First the good part of the post. Canal-l has an excellent interview with Jorge Volpi ostensibly about his new book Dias de ira, but actually turns into more of a political discussion and a conversation about El sueno de Bolivar, his book about Latin America. I always find what he has to say interesting and he is a good speaker. I’m not yet convinced about his fiction but I ought to read more before I say much more.

On the other hand, it looks as if he has lost his post in Rome as a cultural attache. Apparently he offended a powerful Mexican diplomat when he was at a conference in Spain in April. He had to do a lot of sleuthing to find out it was the Ambassador to Spain who requested the removal. As he noted on his blog (via Moleskin Literario)

  A partir de ese momento, inicié una investigación propia de una (mala) novela de espionaje, hasta llegar al fondo del asunto, confirmado por numerosas fuentes cuyos nombres no estoy autorizado a revelar. En realidad, la anulación del puesto fue en represalia por las opiniones que expresé en la presente conferencia, dictada el 12 de abril de 2011, en la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, para inaugurar su ciclo de Bicentenarios dedicado a México. El texto desató la ira del embajador de México en España, Jorge Zermeño. A continuación, la secretaria Espinosa decidió cancelar el nombramiento, enmascarándolo detrás de un falso “recorte presupuestal”.

I’m curious to know what he said. You can read further developments here.