482 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
Octavio Paz (1914–1998)
Octavio Paz is among the foremost of many writers and artists in the twentieth cen-
tury who have sought to define Mexico’s singular identity as a modern mestizo na-
tion whose roots are both Indian and Western. In addition to his being an acclaimed
national poet, philosopher, and social commentator, he has held major diplomatic
posts abroad as well as visiting professorships in Europe and the United States. His
book The Labyrinth of Solitude(1950, revised in 1959), from which the following ex-
cerpt is taken, was certainly not the first postrevolutionary work to make the point
that Mexico’s future as a modern nation requires an ongoing dialogue with its Indian
past and present. However, it was, without a doubt, one of the most influential state-
ments of this theme, both at home and abroad.
The following excerpt is from the chapter entitled “The Sons of Malinche.” In
it, Paz deals with two national icons: Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe,
and La Malinche (or Doña Marina, as Spaniards called her), who was Cortés’s Indian
mistress and interpreter. She is viewed by most Mexicans ambivalently: both as a trai-
tor to the nation’s Indian past and as the Mexican Eve (Figure 13.4) (for more on
La Malinche, see Chapters 5, 8, and 14).Figure 13.4 “Cortés y la Malinche”
[Cortés and Malinche], mural by José
Clemente Orozco in the Escuela
Nacional Preparatoria, No. 1, Mexico
City. DACS 2015©