Culture Clash

One of the most powerful themes of Where the Air Is Clear is the sharp division between the social strata of 1950s Mexico City, along the fault lines of income and class, as well as race—with the indigenous Indians placed in the lowest rank, like the prostitute Gladys. Fuentes illustrates the conflict between the old and the new reigning members of the Mexican elite in several scenes, such as the dinner at the impoverished de Ovando household where the social climber Norma Robles meets the bitter aristocratic matriarch Lorenza de Ovando. The event is set up by Lorenza's cousin Pimpinela, an ambitious beauty struggling to retain her family's status and save them from starvation. Pimpinela is an example of the fully adapted social member, who willingly trades "class for cash" both in her marriage and at the salon parties. She asks the opportunist wife Norma Robles...