Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a distinguished Mexican philosopher, poet, and diplomat. His extensive literary contributions were recognized with numerous accolades, including the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the prestigious 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Early Life

Octavio Paz was born in the vicinity of Mexico City into a distinguished liberal political family with both Spanish and indigenous Mexican heritage. His paternal grandfather, Ireneo Paz, served as the family's patriarch, participating in the War of the Reform against conservative forces before becoming a steadfast proponent of the liberal war hero Porfirio Díaz, a stance maintained until shortly before the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Ireneo Paz established himself as an intellectual and journalist, founding and operating several newspapers as both publisher and printer. His son, Octavio Paz Solórzano, supported Emiliano Zapata during the Revolution and authored an early biographical account of Zapata and the Zapatista movement. Young Octavio, named after his father, spent significant time with his grandfather Ireneo due to his father's active involvement in the Mexican Revolution, which tragically led to his violent death. Following the Mexican Revolution, the family faced financial destitution, prompting a temporary relocation to Los Angeles before their return to Mexico. Paz's blue eyes frequently led other children to perceive him as a foreigner. According to a biography by his long-time associate, historian Enrique Krauze, upon meeting young Octavio, Zapatista revolutionary Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama exclaimed, "Caramba, you didn't tell me you had a Visigoth for a son!" Krauze further cites Paz's reflection: "I felt myself Mexican but they wouldn't let me be one."

Paz's early exposure to literature was significantly shaped by his grandfather Ireneo's extensive library, which housed a rich collection of classic Mexican and European literary works. In the 1920s, he encountered the works of Gerardo Diego, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Antonio Machado, Spanish authors who profoundly influenced his nascent literary endeavors.

In 1931, during his teenage years, Paz published his inaugural poems, notably "Cabellera." Two years subsequent, at the age of nineteen, he released Luna Silvestre (Wild Moon), a compilation of poetic works. Prior to these publications, in 1932, at eighteen years old, he co-founded his initial literary review, Barandal, alongside several associates.

Paz pursued studies in law and literature at the National University of Mexico for several years, during which he became acquainted with prominent leftist poets, including the Chilean Pablo Neruda. In 1936, Paz discontinued his legal education and departed Mexico City for Yucatán to assume a teaching position at a school in Mérida established for the children of peasants and laborers. It was there that he commenced work on "Entre la piedra y la flor" ("Between the Stone and the Flower," 1941, revised 1976), his first extensive and ambitious poem. This work, influenced by T. S. Eliot, critically examines the plight of Mexican peasants under the oppressive landlords of the era.

In July 1937, Paz participated in the Second International Writers' Congress, an event convened in Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid to deliberate on the intellectual community's stance regarding the Spanish Civil War. This congress drew numerous distinguished writers, such as André Malraux, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen Spender, and Pablo Neruda. Paz publicly affirmed his support for the Republican faction, opposing the fascists led by Francisco Franco. During his time in Europe, he also traveled to Paris, where his exposure to the surrealist movement exerted a significant and lasting influence. Following his return to Mexico in 1938, Paz co-founded the literary journal Taller ("Workshop") and contributed to its pages until 1941. In 1937, he married Elena Garro, a writer widely regarded as one of Mexico's most accomplished, whom he had met in 1935. Their union produced one daughter, Helena, before their divorce in 1959.

Paz was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1943, which he utilized for studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States. Two years subsequent to this, he joined the Mexican diplomatic service, initially receiving an assignment to New York City. In 1945, he was dispatched to Paris, where he authored El Laberinto de la Soledad (The Labyrinth of Solitude). The New York Times subsequently characterized this work as "an analysis of modern Mexico and the Mexican personality in which he described his fellow countrymen as instinctive nihilists who hide behind masks of solitude and ceremoniousness." His initial journey to India occurred in 1952, the same year he assumed the role of chargé d'affaires in Tōkyō. Subsequently, he received an assignment to Geneva, Switzerland. Returning to Mexico City in 1954, he composed his significant poem "Piedra de sol" ("Sunstone") in 1957 and released Libertad bajo palabra (Liberty under Oath), a collection encompassing his poetic works until that period. In 1959, he was again posted to Paris, and by 1962, he had been appointed Mexico's ambassador to India.

Later Life

While serving as Mexico's Ambassador to India in New Delhi, Paz authored several works, notably El mono gramático (The Monkey Grammarian) and Ladera este (Eastern Slope). During his tenure in India, he encountered numerous authors associated with the Hungry Generation movement, exerting a significant influence upon them.

In 1965, he married Marie-José Tramini, a French national who remained his spouse throughout his life. The subsequent autumn, he joined Cornell University, where he instructed two courses, one delivered in Spanish and the other in English. A feature article, accompanied by photographs, detailing his time at Cornell, appeared in the July 4, 1966, issue of LIFE en Español magazine. He subsequently returned to Mexico.

In 1968, Paz resigned from the diplomatic service to protest the Mexican government's massacre of student demonstrators in Tlatelolco. Following a period of refuge in Paris, he returned to Mexico in 1969, where he established the magazine Plural (1970–1976) alongside a collective of liberal Mexican and Latin American writers. From 1969 to 1970, Paz held the position of Simón Bolívar Professor at the University of Cambridge. Additionally, he served as a visiting lecturer in the late 1960s and as the A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell from 1972 to 1974. In 1974, he was appointed the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University; his book Los hijos del limo (Children of the Mire) originated from these lectures. Following the Mexican government's closure of Plural in 1975, Paz established Vuelta, another cultural magazine. He served as its editor until his demise in 1998, at which point the magazine ceased publication.

Paz was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize for literature, recognizing works centered on the theme of individual freedom. In 1980, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, followed by the Neustadt Prize in 1982. Although formerly close friends with novelist Carlos Fuentes, Paz's relationship with him deteriorated in the 1980s due to a disagreement concerning the Sandinistas, a group Paz opposed and Fuentes supported. This estrangement was solidified in 1988 when Paz's magazine Vuelta published criticism of Fuentes by Enrique Krauze.

A compilation of Paz's poetry, spanning works from 1957 to 1987, was released in 1990, the same year he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Paz passed away from cancer on April 19, 1998, in Mexico City. His ashes, alongside those of his spouse, Marie-José Tramini, are interred at a memorial within the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City.

Guillermo Sheridan, designated by Paz in 1998 as the director of the Octavio Paz Foundation, authored Poeta con paisaje (2004), a volume containing several biographical essays concerning the poet.

Aesthetics

Critic Ramón Xirau observed, "The poetry of Octavio Paz does not hesitate between language and silence; it leads into the realm of silence where true language lives."

Writings

As a prolific author and poet, Paz published numerous works throughout his lifetime, a significant portion of which have been translated into various languages. His poetic works have been rendered into English by notable translators including Samuel Beckett, Charles Tomlinson, Elizabeth Bishop, Muriel Rukeyser, and Mark Strand. His early poetic endeavors were shaped by influences such as Marxism, surrealism, and existentialism, in addition to religious philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism. The poem "Piedra de sol" ("Sunstone"), composed in 1957, was lauded as a "magnificent" exemplar of surrealist poetry during the presentation speech for his Nobel Prize.

Paz's subsequent poetic works explored themes of love, eroticism, temporality, and Buddhist philosophy. Additionally, he composed verse inspired by his profound interest in modern art, dedicating poems to the creations of artists such as Balthus, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roberto Matta. As an essayist, Paz addressed diverse subjects including Mexican political and economic systems, Aztec artistic traditions, anthropology, and human sexuality. His seminal book-length essay, The Labyrinth of Solitude, offers a profound examination of the Mexican psyche, portraying individuals as concealed behind facades of isolation. It posits that their historical trajectory has resulted in an identity fragmented between pre-Columbian and Spanish cultures, leading to the negation of both. Recognized as a pivotal text for comprehending Mexican culture, this essay significantly impacted other Mexican literary figures, including Carlos Fuentes. Ilan Stavans characterized Paz as "the quintessential surveyor, a Renaissance man."

In 1956, Paz authored the play La hija de Rappaccini. Its narrative revolves around a young Italian student who, while exploring Professor Rappaccini's exquisite gardens, encounters the professor's daughter, Beatrice, and subsequently uncovers the perilous toxicity underlying the garden's allure. Paz's work is an adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1844 short story, also titled "Rappaccini's Daughter." He integrated Hawthorne's narrative with elements from the Indian poet Vishakadatta, drawing further inspiration from Japanese Noh theatre, Spanish autos sacramentales, and the poetic oeuvre of William Butler Yeats. The inaugural theatrical production featured set designs by the Mexican painter Leonora Carrington. In 1972, the Surrealist writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues translated the play into French, titling it La fille de Rappaccini (published by Editions Mercure de France). The English premiere occurred in 1996 at the Gate Theatre in London, with Sebastian Doggart serving as both translator and director, and Sarah Alexander portraying Beatrice. The Mexican composer Daniel Catán subsequently adapted the play into an opera in 1992.

Among Paz's other works rendered into English are several essay collections, notably Alternating Current (translated 1973), Configurations (translated 1971, part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works), The Other Mexico (translated 1972), and El Arco y la Lira (originally 1956; translated as The Bow and the Lyre in 1973). Helen Lane's translation of Alternating Current received a National Book Award in the United States. His translated oeuvre also encompasses volumes of critical studies and biographies, such as those on Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marcel Duchamp (both translated 1970), and The Traps of Faith, an analytical biographical account of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the distinguished seventeenth-century Mexican nun, feminist poet, mathematician, and intellectual.

Paz's poetic output comprises collections such as ¿Águila o sol? (1951), La Estación Violenta (1956), and Piedra de Sol (1957). For English readers, Early Poems: 1935–1955 (translated 1974) and Collected Poems, 1957–1987 (1987) were edited and translated by Eliot Weinberger, who served as Paz's primary translator into American English.

Political thought

Initially, Paz aligned with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War; however, his discovery of a friend's assassination by the Stalinist secret police led to a progressive disillusionment. During the early 1950s in Paris, under the intellectual influence of David Rousset, André Breton, and Albert Camus, he began articulating his critical perspectives on totalitarianism broadly, with a specific focus on Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union.

Through his editorial platforms, the magazines Plural and Vuelta, Paz brought to light human rights abuses occurring in various Communist regimes, notably in Castro's Cuba. This stance provoked significant antagonism from segments of the Latin American Left. In the prologue to Volume IX of his complete works, Paz recounted that following his renunciation of Communist dogma, the initial mistrust from many within the Mexican intelligentsia escalated into profound and overt hostility. Despite this, Paz consistently identified as a leftist, specifically aligning with the democratic, "liberal" left, distinguishing himself from dogmatic and illiberal factions. Furthermore, he voiced criticism against the Mexican government and the dominant political party that largely controlled the nation throughout the majority of the twentieth century.

Paz's political orientation evolved from social democracy, progressively embracing liberal concepts while retaining his foundational leftist and romantic perspectives. Yvon Grenier, in his analysis of Paz's political philosophy, characterized Paz as "very slippery for anyone thinking in rigid ideological categories." Grenier further elaborated that Paz simultaneously embodied a romantic disdain for materialism and reason, a liberal advocacy for freedom and democracy, a conservative reverence for tradition, and a socialist lament for the erosion of fraternity and equality. He championed both fundamental societal transformation and incremental progress, rather than advocating for revolution.

Society cannot exist without poetry, yet society itself can never fully embody or become poetic. Although these two concepts occasionally appear to diverge, they are inextricably linked.

In 1990, following the dissolution of the Berlin Wall, Paz and his associates from Vuelta convened a gathering of prominent international writers and intellectuals in Mexico City to deliberate on the decline of Communism. Notable participants included Czesław Miłosz, Hugh Thomas, Daniel Bell, Ágnes Heller, Cornelius Castoriadis, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Jean-François Revel, Michael Ignatieff, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jorge Edwards, and Carlos Franqui. This event, titled The Experience of Freedom (Spanish: La experiencia de la libertad), was televised across Mexico from August 27 to September 2.

Paz contended that scholarly works concerning Spanish and Portuguese colonialism often exhibit bias, being "full of somber details and harsh judgments." He further asserted that this historical period also yielded substantial positive outcomes:

"The era was not solely characterized by horror: upon the remnants of the pre-Columbian civilizations, the Spanish and Portuguese erected a magnificent historical edifice, much of which endures today. They consolidated numerous peoples who previously spoke diverse languages, venerated different deities, engaged in internal conflicts, or remained unaware of each other's existence. These populations were unified by legal frameworks and judicial systems, but primarily by a shared language, culture, and religion. While the losses incurred were substantial, the benefits were equally immense. To accurately assess the impact of the Spanish presence in Mexico, it is crucial to acknowledge that without their influence—specifically, without the Catholic religion and the culture they established in our nation—our present identity would not exist. We would likely remain a disparate collection of peoples fragmented by varying beliefs, languages, and cultures."

Paz expressed disapproval of the Zapatista uprising in 1994. He generally advocated for a "military solution" to the January 1994 insurgency, articulating a desire for the "army to soon restore order in the region." Regarding President Zedillo's offensive in February 1995, Paz co-signed an open letter characterizing the operation as a "legitimate government action" intended to re-establish "the sovereignty of the nation" and to bring "Chiapas peace and Mexicans tranquility."

Early Literary Engagements

Paz was profoundly impressed by T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, specifically Enrique Munguia's translation, El Páramo, which appeared in the journal Contemporaries in 1930. This experience, while not diminishing his primary focus on poetry, instilled in Paz an undeniable appreciation for prose. He described this as: "Literally, this dual practice was for me a game of reflections between poetry and prose."

In 1931, at the age of sixteen, Paz authored his inaugural published article, "Ethics of the Artist," driven by a concern to affirm the connection between morality and poetry. In this work, he explored the artist's responsibility amidst "art of thesis" and "pure art," critiquing the latter based on traditional pedagogical views. Utilizing a lexicon that paradoxically blended religious and Marxist influences, Paz posited that the intrinsic worth of art resides in its purpose and significance. Consequently, proponents of pure art—a group he explicitly stated he was not part of—are depicted as isolated, endorsing the Kantian concept of the "man that loses all relation with the world."

The magazine Barandal was established in August 1931 by Rafael López Malo, Salvador Toscano, Arnulfo Martínez Lavalle, and Paz. All of these founders, with the exception of Salvador Toscano, who was already a renowned writer due to his parents' influence, were still quite young. Rafael López contributed to the magazine "Modern" and, alongside Miguel D. Martínez Rendón, was involved in the Agorist movement. This movement, or López's participation in it, garnered particular attention among high-school students, largely because of his poem, "The Golden Beast." Octavio Paz Solórzano gained recognition within his literary circle as an occasional author of narratives published in the Sunday supplement of El Universal. Concurrently, the name Ireneo Paz was associated with a street in Mixcoac.

Awards

• Inducted as a Member of the Colegio Nacional, Mexico's highly selective academy of arts and sciences, 1967
• Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
• National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico) in Literature, 1977
• Honorary Doctorate, National Autonomous University of Mexico, 1978
• Honorary Doctorate, Harvard University, 1980
• Ollin Yoliztli Prize, 1980
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize, 1981
• Nobel Prize in Literature, 1990
• Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 1991
• Premio Mondello (Palermo, Italy)
• Alfonso Reyes International Prize
• Neustadt International Prize for Literature, 1982
• Jerusalem Prize
• Menéndez Pelayo International Prize
• Prix Alexis de Tocqueville, 1989
• Xavier Villaurrutia Award

Works

Poetry Collections

• 1933: Luna silvestre
• 1936: No pasarán!
• 1937: Raíz del hombre
• 1937: Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas sobre España
• 1941: Entre la piedra y la flor
• 1942: A la orilla del mundo (Compilation)
• 1949: Libertad bajo palabra
• 1954: Semillas para un himno
• 1957: Piedra de Sol (Sunstone)
• 1958: La estación violenta
• 1962: Salamandra (1958–1961)
• 1965: Viento entero
• 1967: Blanco
• 1968: Discos visuales
• 1969: Ladera Este (1962–1968)
• 1969: La centena (1935–1968)
• 1971: Topoemas
• 1972: Renga: A Chain of Poems (with Jacques Roubaud, Edoardo Sanguineti, and Charles Tomlinson)
• 1974: El mono gramático
• 1975: Pasado en claro
• 1976: Vuelta
• 1979: Hijos del aire/Airborn (with Charles Tomlinson)
• 1979: Poemas (1935–1975)
• 1985: Prueba del nueve
• 1985: Lectura y contemplación (Essay on Translation)
• 1987: Árbol adentro (1976–1987)
• 1989: El fuego de cada día (Selection, Preface, and Notes by Paz)

Anthology

• 1966: Poesía en movimiento (México: 1915–1966) (Edited by Octavio Paz, Alí Chumacero, Homero Aridjis, and Jose Emilio Pacheco)

Essays and Analysis

• 1950: El laberinto de la soledad: Vida y pensamiento de México (Published in English in 1961 as The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico)
• 1956: El arco y la lira (Revised and Augmented Edition: 1967)
• 1957: Las peras del olmo
• 1965: Cuadrivio
• 1965: Los signos en rotación
• 1966: Puertas al campo
• 1967: Corriente alterna
• 1967: Claude Levi-Strauss o El nuevo festín de Esopo
• 1968: Marcel Duchamp o El castillo de la pureza (Augmented Edition: Apariencia desnuda, 1973)
• 1969: Conjunciones y disyunciones
• 1970: Posdata (Continuation of El laberinto de la soledad)
• 1973: El signo y el garabato
• 1974: Los hijos del limo. Del romanticismo a la vanguardia
• 1974: La búsqueda del comienzo. Escritos sobre el surrealismo
• 1978: Xavier Villaurrutia en persona y obra
• 1979: El ogro filantrópico
• 1979: In/Mediaciones
• 1982: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz o las trampas de la fe
• 1983: Tiempo nublado
• 1983: Sombras de obras
• 1984: Hombres en su siglo y otros ensayos
• 1988: Primeras letras (1931-1943) (Anthology of Early Prose)
• 1990: Pequeña crónica de grandes días
• 1990: La otra voz. Poesía y fin de siglo
• 1991: Convergencias
• 1992: Al paso
• 1993: La llama doble
• 1993: Itinerario.
• 1994: Un más allá erótico: Sade.
• 1995: Vislumbres de la India.
• 1996: Estrella de tres puntas. André Bretón y el surrealismo.
• 2000: Luis Buñuel. El doble arco de la belleza y de la rebeldía.

Translations by Octavio Paz

• 1957: Sendas de Oku, by Matsuo Bashō, translated in collaboration with Eikichi Hayashiya.
• 1962: Antología, by Fernando Pessoa.
• 1974: Versiones y diversiones (A collection of his translations of various authors into Spanish).

Translations of His Works

• 1952: Anthologie de la poésie mexicaine, edited and introduced by Octavio Paz; translated into French by Guy Lévis-Mano.
• 1958: Anthology of Mexican Poetry, edited and introduced by Octavio Paz; translated into English by Samuel Beckett.
• 1971: Configurations, translated by G. Aroul and others.
• 1973: Early Poems 1935-1955; with English translations by Muriel Rukeyser.
• 1974: The Monkey Grammarian (El mono gramático); translated into English by Helen Lane.
• 1987: Collected Poems 1957-1987; with English translations by Eliot Weinberger.
• 1995: The Double Flame (La Llama Double, Amor y Erotismo); translated by Helen Lane.
• 1997: In Light of India (Vislumbres de la India); translated by Eliot Weinberger.

Notes

References

• Zona Octavio Paz
• Boletin Octavio Paz
• "Octavio Paz." The Paris Review, The Art of Poetry No. 42, Summer 1991.
• Recorded in Washington D.C. on October 18, 1988. Video (1 Hr)
• Liukkonen, Petri. "Octavio Paz." Books and Writers.
• Krauze, Enrique. "Review of Octavio Paz: El poeta y la revolución." Mexican Studies/Estudios mexicanos 31, no. 1 (2015): 196–200.
• Review of Octavio Paz: El poeta y la revolución, Enrique Krauze, Mexican Studies/Estudios mexicanos (2015), 31 (1): 196–200.
• Hernández, Consuelo. "The Poetry of Octavio Paz." Library of Congress, 2008.
• Hernández, Consuelo. "The Poetry of Octavio Paz". Library of Congress, 2008. loc.gov/item/webcast-4329/