While many artists and celebrities throughout the world are speaking out against the war in Iraq, renowned Mexican author Carlos Fuentes will be sending a message with his silence.

Fuentes has canceled his plans to deliver the next installment in the University Lecture Series in protest against the war. He was scheduled to deliver his lecture April 11.

“The university respects his wishes if he has determined he does not want to come to Syracuse as a protest of the U.S. involvement in Iraq,” said Kevin Morrow, spokesman for Syracuse University.

Morrow said that Fuentes will not be paid for the canceled lecture and that there will not be a replacement lecture, but the series will proceed as otherwise scheduled.

Gail Bulman, a professor in the Spanish department, speculated that Fuentes’ stance on war might be an effort to send a message to Mexican leaders regarding the country’s relationship to the United States. Fuentes is the author of “The Buried Mirror,” a book that Bulman said deals heavily with the effects of U.S. imperialism in Latin America.

“I think Fuentes is trying to send a strong message to leaders in his country, who were on the fence [about the war in Iraq} because of their personal relationship to [President Bush],” Bulman said.

Sam Alcoff, a junior history major and activist who has attended numerous anti-war protests on campus, said that both he and Fuentes, as Latin Americans, can empathize with the plight of the Iraqi people. Alcoff is of Panamanian descent and has family members and friends who were impacted by the U.S. invasion of that country.

Several students said that Fuentes could more effectively speak out against the war if he used the scheduled lecture as an opportunity to articulate his position.

“I think he would influence a lot more students by coming and speaking out against the war,” said Laura McClain, a freshman retail management and marketing major.

Kate Schardein, however, agreed with Fuentes’ actions. She said he was making an important statement, one important enough to merit depriving students of the opportunity to hear him speak.

“People, especially artists, have a right and responsibility to protest the war,” said Schardein, a junior political science and television, radio and film major. “I think it has to do with making a statement, and if that comes at a cost, that’s unfortunate.”

Alcoff said that Fuentes’ cancelation will send a strong message to those in power that “business as usual” will not continue during the war.

“I think that the planners for war have made the assumption that they can go commit a terrible atrocity and still hear the music they enjoy and the speakers they want to hear,” Alcoff said.

Published on March 27, 2003 at 12:00 pm