(15 May 2012) 1. Mid of author Carlos Fuentes (second from right) sitting next to Mexican President Felipe Calderon (right) during a tribute to the writer's career
2. Fuentes greeting people
3. Wide of tribute ceremony
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carlos Fuentes, Writer:
"Recently, one of my books was subjected to a minor type of censorship... very minimal. Not of much importance. But, just as any type of censorship, it is unsettling."
5. Pull out from Fuentes greeting Calderon to crowd clapping
6. Mid of Fuentes during ceremony to unveil sculpture in his honour
7. Cutaway of photographers
8. Various of Fuentes at ceremony
9. Mid of sign reading (Spanish): "Carlos Fuentes - 80"
10. Fuentes posing for pictures with sculptor
11. Tilt down from sculpture to crowd
12. Mid of Fuentes
STORYLINE:
Author Carlos Fuentes, who played a dominant role in Latin America's novel-writing boom by delving into the failed ideals of the Mexican revolution, died on Tuesday in a Mexico City hospital. He was 83.
Mexico's National Council for Culture for the Arts confirmed the death of Mexico's most celebrated novelist.
The cause of death was not immediately known, according to a culture official, who was not authorised to speak to the media.
Mexican media reported Fuentes died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital, where he was being treated for heart problems.
The prolific Fuentes wrote his first novel, "Where the Air is Clear," at age 29, laying the foundation for a boom in Spanish contemporary literature during the 1960s and 1970s.
His generation of writers, including Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa, drew global readership and attention to Latin American culture during a period when strongmen ruled much of the region.
"The Death of Artemio Cruz," a novel about a post-revolutionary Mexico that failed to keep its promise of narrowing social gaps, brought Fuentes international notoriety.
The elegant, mustachioed author's other contemporary classics included "Aura," "Terra Nostra," and "The Good Conscience."
He also wrote "The Old Gringo," a novel about San Francisco journalist Ambrose Bierce, who disappeared at the height of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution. That book was later made into a film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.
Fuentes was often mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel prize but never won one. A busy man, Fuentes wrote plays and short stories and co-founded a literary magazine.
He was also a columnist, political analyst, essayist and critic.
And he was outspoken. Once considered a Communist and sympathiser of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Fuentes was previously denied entry into the US under an immigration and nationality act.
More recently, as a moderate leftist, Fuentes strongly opposed harsh policies against immigration and the war on terrorism in the US, though he expressed deep affection for the United States.
He warned about Mexico's religious right but also blasted Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as a "tropical Mussolini."
A believer that literature allowed him to say what would be censored otherwise, Fuentes also was the subject of censorship.
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