Octavio Paz is Mexico's most prestigious and controversial poet of the second half of the 20th century. He was born in Mexico City in 1914 when the country was involved in the revolutionary struggle. His family life revolves around two key figures: his grandfather Irineo Paz –writer and intellectual man who sided with Porfirio Diaz’s administration- and his father Octavio Irineo Paz, an advocate of the Mexican Revolution. In 1945, he enrolled the diplomatic corps and met Andres Beton and his surreal movement. He lived in France, India, Switzerland and Japan serving diplomatic stints in those nations as a Mexican diplomat. In his younger years, he was a diehard advocate of T.S. Elliot’s and Garcia Lorca’s works. He took issue with the Republicans who fought General Francisco Franco.Mr. Paz’s works and life have been and remain being focus of attention and numerous critiques. In his early works, Mr. Paz’s books were praised almost unanimously. Even today, the so-called “first Paz” is penciled in as the best ever by some critics. In contrast, other authors believe his maturity as a writer and essayist is what really put him on the literary map.In general terms, critics of all stripes have zeroed in on some of his essays, such as The Maze of Solitude and The Arch and the Lyre, as well as on his poet books entitled Freedom Under Parole, The East Hillside and The Grammarian Monkey. He won the Cervantes Award in 1979 and ranks as the first Mexican ever to grab the Nobel Prize of Literature (1990).