Claudio Lomnitz was born in Chile. His parents, the Chilean geophysicist, Cinna Lomnitz, and the French-born Chilean-Mexican anthropologist, Larissa Adler Lomnitz, married in 1950. His siblings include Jorge, Alberto, and Tania. Lomnitz received his undergraduate degree from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa. In 1982, Fondo de Cultura Económica published his first book, a study of politics and cultural change in Tepoztlán entitled Evolución de una sociedad rural. His interest in Latin America developed further as he pursued a Ph.D in Anthropology from Stanford University, receiving it in 1987. His next book, Exits from the Labyrinth: Culture and Ideology in the Mexican National Space, published by University of California Press in 1992, was an important intervention in the study of nationalist ideology and its relationship to the involved community. He has since written five other books on Mexico: Modernidad Indiana: 9 ensayos sobre nación y mediación en México published by Planeta in 1999; Deep Mexico, Silent Mexico: An Anthropology of Nationalism published by University of Minnesota Press in 2001 and described by Lomnitz as an expansion of ideas explored in Exits from the Labyrinth; Death and the Idea of Mexico, published by Zone Books in 2005; "El Antisemitismo y la ideología de la Revolución Mexicana" ; and, with Friedrich Katz, "El porfiriato y la revolución en la historia de México: Una conversación". "The Return of Comrade Ricardo Flores Magón" won the Latin American Studies Association book prize for the best book in the humanities on Mexico, a Spanish translation by Jorge Aguilar Mora appeared with Editorial Era in 2016. His most recent book is "Nuestra América: utopía y persistencia de una familia judía". Some of Lomnitz's essays have been published in short book format as well: "El antisemitismo y la ideología de la revolución Mexicana", "El primer linchamiento de México, and "La nación desdibujada: México en trece ensayos". He also edited a volume commemorating the 50th anniversary of Mexico's 1968 movement: "1968-2018: Cincuenta años de historia colectiva". Lomnitz is a regular collaborator at La Jornada, a daily newspaper published in Mexico City, and has a monthly column in Nexos; for some years he also wrote a weekly column in Excélsior, a daily newspaper published in Mexico City. In 2010, he was awarded Mexico's National Drama Award for a historical play titled "El verdadero Bulnes," co-authored with his brother, Alberto Lomnitz. Claudio and Alberto Lomnitz co-authored a second play, a political musical, together with composer Leonardo Soqui, titled "La Gran Familia", that was launched at the 2018 edition of the Festival Internacional Cervantino, with Mexico's Compañía Nacional de Teatro. Claudio Lomnitz was fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2011–12, and a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award in 2016.
