Octavio Paz

In 1937, Octavio Paz married Elena Garro, also a Mexican writer of great repute. The couple had a daughter named Helena Laura Paz Garro. Their marriage broke up in 1959. However, Elena always claimed that they were not officially divorced and if any such paper existed, it was fraudulent.

In 1965, he married Marie-José Tramini, a French lady, with whom he lived until his death.

Towards the end of his life, he was inflicted with cancer and died from it on April 19, 1998, in Mexico City. The body of work he left behind continues to keep his legacy alive.

Octavio Paz Lozano was born on March 31, 1914, in Mexico City into a distinguished family of Spanish and Indian descent. His father, Octavio Paz Solórzano, was a prominent lawyer and journalist. He served as a counsel for Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and took decisive part in his 1911 agrarian uprising.

With his son away, it fell upon Octavio’s grandfather, Ireneo Paz, also a political activist and writer, to look after the family. In 1915, he took the mother and child to his house in Mixcoac; a pre-Hispanic town, located just outside the Mexican City, but now a part of it.

There, young Octavio was brought up by his mother, Josefina Lozano, aunt, Amalia Paz and grandfather. Their big magnificent house, the surrounding garden as well as the cobbled streets of the town left an everlasting impression on his mind and were later reflected in many of his works.

In 1919, after Zapata was killed, Octavio Paz Solórzano relocated to Los Angeles. The following year, he sent for his wife and child and so sometime in 1920, six-year-old Octavio and his mother set off for Los Angeles, where they lived for two years.

At Los Angeles, he was enrolled at a local kindergarten school. Not knowing even a single word of English, he could not communicate with anyone and felt like an outsider. Embarrassed, he took refuge in silence.

In 1932, Octavio Paz Lozano entered National Autonomous University of Mexico. Here he was drawn to the leftist movement. Along with his studies and political activism, he also concentrated on writing, publishing a number of poems in the same year.

One of the more well-known poems published around that time was ‘Cabellera.’ His first article, ‘Etica del artista’ (Ethics of the Artist), was also published in the same period.

However, his most noteworthy achievement of this period was the founding of an avant-garde literary magazine titled, ‘Barandal’ (handrail) with three friends, Rafael López Malo, Salvador Toscano and Arnulfo Martínez Lavalle.

Paz’s first book of poems ‘Luna silvestre’ (Wild Moon) was published in 1933. Subsequently, he had two more books published; ‘No pasarán!’ in 1936 and ‘Raíz del hombre’ in 1937.

Sometime during this period, he sent some of his works to well-known Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. Neruda not only sent back favorable reviews, but also encouraged him to attend the meeting of leftist writers to be held later in Spain.

Eventually Octavio Paz became so much involved with his political activism and writing that he could no longer continue with his studies. He abandoned his education and in March 1937, left for Mérida to become a schoolmaster. The school was set up for the children of poor peasants and workers.

Here, his job was not only to teach, but also to recruit pupils. While searching for them, he witnessed how the peasants were dominated by the landlords. What he saw here, inspired him to start on a long poem, later named ‘Entre la piedra y la flor.’

However, he did not continue there for long. Within three months, he left for Spain to attend the Second International Writers Congress in Defense of Culture in Spain at Valencia, never to come back to his teaching post in Mérida.

At that time, the Civil War was raging through the country and Paz identified strongly with the Republicans. What he saw there was reflected in his fourth book of poem, ‘Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas sobre España’, published in the same year in Spain. It established him as a promising writer.

In 1938, on his way back to Mexico, he stopped at Paris. Here, he met many surreal artists and was greatly influenced by both surrealism and its proponents.