ABSTRACT
Mexico, legendarily, has long been Beat terrain. Whether for simple adventuring, to escape from North American conformity, or to seek drugs and sex, the culture has been a magnet. Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg, not to mention Bonnie Bremser/Brenda Frazer, all feature. Without the efforts of modernization made by the Mexican state during the 1950s, it is highly probable that the presence of the Beat generation would have been yet more delayed. Two aspects of the relationship between the Beats and Mexican writers can be said to come first into the reckoning. The use of repetition at the beginning of the line has its analogue in "Howl" and many other verses by Ginsberg. Mondragon, it can be noted, was not the only Mexican poet to forge a Japanese connection. Even though Spanish translations of Burroughs and Kerouac had been available since the 1960s, this was the first time that a wide range of Beat poets had been available to Mexican readers.
