Chapopote: A Historical Fiction of Mexican Oil

by Luis Vielma

Chapapote is a historical fiction of petroleum in Mexico. It relates to the lives of several characters and significant events in a rural Mexico during the 19th century. When oil began to sprout from the natural chapopotes, or tar pits, the first oilmen did their best to take advantage of this resource, while facing family and historical events that joined to create the national petroleum industry. 

By means of an ingenious narrative, the characters represent any of the thousands of individuals that worked in the Mexican oil business, though none of them can be considered a main character, as this part is reserved to oil.

This reflexive and human novel is a necessary reference for the new generation to deepen the knowledge of the origins of oil in Mexico at the end of the 19th century, its evolution, the circumstances that made possible the great discovery of the Cantarell deposit in 1971, and its consequences that offer us a vision for the future.