In “The Pachuco and Other Extremes,” the Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat Octavio Paz grapples with the issues related to the search for the national identity in post-revolutionary Mexico and, more broadly, the existential relationship of individuals to the universe. Comparing the development of nations to the psychological development of individuals, Paz considers self-discovery to be a path toward realization of one’s uniqueness and singularity. Painting North Americans and Mexicans as polar opposites in terms of social attitudes and values, Paz concludes that neither of the two nations has accomplished a kind of reconciliation between “men” and the universe that he considers desirable. Yet, between the two extremes that the North Americans and the Mexicans represent, Paz is confounded by the figure of the rebellious pachuco (a young man of Mexican origin living in the United States), who defies integration into the U.S. society and stubbornly affirms his own distinctness. Paz gives a lengthy description of the key traits of the pachuco, including his intense self-fashioning. The indeterminacy of the pachuco in terms of national and cultural affiliation constitutes for Paz “a suicidal gesture.” In the life of the pachuco, according to Paz, there is no trace of language, religion, customs, or beliefs of his Mexican heritage.

The Mexican poet, writer, diplomat, and 1990 Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz (1914–1998) arrived at his description of the pachuco following a brief stint in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1940s. His troublesome characterization of the pachuco proved to be highly controversial to a number of Chicano scholars. [See: Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino, “Mano a mano: An Essay on the Representation of the Zoot Suit and its Misrepresentation by Octavio Paz,” document # 1126565.] For a reason or another, the defiant demeanor against Mexico and North America that Paz prescribes as a trait of the pachuco, has met with resistance on the part of Chicano writers. For instance, works such as the poem “Pachuco Paz” (1972) by Chicano poet Alurista, often cited as the author of El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán [document # 803398], have pushed for the re-appropriation and re-signification of the challenging term. More broadly, Paz’s essay might exemplify the incomprehension between the nation and its diaspora, particularly acute at the moment of Mexico’s intense investment in the new post-revolutionary national project.