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FRIDAY17O C T O B E R6 PMBeyond The Labyrinth of Solitude:A Tribute to Octavio PazCo-presented by the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco and The Mexican Art MuseumThis year marks the 100th birthday of Mexican poet-diplomat Octavio Paz. This evening celebrateshis life and career, featuring Paz scholar Rafael Vargas and special guests.Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City, and under the encouragement of Pablo Neruda,began his poetic career by founding an avant-garde literary magazine, Barandal. In his youth, Pazspent time in Spain and the United States, including U.C. Berkeley, and was for many years acultural attaché to France. His poetry and various collections of essays engage sexuality,anthropology, economics, politics, and history, with a level of originality and erudition that isunrivaled. Perhaps his best known work, the 1950 sociocultural analysis of Mexico, El laberintode la soledad (The Labyrinth of Solitude), became standard reading for students of Latin Americanhistory and literature.The Mexican Art Museum2 Marina Blvd., Fort MasonFREEAll Ages ♿Octavio Paz was recipient of the Miguelde Cervantes Prize, the NeustadtInternational Prize for Literature, and in1990, the Nobel Prize in Literature. Hispassing was mourned as the end of anera for Mexico. According to his obituaryin Americas, “Paz’s literary career helpedto define modern poetry and the Mexicanpersonality.”Rafael Vargas has worked as an editor,journalist, and cultural attaché at theEmbassy of Mexico in Chile. He haspublished nine books of poetry, andhas translated the works of Ezra Pound,Malcolm Lowry, Ernest Hemingway,T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, and JohnBerger, among others. He has justcompleted a new Octavio Paziconography released this year by Fondode Cultura Economica, one of the mostimportant publishing houses in Mexico.65