José Emilio Pacheco
José Emilio Pacheco Berny was a significant Mexican poet, playwright, and short-story writer born in Mexico City. Emerging from a middle-class background, Pacheco showcased his literary talent from a young age, initially pursuing studies in law and philosophy at the National University of Mexico. He became an influential figure in Mexican literature, contributing to the cultural awakening alongside prominent contemporaries like Octavio Paz. Pacheco's first poetry collection, *Los elementos de la noche*, established him as a master of poetic form, while his later works, such as *No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo*, gained international recognition.
His novella *Las batallas en el desierto*, which explores themes of time and memory, has been adapted into various artistic formats, highlighting its impact on Mexican culture. Over his career, Pacheco received numerous accolades, including the Cervantes Literature Prize in 2009. He also played a vital role in cultural journalism, editing significant literary publications and translating global poetry into Spanish. Pacheco's contributions extended to the Mexican film industry, where he wrote screenplays, and he held teaching positions at several universities in North America and Europe. He passed away on January 26, 2014, leaving behind a rich legacy in Mexican literature.
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José Emilio Pacheco
Poet
- Born: June 30, 1939
- Birthplace: Mexico City, Mexico
- Died: January 26, 2014
Biography
José Emilio Pacheco Berny was born in Mexico City to a middle-class family. His father was a general in the Mexican Revolution who later became a lawyer. Extremely precocious, Pacheco began writing in childhood. Pacheco was soon ready to take up the work of Mexican cultural awakening begun by the previous generation, many of whose leading figures, such as Octavio Paz, were still very much alive and welcomed him to their cause. Initially setting out to follow in his father's footsteps, Pacheco studied law and philosophy at the National University in Mexico City (UNAM), but in those years he also wrote plays and edited university literary journals.
His first poetry collection, Los elementos de la noche (Elements of night, 1963) revealed him as a master of both traditional and innovative form and a worthy heir to his immediate predecessors, those Mexican poets who had begun to integrate pre-Columbian elements with surreal and absurdist approaches inspired by the European and South American avant-garde. He broke through to world renown with his next major collection, No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo: Poemas 1964-1968 (1969; Don’t Ask Me How the Time Goes By: Poems, 1964-1968, 1978), which includes the line made famous by its English translator, Alastair Reid: “I do not love my country. Its splendor is beyond my grasp.” Pachecho’s short-story collections, El viento distante (The distant wind, 1963) and Las batallas en el desierto (1981; Battles in the Desert, and Other Stories, 1987), though unique to the Mexican author in content and tone, pay homage in structure to Jorge Luis Borges and Samuel Beckett. The latter novella, Battles in the Desert, would go on to be adapted to film and stage, graphic novel, and song. In it, as in many other of Pacheco's works, time and memory are prominent themes.
Among many honors, Pacheco was awarded the Enrique Lihu Prize for Poetry in 1968, the National Poetry Prize of Mexico in 1969, a Guggenheim fellowship in 1970, and Spain's prestigious Cervantes Literature Prize in 2009. In addition to his own writing, in which the ancient soul of Mexico is blended with the vision of a sophisticate, Pacheco influenced Mexican cultural consciousness through editorial work on such publications as Diálogos, a critical review; the cultural supplements of the newspapers Excelsior, Novededes, and the weekly Siempre; major anthologies of Mexican poetry; and in collaboration with Octavio Paz, La poesía en movimiento. Another aspect of his work in broadening the reach of Mexican culture is represented by Pacheco’s Spanish translations, which he calls “approximations,” of poets from around the globe, including Arthur Rimbaud, Kenneth Rexroth, and Giorgos Seferis, as well as writings by physicist Albert Einstein. Several of his own works were also translated into other languages, including English, French, and Russian. Between 1970 and 1976, Pacheco answered the appeal by the Mexican government for writers to revitalize the Mexican film industry, and wrote screenplays.
Pacheco was a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, New York University, the University of Illinois at Urbana, and the University of Essex in England, as well as a professor of the National University of Mexico and the University of Maryland. Pacheco and his wife Cristina, a journalist and short-story writer, made their permanent home in Mexico City. They had two daughters, Laura and Cecilia. Pacheco died on January 26, 2014, at the age of seventy-four.
Bibliography
Caistor, Nick. "José Emilio Pacheco Obituary." Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Doudoroff, Michael J. "José Emilio Pacheco: An Overview of the Poetry, 1963-86." Hispania 72.2 (1989): 264–76. PDF file.
Friis, Ronald J. José Emilio Pacheco and the Poets of the Shadows. Cranbury: Assoc. UPs, 2001. Print.
"José Emilio Pacheco." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Martin, Douglas. "José Emilio Pacheco, Honored Writer Who Wrote of Social Ills, Dies at 74." New York Times. New York Times, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.