Elena Poniatowska, Mexico’s most celebrated journalist and one of the most significant literary voices in the Spanish-speaking world, argues in this conversation that the crisis of contemporary journalism is inseparable from the collapse of critical reading—and that both are symptoms of a deeper cultural abandonment. Born in Paris in 1932 to a French-Polish father and Mexican mother, Poniatowska contends that her formation as a writer was shaped by displacement, by learning to listen to those rendered voiceless by history, and by understanding that journalism must be an act of solidarity before it is anything else. Widely credited with helping to establish the genre of testimonio in Latin American letters, she transformed the voices of the marginalised into literature that forced an entire nation to confront its own silence. She maintains that her landmark work La Noche de Tlatelolco was not a journalistic achievement but a moral obligation, and reflects on her decision to refuse the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, asking who would award the dead. Poniatowska insists that the greatest threat to literature and journalism today is not artificial intelligence but the disappearance of patience—the willingness to sit with a text, a story, or a life long enough for meaning to emerge. At 94, she affirms her belief in the innate goodness of human beings as not a sentiment but a necessity.

Elena Poniatowska, la periodista más célebre de México y una de las voces literarias más significativas del mundo hispanohablante, sostiene en esta conversación que la crisis del periodismo contemporáneo es inseparable del colapso de la lectura crítica—y que ambos son síntomas de un abandono cultural más profundo. Nacida en París en 1932 de padre franco-polaco y madre mexicana, Poniatowska afirma que su formación como escritora estuvo marcada por el desplazamiento, por aprender a escuchar a quienes la historia había silenciado, y por comprender que el periodismo debe ser ante todo un acto de solidaridad. Ampliamente reconocida por haber contribuido a establecer el género del testimonio en las letras latinoamericanas, transformó las voces de los marginados en literatura que obligó a una nación entera a confrontar su propio silencio. Sostiene que su obra emblemática La Noche de Tlatelolco no fue un logro periodístico sino una obligación moral, y reflexiona sobre su decisión de rechazar el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, preguntando quién iba a premiar a los muertos. Poniatowska insiste en que la mayor amenaza para la literatura y el periodismo hoy no es la inteligencia artificial sino la desaparición de la paciencia—la disposición a permanecer con un texto, una historia o una vida el tiempo suficiente para que emerja el significado. A los 94 años, reafirma su creencia en la bondad innata de los seres humanos no como un sentimiento sino como una necesidad.

English transcript:

SAVAGE MINDS — Elena Poniatowska

Julian Vigo (00:00:15):

Welcome to Savage Minds.

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I am your host, Julian Vigo.

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Today’s guest is Elena Poniatowska Amor,

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daughter of a French father of Polish origin, Jean E.

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Poniatowski, and Mexican mother Paula Amor.

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She was born in Paris in 1932.

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She has practiced journalism since 1953 at the newspapers El Día, Excélsior, Novedades, and La Jornada.

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She is the first woman to receive the National Journalism Prize.

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Among her works is La Noche de Tlatelolco,

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a classic since its publication, for which she was awarded the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize,

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which she refused, asking who was going to award the dead.

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Her novels and stories include La Flor de Lis,

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De Noche Vienes and Tlapalería,

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Paseo de la Reforma,

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Hasta No Verte Jesús Mío,

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The Life of a Mexican Soldadera,

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Querido Diego Te Abraza Quiela, Tinísima, winner of the Mazatlán Prize in 1992, La Piel del Cielo,

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winner of the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2001, and El Tren Pasa Primero,

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about the lives of Mexican railway workers,

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winner of the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize in 2007. Leonora won the Premio Biblioteca Breve Seix Barral in 2011. El Universo o Nada (2013) is the biography of

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astrophysicist Guillermo Haro. Ondas de la Niña Mala is her first poetry collection, and

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her children’s books include Boda en Chimalistac, La Vendedora de Nubes,

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El Burro que Metió la Pata, Sansimonsi, illustrated by Rafael Barajas el Fisgón, and El

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Niño Estrellero by Fernando Robles, and El Charito Cantor by Osvaldo Hernández.

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Her most recent novel, El Amante Polaco, portrays the last king of Poland, Stanisław August

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Poniatowski. Translated into 20 languages. Gabi Brimmer and Las Mil y Una, the story of

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Paulina,

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address social issues.

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After receiving honorary doctorates from UNAM and UAM,

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she was awarded them from the University of Puebla,

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Sonora, Estado de México,

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Guerrero,

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Chiapas, and Puerto Rico.

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She also received honorary degrees from the New School for Social Research in New York,

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Manhattanville College, and Florida Atlantic University in the United States, and from

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Paris 8,

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La Sorbonne, and Pau-Pyrénées, as well as the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism at

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Columbia University, New York, in 2004, and from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, in

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2015.

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She received the French Legion of Honour at the rank of Officer, the Gabriela Mistral Prize from Chile, and in

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2006, the Courage Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation.

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In 2013 she was awarded

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the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for literature in the Spanish language, and she received the

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Belisario Domínguez Medal in 2022.

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This is the highest honour granted by the Senate of the Mexican Republic, along with the

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Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language in 2023.

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I welcome Elena Poniatowska to Savage Minds.

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I wanted to begin with a memory I have of you.

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In 1993,

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I think,

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or 94 —

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one of those two years —

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I was in Puebla,

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Cholula,

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teaching at the Universidad de las Américas.

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Yes.

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And you came to give a talk at an observatory — I believe it was Tonantzintla.

Elena Poniatowska (00:04:44):

Yes, of course.

Elena Poniatowska (00:04:46):

Yes, I remember it, and

Julian Vigo (00:04:49):

you made a great impression on me that day. But I must confess that your entire life’s work made a great impression on me — not only on me. I wanted to begin with your formation, your life, because you were born in France and

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how do you remember your childhood in France, and what elements of that world did you bring with you when you arrived in Mexico in 1942?

Elena Poniatowska (00:05:21):

Well, thank you very much for your interest.

Elena Poniatowska (00:05:29):

I can tell you that I was born in 1932 in Paris, France, because my mother Paula Amor married

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Juan Poniatowski, who held a noble title — that of prince —

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because the last king of Poland was Stanisław Poniatowski, who was, I believe, one of

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the lovers —

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one of the younger lovers of the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great.

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My mother was a woman born also in Paris, of Mexican origin, who left

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France because of the Mexican Revolution

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and went to live with her parents — Pablo Amor and Elena Iturbe de Amor — in

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Biarritz, and they later moved to Paris. My mother always spoke Spanish with a French accent. She had two sisters who also lived in France for a long time,

Elena Poniatowska (...