Internationally acclaimed, Nobel Prize-winning poet and essayist Octavio Paz is the author of this week’s addition to WRITE BRAIN TV’s ever-expanding Radical Library.

Born in Mexico City in 1914, Paz’s father was an aide to revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. When Zapata was assassinated in 1920, the Paz family was forced to flee to Los Angeles for a few years, before returning to Mexico City for Ocatavio’s teenage years. Heavily informed by his radical upbringing, Paz began writing poetry and found great success in local publications.

While attending law school, Paz sent his work to famed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who suggested he go to Spain to attend an upcoming gathering of leftist writers. Paz became captivated by the Spanish Republican campaign and joined a battalion fighting against the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Paz returned to his home country to champion the cause of Spanish Republicanism, and soon spent time in California and New York as a student and journalist. Paz earned a role as a cultural attache in Mexico’s diplomatic program while also publishing prolifically on the cultural double-consciousness of a Mexican heritage torn between the legacy of Spanish colonialism and the burden of their indigenous ancestors.

Paz was known for his poetic prose and prosaic verse, a contradiction that mirrored his dualistic thematic goal to bring the Mexican Identity to an international audience while trying to assimilate the customs and styles he picked up on his diplomatic travels into the Mexican consciousness.