John Steinbeck was no accidental tourist when it came to the Republic of Mexico. Although he later expressed a preference for the mother culture of Spain, he traveled to Mexico early and often for personal and professional purposes: for escape and recovery, for literary and film material, and (some speculate) for at least one abortion for at least one of his three wives. Current criticism faults him for the absence of Mexicans, blacks, and other non-white characters in his 1939 protest novel The Grapes of Wrath, but four works from the following decade—The Forgotten Village and Sea of Cortez (1941), The Pearl (1947), and Viva Zapata (1952)—reflect Steinbeck’s fascination with the history and people of a country that was less than a day’s drive but utterly different from his hometown of Salinas, California. On October 2-3, 2021, the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas will celebrate Steinbeck’s Mexican connection with a schedule of in-person and online activities packaged and presented as Steinbeck and Mexico and priced at $20 a day ($17 for seniors). In addition to bingo, mural painting, and movies, the 40th annual Steinbeck festival includes online presentations by Richard Astro and Donald Kohrs on the writing of Sea of Cortez and by Vincent Parker on teaching Steinbeck in the 21st century. (The annual Steinbeck festival in Salinas used to take place in the spring to overlap with the triennial Steinbeck conference at San Jose State University, where discussion has begun about convening another conference in 2022.)
