The Labyrinth of Solitude: And the Other Mexico ; Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude ; Mexico and the United States ; The Philanthropic Ogre | 
so-soAn old college book of my mother-in-law‘s that I‘ve always wanted to read. Not entirely a cultural point-by-point analysis of Mexican character and thought, but covers a good swath of Central American history and the psychological/philosophical changes a people must make to accommodate the coming of the conquistadors, Spanish Catholicism, French revolutionary thought and American imperialism. Paz, as poet, places ritual, love and poetry as balm.
panIn a series of essays Octavio Paz tries to understand and analyze the Mexican people. It bothers me a lot though that he speaks of 'the Mexican' throughout the whole book. As if they are all the same. I wanted to know more about Mexico because I am going there this week for my work, but this book didn‘t work for me. #1001books
pick#booktober day 21#immigrantstories Even through im spending my saturday doing errands and discovering cafes away from my books, this essay come to my mind for this challenge. The labyrinth of solitude of Octavio Paz is about what it means being Mexican, about Mexico history and what it means being in the United States. Was assigned to me for read at university for Latin american history and was a very interesting view about nationality.
It is always difficult to give oneself up; few persons anywhere ever succeed in doing so, and even fewer transcend the possessive stage to know love for what it actually is: a perpetual discovery, and immersion in the waters of reality, an unending re-creation.
Love is an attempt to penetrate another being, but it can only be realized if the surrender is mutual.
