Pacheco, José Emilio

José Emilio Pacheco, (born June 30, 1939, Mexico City, Mexico—died January 26, 2014, Mexico City), Mexican critic, novelist, short-story writer, translator, and poet. Early in his career he created verse that used surrealist and symbolic imagery to address such hot-topic issues as pollution, poverty, and government bureaucracy, but later he adopted a simpler, more forthright approach that reinforced his concept of history as a cyclic series of events that continue to haunt humankind. His canon of work was rewarded with the 2009 Cervantes Prize, the highest accolade in Spanish letters.

Pacheco was educated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He wrote several plays there that were never produced, and he edited (1957–58) the literary supplement of the review Estaciones. His first published work, a collection of short stories—La sangre de Medusa (1958; “The Blood of Medusa”)—shows the influence of Jorge Luis Borges. Los elementos de la noche (1963; “The Elements of the Night”) is a collection of his poems and essays published in periodicals from 1958 to 1962. The poems of El reposo del fuego (1966; “The Sleep of the Fire”) contemplate a world in disintegration, and the novel Morirás lejos (1967; “You Will Die Far Away”) documents the purges of Jews throughout history. No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo (1969; Don’t Ask Me How the Time Goes By) includes poems in which there is a nostalgic desire to relive the past, sometimes coupled with a fine sense of irony. The short stories in El principio del placer (1972; “The Pleasure Principle”) are united by the recurrent theme of anguish. In the poems of Islas a la deriva (1976; “Islands Adrift”), Pacheco reinterpreted history and mythology.

Pacheco’s later books include Ayer es nunca jamás (1978; “Yesterday Is Not Ever”), Desde entonces: poemas 1975–1978 (1980; “Since Then: Poems 1975–1978”), Tarde o temprano (1980; “Sooner or Later”), Ciudad de la memoria: poemas 1986–1989 (1989; “City of Memory: Poems 1986–1989”), La arena errante: poemas 1992–1998 (1999; “The Shifting Sands: Poems 1992–1998), and Siglo pasado (desenlace): poemas 1999–2000 (2000; “Century of the Past (Denouement): Poems 1999–2000”). His works in English translation include Tree Between Two Walls (1969), The Lost Homeland (1976), and Signals from the Flames (1980). He also edited La poesía mexicana de siglo XIX (1965) and Antología del Modernismo, 1884–1921 (1978).