Octavio Paz was born on March 31, 1914, in Mexico City, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. His father, a lawyer, worked for the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata.

Paz attended the University of Mexico from 1932-1937. Upon graduating, he traveled to Spain where he became a sympathizer with the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War.

Paz joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1946, serving as the Mexican cultural attaché in Paris until 1951. From 1962-1968, he was the Mexican ambassador to India, but resigned this post in protest against the Mexican government firing on student demonstrators at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Paz subsequently taught as a professor in Latin American studies and literature at several prestigious universities in England and the United States, including Cambridge and Harvard.

In 1937, Paz married Elena Garro, with whom he had a daughter, and later divorced. While in India, Paz met the...