OCTAVIO PAZ: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS AND PHRASES - LITERATURE - 2025

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat. He has been considered one of the most important and influential writers of the 20th century, among other reasons, for renewing and innovating poetry through the expressiveness and beauty of his lyrics. His full name was Octavio Irineo Paz Lozano.

Paz's work was characterized by not having been subjected to any literary movement. On the contrary, he was an author who dedicated himself to creating from the personal, which gave his texts a unique, expressive and profound character. The poet, with intelligence, took the best of each current that was presented.

Octavio Paz. Source: Photo: Jonn Leffmann, via Wikimedia Commons The writer produced an abundant work, spanning different genres, most notably poetry and essays. Among the best known works of peace include: The labyrinth of loneliness and Freedom on parole. In all his writings you can see the genius of the author.

Biography

Birth and family

Octavio was born in Mexico City on March 31, 1914. He came from a cultured family. His parents were Octavio Paz Solórzano, a journalist and lawyer, and Josefina Lozano. The life of the writer was influenced by his paternal grandfather, Ireneo Paz, who was a prominent writer, lawyer, journalist and historian.

Childhood and education

Octavio Paz's early childhood years were under the tutelage of his mother, his grandfather and his paternal aunt. The work of the poet's father, as lawyer and secretary to the military leader Emiliano Zapata, kept him absent from home for a long time.

Emiliano Zapata. Source: Museo Soumaya, via Wikimedia Commons Paternal absence for work reasons meant an emotional void that Octavio's grandfather took advantage of, filling it with teaching about literature. That marked the life of the poet for good. The lyrics served as a bridge between the author and his inner self, reflecting masterfully in his many works.

The same tasks that took the poet's father away from home, made Octavio have to move to the United States, and it was there that he studied his first years of study. He then returned to Mexico, where he continued his preparation. While still a teenager, at the age of fifteen he was part of the Union of Pro Workers and Peasants Students.

University training and first literary steps

Paz completed his high school studies at the San Ildefonso National Preparatory School in the early 1930s. Then he began to study law, philosophy and letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He had a brilliant academic career, being a diligent student.

The waste land, by TS Eliot. Source: TS Eliot, via Wikimedia Commons During that time I had already come into contact with great classics of literature, among them TS Eliot. Inspired by the translation of The waste land, by the British writer, he wrote at the age of seventeen a text entitled Ethics of the artist, related to poetry and its ties to morality. His love for the great writers greatly influenced his work.

Railing

Octavio Paz's taste and passion for literature and letters led the poet, while still a student, to form part of the management of the magazine Barandal in 1931, along with other young people. In addition, he published some stories with some frequency in the Sunday edition of the newspaper El Universal.

II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture. Source: II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, via Wikimedia Commons Two years later, in 1933, the budding poet released his book of poems Wild Moon. It was a collection of poems loaded with sensitivity and feelings, where his words were loaded with passion. The following year he showed it to the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti, after a visit to Mexico.

Alberti's critique of Paz's poetry

Rafael Alberti's visit to Mexico in 1934 was important for local poets who were beginning their literary career. By then the Spanish poet was sympathetic to communism, which led for a time to produce social poetry and with political features. Knowing this, Octavio Paz wanted to show his work to Alberti so that he would appreciate it.

When Alberti read Octavio Paz's work, he let him know that his poetry was more romantic and personal, than social, therefore, he asserted: "it is not revolutionary poetry in the political sense." However, Alberti recognized the changes in his language and unique forms of expression, so he already knew that he was facing a man who had found his way.

Confronted with himself

In the mid-thirties Octavio Paz confronted himself, his political position and the content of his poetry. With the reading of San Juan de la Cruz, the poet knew how to move towards the beauty of poetry and its connection with life. This encounter with his "I" led the writer to further strengthen his unique style and uproot himself from any formula.

After confirming this type of "communion", the author began to write a kind of diary or confessions. Then, in 1936, he began the process of developing the collection of poems Raíz del hombre. The following year he graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, obtaining considerably good grades.

Mission in Yucatán and first marriage

In 1937 Octavio Paz made a trip to Yucatán with the mission of creating an educational institution for the children of the workers, under the orders of the then president of Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas. The four months he spent in that locality led him to write the poem Between the stone and the flower.

Elena Garro, Octavio Paz's first wife. Source: Elena Garro. Source: CITRU Documentation, via Wikimedia Commons In the middle of that same year, the poet married Elena Garro, who also worked as a writer. The couple conceived a daughter. In July the couple traveled to Spain, following an invitation that Paz received to attend the II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture.

In favor of the Spanish Republic

The visit that Octavio Paz made to Spain in the midst of the Civil War made him side with the Republican side. So, when he returned to Mexico, he did not hesitate to help the Spaniards who were in refugee status. He also participated in the creation of Taller, a literary publication.

During that time he devoted himself to writing, while working in a bank. Some of his writings of political content were published in the newspaper El Popular; in addition, around 1942, he founded two literary magazines, which were called El Hijo Prodigo and Tierra Nueva.

Time out of Mexico

Starting in 1943, and for about ten years, the writer resided outside of Mexico. At first he went to the United States after having won the Guggenheim Scholarship, to study at the University of California. In 1945 he began his diplomatic career as the representative of his country in France.

Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Source: Gonzjo52, via Wikimedia Commons He lived in France from 1945 to 1951. Also at that time he published the essay The Labyrinth of Solitude. In addition, he separated from Marxism, and approached socialism and the surrealist movement. From then on his writings got closer to the mysterious and unreal.

Octavio returned to his country

Before returning to Mexico in 1953, Paz carried out diplomatic work in India and Japan. Once he settled in his country, he worked as a director in the section of international organizations. He also joined the creation of the Revista Mexicana de Literatura.

After four years on Aztec soil, he went to live in Paris. In 1959 he separated from Elena. In 1962, Octavio Paz returned to India as a diplomat. On the love side, he met Marie José Tramini, a French woman whom he married in 1964, and she became his life partner.

Resign as ambassador

Octavio Paz always showed himself as a just man, and attached to the rules, as well as being a defender and lover of his country. That is why when the murder of civilians and students occurred in 1968, known as the Tlatelolco massacre, he did not hesitate to resign his position as ambassador to India.

From that moment on, he served as a university professor in the main houses of studies in the United States, such as Harvard, Pennsylvania, Texas and Pittsburgh. In 1971 he founded Plural, in Mexico, a magazine that combined political with literary themes.

Last years and death

The last years of Octavio Paz's life were of constant activity. He worked as a teacher, lectured, wrote, and founded several magazines. However, he began to suffer from cancer, and died on April 19, 1998 in Mexico City, at the age of eighty-four.

Octavio Paz Awards and Recognitions

Octavio Paz's literary work was recognized and acclaimed through a large number of awards and distinctions. Some of them are listed below:

- Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 1957 for his essay El arco y la lira.

- International Poetry Prize in Belgium, in 1963.

- Member of the National College of Mexico since 1967.

- Prize of the Flanders Poetry Festival in 1972.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1973 from Boston University.

- National Prize of Sciences and Arts in 1977.

- The Jerusalem Prize in 1977.

- Prize of the Spanish Critics in 1977.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1978 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

- Grand Golden Eagle Award in 1979. Held in Nice, during the International Book Festival.

- Ollin Yoliztli Award in 1980.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1980 from Harvard University.

- Miguel de Cervantes Award in 1981.

- The Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1982.

- Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1984.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1985 from the University of New York.

- Alfonso Reyes International Award in 1985.

- The Oslo Prize for Poetry in 1985.

- Mazatlán Prize for Literature in 1985 for his essay Men in his century.

- Menéndez Pelayo International Award in 1987.

- Picasso Medal in 1987.

- Britannia Award in 1988.

- Alexis de Tocqueville Award in 1989. Doctor Honoris Causa in 1989 from the University of Murcia.

- Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990.

- Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1991.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1992 from the University of Texas.

- Grand Cross of Merit, Berlin in 1993.

- Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in 1993 for the work carried out in his magazine Vuelta.

- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of France in 1994.

- Gabriela Mistral Medal, Chile 1994.

- Mariano de Cavia Journalism Award in 1995.

- Blanquerna Award in 1996.

- Doctor Honoris Causa in 1997 from the University of Rome.

- Honorary member of the Mexican Academy of the Language since 1997.

- National Prize of Journalism of Mexico in 1998 for his literary career.

Posthumous

- Medal of Citizen Merit from the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District in 1998.

- Grand cross of Isabel La Católica in 1998.

- Honorary “We” Golden Eagle Award, Los Angeles in 1998.

- Mexican Cultural Institute Award, Washington in 1999.

Style

Octavio Paz's literary style was characterized by being unique, expressive, deep and intense. He was separated from any movement or literary current, that is to say: his work did not follow established guidelines or forms, but he was in charge of giving authenticity and personality to his words.

The fact that in his work there were traits of surrealism, neo-modernism or existentialism, did not mean that the poet stayed there. On the contrary, he experimented and searched for new forms of innovation within literature; his language was cultured, passionate and beautiful.

Poetry

Octavio Paz developed a poetic work full of beauty, eroticism and romance. At the same time, he guided her towards the future of man as an individual being, as well as his relationship with time and loneliness. In his verses there was intelligence, reflection and a wide use of visual images.

The poet developed his lyrics in three cycles. The first was related to his attempt to go beyond the visible and tangible. Then he oriented her towards the surrealist elements that he met in France, and went to the oriental after his time in India. Finally, he turned to the loving and intellectual.

Test

Paz's essay work was characterized by being curious, thorough, and analytical. Social, cultural, artistic, political and literary issues were of interest to the writer. The intensity and at the same time the insight of his language were key to the development of this literary genre.

Plays

essays

Broadly speaking, The Bow and the Lyre is part of a fundamental work of the author's essay career and that would allow us to guess what the aesthetic thinking of the future Nobel Prize would be. Thanks to this piece, the writer obtained the Xavier Villaurrutia award from Mexico, the highest recognition that the country gives to a specific book.

Elm pears

After writing El arco y la lira, Octavio Paz published this essay book in 1957. In this case, the author looks in his first part towards his native Mexico, conducting a study on Mexican poetry through the eyes of the writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the poets Juan José Tablada and José Gorostiza.

In the second part, perhaps more versatile, the author makes a foray into literature and Japanese art and poetry that fascinated him so much. At the same time, he ventures into film criticism showing interest in Luis Buñuel's surrealist exhibition on the big screen. The book also includes incursions of the writer into literary journalism.

Quadrivium

As its name suggests, this 1965 essay presents a division into four parts according to the poets it refers to: Rubén Darío, Ramón López, Fernando Pessoa and Luis Cernuda, which they carried out, according to the Mexican writer, breaks with respect to the poetry of his times.

In these first youthful verses of the author, his facet as a romantic writer can already be guessed. As a curiosity Wild Moon only consists of seven poems divided into just forty pages that deal with love, poetry and women.

As a curiosity, the collection of poems was little known at the time due to the low circulation of copies and the lack of appearance in the press.

Not pass!

This book was a solidary response by the author towards the Spanish republican forces at war. In 1936, the Mexican publishing house Sinbad published a single poem in the form of a pamphlet entitled: They will not pass!, which was reminiscent of the fighting cry led by the followers of the democratic side for the defense of Madrid before the army of the future dictator Francisco Franco.

After the success of this book, Octavio Paz was invited by the republican forces to the Second International Congress of Antifascist Intellectuals of Spain. With this collection of poems, the poet was not only recognized, on both sides of the pond, by authors such as Rafael Alberti, Vicente Huidobro or Antonio Machado, but also began to establish himself as the great universal poet of 20th century Mexican letters.

Under your clear shadow and other poems about Spain

A year later, and in this close political relationship between the writer and the mother country, his poem They will not pass! It was reissued again by the writer Manuel Altolaguirre in 1937 under a poetic anthology called Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poems sobre España.

The Spanish essayist Juan Gil-Albert applauded the initiative of Octavio Paz in writing how the verses of the Mexican author did not in any way manifest a false concern or abandonment towards the critical situation of the republican troops.

Between the stone and the flower

This time, instead of looking beyond its borders, Octavio Paz redirected his gaze towards the horizon of the most ancient Mesoamerica. In this way, he publishes Between the stone and the flower, in the exercise of analysis and reflection on the evolution of the descendants of the Aztec people.

Currently, the book is considered one of his first long collections of poems as it consists of four parts clearly delimited based on the four main natural elements: stone, earth, water and light.

The first two refer to the social and economic reference of Mesoamerican civilization, the third focuses on the figure of the peasant and the fourth on the consequences of the cultural imposition that the capitalist system has had on this people.

The book is influenced by the trip that Octavio Paz would start again to the United States in 1943 thanks to the granting of the Guggenheim Foundation scholarship with which he was able to come into contact with English and North American poetry.

Along these lines, contact with poets such as Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens or TS Elliot would mark a before and after in his style. The poetry of the writer would free itself from the old ties of Mexican poetry to introduce new elements of postmodern lyrical aesthetics such as the use of free verse, historical everyday detail or the conjunction of colloquial dialogues with strong traditional images.

Parole

The title of this work refers to a paradoxical conception of freedom, which must be limited by something, in the same way that poetry is conditioned by language.

This poetic anthology republished in 1960 includes the aforementioned poem Piedra de sol and the poems by Octavio Paz written between 1935 and 1957. It is one of the first great anthologies of the writer and is considered one of the most important lyrical works in Spanish of the 20th century for its groundbreaking character. The first version of the book was written as proof under the name Still in 1942 to be finally published in 1949.

Along these lines, the collection of poems Libertad Under Word is an open witness of its time since in it traces of artistic and literary currents and movements such as surrealism can be detected. As a noteworthy feature, the book stands as an avant-garde publication in full swing of the same.

In it, the new parameters of contemporary Latin American poetry can be found. In fact, in one of the poems it includes, Hymn between ruins, simultaneism arises, a new artistic form devised by the writer.

For Mexican writers and scholars of the stature of Alberto Ruy Sánchez, this work is a mature formulation by Octavio Paz together with El laberinto de la soledad and ¿Águila o sol? in his time as a writer in the late forties.

¿

Published in 1951, ¿Aguila o sol? It is a path of mystical knowledge that leads the writer to find himself through the three parts that make up the book written in prose and poetry. With him his genius as a poet is confirmed and the influence there is in his style of Rafael Alberti or Jorge Guillén.

The first part, entitled Forced Labor, is marked by its learning nature. In it she tries to find the role of words and to purge all evils and vices to reach poetic purity.

Next, the author introduces Quicksand, where he uses a series of short stories in prose to get out of them and thus achieve the luminosity that leads him to his third and last part entitled as the name of the book, that is, ¿Águila or sun?

Sun stone

Proof of this accuracy and poetic care of the writer is Piedra sol, a 1957 poem composed of 584 hendecasyllables (verses of 11 syllables) published within the Tezontle collection of the Economic Culture Fund.

In the poem the poetic self makes a journey, in 584 verses, through another loved body, in the same way that Venus begins its journey towards the sun in 484 days. The conjunction between poetry and human fragility is carried out through the large number of images that allude to nature and the stormy passage of time.

As a curiosity, the poem ends as it begins, always remembering the cycles of life that include a beginning and an end: "a river walk that curves, advances, retreats, makes a detour and always arrives".

The violent season

Upon returning to Mexico from abroad, Octavio Paz sees published in 1958, Violent Station, a book cataloged as one of the most influential collections of poems by the poet at that time due to its creative wealth and the disconnection he felt with the Mexican poets who were still betting By the old ways

After his return to his native country, the writer became one of the greatest exponents of cultural change, finding in a group of young writers, among whom was Carlos Fuentes, a fighting force to renew artistic and literary life in Mexico.

In this intimate poetry book, it is a song at the end of the writing's youth. In it poems such as Hymn between ruins, Piedra de sol, Fuentes or Mutra stand out, the latter written during his stay in India as ambassador. The verses in this book are filled with the spiritual encounter experienced in his previous trips to Japan, just where his ties with the East began to grow.

The coming into contact with poetic forms typical of Japan such as the haiku poem helped him to economize the language of his poetry to say with few words an intense emotion. To simultaneously combine it with the idea of ​​the unfinished verse, something totally unthinkable at the time for the Spanish tradition.

Salamander, 1958-1961

The writer presented in this publication several poems that he wrote between 1958 and 1961. The intention of these verses was to give a new and different perspective of the circumstances, for this Octavio Paz focused on incorporating mystery and illogical elements.

Whole wind

It is necessary to make a pause in this list to make a brief note to Whole Wind, one of the longest and most symbolic poems by Octavio Paz, dedicated to what would be his great love until the day of his death, Marie Jose Tramini.

It is said that the Mexican writer arrived in 1962 at a diplomatic reception in a house in New Delhi where he met Marie Jose Tramini, wife at the time of the political advisor of the French Embassy, ​​along with a political group and her husband during a conversation in the garden.

His infatuation was such that soon he would write this poem surrounded by the Buddhist atmosphere that he attended as ambassador to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the nine-stanzas poem, a common element appears in the author's poetics: cyclical movements that constantly try to follow each other in the verse, staging different spaces, which seem to be one, within the same time.

White

In 1967, the light of an experimental halo of poetry and creativity that had been radiating from the writer for years fell on Blanco. The poem, printed in a special edition that satisfied the extraordinary quality of the content, is an exponent of poetic renewal.

As the writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez explains, the text consists of a sheet that little by little “spreads and unfolds, in a certain way, producing the text because the space itself becomes text. The idea is that reading it becomes ritual, a journey with various possibilities. As a curiosity, the poem can be read in up to six different reading combinations.

The piece is an example of how from nothing there are infinite possibilities of creation and freedom. All existence is possible from an empty page.

Visual Discs (1968)

The previous experimentation of Blanco y Topoemas reaches its peak with Discos visuales, published in 1969 by the painter Vicente Rojo, who was in charge of the artistic realization of the work.

In this piece Octavio Paz continues to bet on surrealist poems and the concrete character of the previous poetry of Topoemas y Blanco. As a curiosity, the work consists of four discs that, designed by Vicente Rojo, and read in a non-linear way, allow them to be rotated leading to new fragments of the poems.

The edition is a bet to imitate the reader to play with the work and to make him aware of a type of poetic style that Octavio Paz will begin to implement: poetry in motion.

East slope (1969)

The experience of the Mexican writer's travels through India left a deep mark in his later verses with regard to themes such as love. Especially the one harvested during his second stay in the Asian country for six years.

Along these lines, Ladera este was published in 1969 under the editorial of Joaquín Mortiz, a set of poems written between 1962 and 1968 that show the great change produced at the level of erotic poetry in the writer. The verses in this collection of poems stand out for their simple language, the naturalness of the images and the exoticism of the East.

Topoems

This path of poetic inquiry into the new forms continues in a straight line with the edition in the Revista de la Universidad de México of six poems with the title of Topoemas in 1968. A topoeme refers to those verses where the value of the words occupies a semantic value.

The six poems are addressed to different friends and personalities of Octavio Paz's circle and through them the poet experiments in the style of Apollinaire's calligrams. Reading is predominantly visual, based on the parameters of concrete poetry and expanding the multifaceted and interpretive character of the reader.

Tree inside

With this work, Paz unveiled a group of poems that he wrote from 1976 on. The main theme of this collection of poems was related to existential issues, love, the human being, communication and a broad reflection on the end of the lifetime.

Theater

Rapaccini's daughter

In 1956 he published in the Mexican Literature Magazine, which will be the poet's only play with the title La hija de Rapaccini. The piece consists of a single act and is based on a story by the American Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was represented that same year under the direction of Héctor Mendoza at the Teatro del Caballito de México.

Octavio Paz's version is a drama readapted to the stage with the gesture of a fable where each character turns out to be the allegory of a human feeling. The work is full of surreal nuances that try to reveal the links between love, life and death.

Interviews

Phrases

- "A world is born when two kiss."

- "In the frozen waters of selfish calculation, that is society, that is why love and poetry are marginal."

- "Light is like a lot of shadow: it doesn't let you see."

- "In every erotic encounter there is an invisible and always active character: the imagination."

- "Our cult of death is the cult of life, in the same way that love is a hunger for life, it is a longing for death."

- “Memory is not what we remember, but what reminds us. Memory is a present that never ends ”.

- “The writer must endure loneliness, knowing that he is a marginal being. That we writers are marginal is more of a condemnation than a blessing ”.

- "The most dangerous human masses are those in whose veins the poison of fear… of fear of change has been injected."

- “Each poem is unique. In each work beats, to a greater or lesser degree, all the poetry. Each reader looks for something in the poem. And it is not unusual for him to find it: he already had it inside ”.

- "What seems unacceptable to me is that a writer or an intellectual submits to a party or a church."

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4. Octavio Paz. (S. f.). Mexico: Fundación Paz. Recovered from: fundacionpaz.org.mx.
5. 10 great phrases by Octavio Paz. (2018). Mexico: Gatopardo. Recovered from: gatopardo.com.