Mexico honors Octavio Paz 100 years after birth
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexicans honored Nobel Prize poet and essayist Octavio Paz on Monday, marking the 100th anniversary of the late writer's birth.
The government and top poets held readings and exhibitions to remember Paz, whose most famous work was the 1950 essay "The Labyrinth of Solitude." Google dedicated the doodle on its Monday home page to him.
Paz's views continue to hold relevance today, 16 years after his death at age 84. A socialist early in his life, he later warned of authoritarian tendencies.
President Enrique Pena Nieto addressed a ceremony honoring Paz in Mexico City, noting the writer's record of criticizing authoritarian practices and abuses of power. Paz was "the most universal of our thinkers," he said.
Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party was at times one of the targets of Paz's criticisms.
Paz's daughter Helena Paz Garro died on the eve of the anniversary at age 74. The National Arts Council said her death Sunday was from natural causes.
