The Illusion of Progress: Why I wrote The Fine Young Men of Mexico
The novel's insights into masculinity, patriarchy, and faith expose a universal dysfunction.
I hadn’t planned to write a novel about Mexico —until I went back for a weekend with my childhood friends from Monterrey.
I had spent my first twenty-three years there, but I never quite identified with the country —not with the mariachi, the tequila, the fútbol, the carnes asadas, the Catholic Church, the kidnappings, or the teenagers spraying bullets at high noon.
It may sound absurd for one person to feel out of step with 130 million others, but somehow I managed it.
Still, I liked my friends enough to make the trip. We met in Mérida, a haven for Monterrey’s elite —a place to outrun cartel violence, failed businesses, and unpaid debts.
Among men with every advantage —education, money, and the power to shape their society— I found not renewal but decay: visible in the drinking, the endless teasing and put-downs, the brittle performances of masculinity.
That weekend changed me. More than once, I felt their carelessness could tip us into danger, yet everyone around me acted as if nothing was wrong.
Worn down by violence and corruption, they had normalized dysfunction to such a degree that absurdity passed for common sense. They were desensitized not just to risk but to the care we owe each other.
That was the seed of The Fine Young Men of Mexico —a novel about the illusion of progress. About how friendships can be both refuge and competition. About how people convince themselves they’re advancing—earning more, appearing wiser—while refusing to confront the prejudices that define them.
I realized I wasn’t just writing about Mexico, but about every place I’ve lived —societies that mistake confidence for integrity and self-interest for progress.
The Fine Young Men of Mexico is a portrait of the educated class that pretends to run the country: people who see themselves as victims even as they exploit the system everyone else must endure. It’s a story about friendship and the uneasy comedy of acting as if the world you inherited is thriving, even as it slips away.
If you’ve ever looked at your own circle and wondered how success can coexist with such profound blindness, this book will speak to you.
And if you haven’t yet, grab your copy here:
Amazon USA: https://bit.ly/4mRu1j4
Amazon MX: https://amzn.to/4mQMbRU
Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3KuXdyV
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3KToH15
Amazon Spain: https://amzn.to/4nUNaS6
Or the Amazon store in your country.