ABSTRACT

Octavio Paz was forced to look for work, finding a position as a typist at the Archivo General de la Nacion through the father of his schoolfriend and collaborator on Barandal, Rafael Lopez Malo. The pair also wrote occasional political speeches. A year after his father's death, Paz abandoned his law studies and left Mexico City, first to help found a school for the children of agricultural workers in Merida in the Yucatan, then to attend the Second International Congress of Antifascist Writers, in Spain. These two excursions would open new artistic and political vistas. Paz's encounter with the poverty of the agricultural workers carried a strong personal as well as political resonance. Jorge Cuesta's review noted the presence of Pablo Neruda in Raiz del hombre along with the Mexican poets Ramon Lopez Velarde, Carlos Pellicer, and Xavier Villaurrutia. Entre la piedra y la flor confirms Jorge Cuesta's analysis of Raiz del hombre.