs messianismâÂÂ, pointing out that the âÂÂtropicalâ adjective and the aspects of Tabascan temperamental characterization came from López ObradorâÂÂs books. Toledo retorted that it was questionable that Krauze decided to draw a âÂÂpsychological and biographical portraitâ of the candidate âÂÂinstead of writing a convincing review of his ideas and political proposalsâÂÂ, asking himself if that hadnâÂÂt been âÂÂanother piece of the politically immoral war of personal disqualificationâÂÂ.
In 2007, historian Lorenzo Meyer accused him in Proceso of being one of the intellectuals that spread fear among the citizens during the electoral process of the year before. Krauze answered that the electorate had responded by itself only punishing López Obrador.
In his book La mafia nos robó la presidencia (The Mob Stole our Presidency) (Grijalbo, 2007), Andrés Manuel López Obrador referred once again to the historian:
Nevertheless, in March 2012, during his second campaign for the presidency (that set out with a more moderate and less randy profile than the 2006 campaign), López Obrador met up with Krauze at a private dinner, where he told him:
Remembering the encounter during his third and final campaign, in May 2018, Krauze sentenced: "to my regret, I feel that the portrait I painted of him in âÂÂThe Tropical Messiahâ has only been confirmed over timeâÂÂ.
After López Obrador's victory in the 2018 general election, Enrique Krauze was the target of criticism from some government officials. The first was the accusation from Tatiana Clouthier Carrillo, López Obrador's campaign coordinator, in her book Juntos hicimos historia (Together, we made History) (Penguin Random House, 2019), of a campaign led by business interest groups and intellectuals to avoid López Obrador's rise to power through social media manipulation, in which Krauze should have been included. The story was told with more detail in the newspaper Eje Central on March 14, 2019, which named the campaign Berlin Operation. Krauze denied all allegations in the Reforma newspaper where he demonstrated that he was not in Mexico City at the time the anonymous source (later identified as Ricardo Sevilla) told of a personal encounter with the historian. President López Obrador seemed to stop this affair when he expressed:
Later, in May 2019, the Republic's Presidential Social Communication Administration published a partial list of payments made by the Federal Government between 2013 and 2018 to "media and journalists" (in which, for example, were missing the payments made to broadcasters), which included information on Krauze, ClÃÂo, and Letras Libres, to point them out as beneficiaries of less than transparent contributions from previous administrations. ClÃÂo and Letras Libres published clarifications that marked the reason for said payments, the publicity services, and production services made, and the lack of representation of those amounts compared to the total amount the government spent on official publicity.
On June 4, 2020, the government of the state of Jalisco battled strong protests in the city of Guadalajara. The complaint was due to the assassination of Giovanni López in the previous month, after being detained and beaten by the municipal police of Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, for allegedly not wearing a facemask during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. After separating himself from the crime (arguing that the municipal police was not under his control), governor Enrique Alfaro RamÃÂrez accused president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his party, Morena, of being behind the protests. The next day, Enrique Krauze wrote a tweet defending Alfaro's denouncement of intromission from the federal government in the protests:
Before that, on June 6, during a tour through Minatitlán, López Obrador expressed, mixing Krauze's name with 19th Century conservative writer, historian and politician, Lucas Alamán:
Hours later, Krauze twitted: