El mito de las tres transformaciones [The Myth of the Three Transformations]

By: Juan Miguel Zunzunegui

Narrated by: Juan Miguel Zunzunegui

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

«El que controla el pasado controla el futuro, y el que controla el presente es quien controla el pasado.»

George Orwell, 1984

La historia no estudia el pasado, lo construye. Toda historia nacional es una mitología, y las mitologías sirven para estructurar la mente de un pueblo. La historia ha sido un arma, una herramienta política, un discurso psicológico, y eso es así porque siempre se ha escrito desde el poder para legitimarlo.

Hoy se habla de transformaciones en la historia de México:

independencia, reforma y revolución. Todas implicaron guerra, polarización y odio; cada una de ellas generó división y sembró las semillas de los conflictos posteriores. Para transformar a México, hay que tener un cambio colectivo de mentalidad, y con el bien común como premisa indispensable para encontrar la paz.

El mito de las tres transformaciones es un paseo a lo largo de la historia y la psicología de nosotros mismos para lograr una verdadera transformación y construir el mejor México posible.

Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.

©2018 Juan Miguel Zunzunegui (P)2019 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial

Reflexión

Excelente libro , muy reflexivo , una narración perfecta, cada día más fan de este autor, muy recomendable

Un importante análisis histórico, político y social.

La sinceridad del autor al describir la historia de su pueblo. Lo bueno y lo malo de cada personaje histórico de esa gran nación, revelado sin apasionamiento.

breve autoreflexion

vergüenza de seguir siendo mexicano de los 80s. dolido, enojado y con pocas ideas para evolucionar.

Claridad y sencillez del autor

Excelente propuesta objetividad y sin enredos, el autor está bien documentado y explica cada tema de una manera amena y sarcástica que se agradecen

Important topic, useful info, but very repetitive and lacking any realist conclusion.

This is the second book I read/listen to of Zunzunegui’s (the first one being “Los mitos que nos dieron traumas”). I like the approach of challenging the black/white images of “heroes” and “villains,” by providing facts that paint the key characters as real humans, with virtues and issues. These are facts you never really learn in any of the official history taught in Mexican education.

The first issue that I found in the books is the author relies on excessive repetition of the same ideas, to the point the reader is left thinking the book could have been fifty percent shorter or -better- either could have provided more lesser-known historical facts, or covered a wider historical period. This even goes across books; from reading these two, to reading the descriptions and comments of other of the author’s books, it seems there is tremendous overlap. Obviously, being history, there will be an overlap if one covers the same years but, again, maybe several if those books should have been put together into a single rich tome.

The other issue is that of a lack of an “action plan.” If one goes to the doctor and he describes all your symptoms, the next obvious thing one desires is details about the treatment. The book(s) fall short in that regard. To be fair, the author didn’t promise to give you that, but I believe he should make a serious attempt at it. Otherwise, it ends up being an: “if only Mexicans were good, and all bad things magically disappeared, Mexico would become great” type of story. Sure, everybody would agree with that, but HOW? Throwing nicely-sounding vague terms such as becoming “fair” and “more inclusive” as “hints to a solution” is meaningless, when everybody has different definitions for them.

Regarding performance of the audiobook, it fulfilled its purpose well, but it tended to become a bit monotonous. Coupling that with the repetition I mentioned before, made it very easy to get distracted.

In conclusion to this review, I might read more of the author’s books in the hopes of getting more history in his style, but I’m still afraid I might be hearing the same things all over again (which will be very disappointing). We’ll see.