Mexican literature is one of the most prolific and influential of Spanish language literatures along with those of Spain, Argentina and Cuba. It has internationally recognized authors such as Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Amado Nervo and several others.
Mexico's literature has its antecedents in the literatures of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and the Spanish literature. With the arrival of the Spanish a new literature was produced in the newly established Viceroyalty of New Spain. The literature of New Spain was highly influenced by the Spanish Renaissance which was represented in all the Spanish literature of the time, and local productions also incorporated numerous terms commonly used in the vernacular of the viceroyalty and some of the topics discussed in the works of the period shaped a distinctive variant of the Spanish literature produced in Mexico.
During the colonial era, New Spain was home to Baroque writers such as Bernardo de Balbuena, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Francisco de Castro, Luis Sandoval Zapata, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Diego de Ribera and Rafael Landivar. Towards the independence a new wave of writers gave the initial struggle for the emancipation of national literature from the literature of the Spanish peninsula: Diego José Abad, Francisco Javier Alegre and Friar Servando Teresa de Mier.