Critical and ironic, self-conscious yet modest, socially aware and aesthetically impressive, the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco provides excellent insight for the reader interested in mid- to late-twentieth-century Mexico. In the tradition of Alfonso Reyes and Octavio Paz, Pacheco is one of the most influential Mexican intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Pacheco's unconventional approach to writing creates predicaments for biographers, bibliographers, and critics. An intensely private man, he turns down most requests for interviews and generally declines to respond to biographical queries. In one of his few interviews he told Elena Poniatowska: "Creo que los textos son más interesantes que los autores: importan las cosas, no quienes las hacen. Por otra parte, la 'notoriedad' me parece una molestia y un obstáculo para dedicarse a trabajar. . . . A mí me gustaría que la literatura fuera anónima y colectiva" (I believe...