How did a scholar of modern Spanish America become interested in Freud?
For the past three years I have been writing a book on Freud and Mexico. Part of it is about the reception of Freud. Who was reading Freud in the 1920s? How were books like “Totem and Taboo” read by Mexican poets and artists? Part of it is about Freud’s view of Mexico. Freud collected Mexican antiquities, read Mexican books — in Spanish — and corresponded with Mexican disciples. Surprisingly, no one had explored this intriguing relationship. There are books about Freud in Russia, Freud in France, even one about Freud in Argentina called “Freud in the Pampas,” but there was virtually nothing about Freud in Mexico, so I decided it would make a good book project. Has living in Vienna helped you understand Freud’s relationship to Mexico? Absolutely! Not many people realize that the histories of Austria and Mexico have been intertwined for more than 500 years, and that the two countries have had a complex — and at times traumatic — relationship. It was a Hapsburg King, Charles V, who ruled
