A union of two cultures – Andulasian Spanish on his mother’s side, Indian and Spanish on his father’s – inspired many of Octavio Paz’s poems and essays. He found influence everywhere: in Marxism, surrealism, Buddhism, eroticism, modern art and Mexican politics. In “Sun Stone” (1957) the poet reinterpreted existential life questions using an Aztecian calendar stone. Paz won the Nobel Prize "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.”
