Mexican · 1914–1998
Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990 for poetry that "embraces all worlds." The Mexican poet-diplomat wrote "The Labyrinth of Solitude" (1950), an essay collection that became essential reading on Mexican identity. His poetry—"Sun Stone," "Piedra de Sol"—draws on surrealism and pre-Columbian myth. Paz served as ambassador to India and broke with the Mexican government over the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre. He died in 1998.