Background

Ethnicity: Gabriel Zaid's parents were Palestinian immigrants.

Gabriel Zaid was born on January 24, 1934, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico; the son of Carlos and Margarita (Giacoman) Zaid.

Education

In 1956, Zaid received a degree in industrial engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education.

Career

In 1958, Zaid began to work in an office of consultants, and in 1967 he published his first essays in La Cultura en México, which were noted for humor and irony. Beginning as an independent consultant he became a specialized directory editor. He was a board member of Vuelta magazine from 1976 to 1992.

As a member of the Vuelta editorial team and its heritage, he was one of the promoters and commentators on the work of Octavio Paz.

As for his poetic work, he began by participating in the Teuacan's Flower Games in 1954 with his work The Fable of Narcissus and Ariadne. Ten years later, the Cultural Foundation published a follow-up book of poems in the Mexican Letters collection, preceded by the prologue of Octavio Paz.

His essays and critical work touch upon the problems of politics, culture and the economy of Mexico, and criticize the preconceived ideas and prejudices in general that affect the future of these areas.

Zaid has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, such as The Magazine of Fine Arts, Wind Notes, Literary Life, Plenty, Dialogues, Illustrated Rooster, Mexico in Culture, University of Mexico Magazine, "Vuelta" and the newspaper group. He currently writes in Letras Libres and has a monthly column in the magazine Content, which is reproduced in several newspapers.

Achievements

• Gabriel Zaid, a well-known Mexican poet, essayist, and social critic, whose poetry, essays, social and cultural criticism, and business writings have been widely published throughout the Spanish-speaking world. In addition to his thoughtful poetry, Zaid has gained particular critical recognition for his enlightened prose concerning world issues.

Works

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  • Seguimiento 1964
  • Omnibus de la poesia mexicana 1971
  • Leer poesia 1972
  • Los demasiados libros 1972
  • Cómo leer en bicicleta 1975
  • Cuestionario 1976
  • El progreso improductivo 1979
  • Asamblea de poetas jóvenes de México 1980
  • La poesía en la práctica 1985
  • La economía presidencial 1987
  • De los libros al poder 1988
  • Adiós al PRI 1995
  • Hacen falta empresarios creadores de empresarios 1995
  • Reloj de sol 1995

Politics

Zaid has never worked for the government or political parties.

Views

Zaid's poetry, collected in such volumes as Practica mortal, Canciones de Vidyapati, and Cuestionario: poemas, 1951-1976, is recognizable by its succinct poetic style and its author’s recurrent focus on such themes as love, death, a woman’s beauty, and the meaning of life. Zaid’s tonality is often conversational and informal, and he uses irreverent humor to handle conventional topics.

Membership

Zaid was a member of the Board of Directors of the Vuelta magazine from 1976 to 1992, a member of El Colegio Nacional and a member of the Mexican Academy of Language.

Personality

Zaid was considered an independent intellectual since he published on his own and in favor of readers.

Quotes from others about the person

• "The expressions of beauty, both natural and created, is fundamental for each poet, and each has an awareness of the mythological and even the magical as a part of life. Zaid takes a half-serious, half-sardonic view of all he surveys…. Taken together, these four voices represent strong individuality with both successes and failures, and collectively they do a great deal to advance the cause of Mexican poetic expression. They are not slavish imitators of a recent or distant past, but rather use a rich legacy to express the committed Mexican humanism which is a product of their peculiar circumstances." - Merlin H. Forster

Connections

On March 20, 1973, Gabriel Zaid married Basia Batorska, a painter.

Father:

Carlos Zaid

Mother:

Margarita (Giacomán) Zaid

Spouse:

Basia Batorska

References

• Intellectuals and the State in Twentieth-Century Mexico In developing countries, the extent to which intellectuals disengage themselves in state activities has widespread consequences for the social, political, and economic development of those societies.
  1985
• Mexican Literature: A History Mexico has a rich literary heritage that extends back over centuries to the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. This major reference work surveys more than five hundred years of Mexican literature from a sociocultural perspective.
  1994
• Diccionario de literatura espanola e hispanoamericana/ Dictionary of the Spanish and Latin American Literature
  1993
• Mexicanos eminentes
  1999
• New World Soundings: Culture and Ideology in the Americas
  1989
• Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature A comprehensive, encyclopedic guide to the authors, works, and topics crucial to the literature of Central and South America and the Caribbean, the Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature includes over 400 entries written by experts in the field of Latin American studies.
  1997
• Tradition and Renewal: Essays on Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature and Culture Interprets the values, cultural expressiveness, and achievements of modernist tendencies and selected individual writers of Brazil, Mexico, and Chile, within the context of the effects of rapid change and larger world view on traditional norms. Bibliogs
  1975