| | |  Travel Writers' Resources | November 2008 
Distinguished Mexican Journalist and Novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo Dies
 EFE
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| | PIT II, as he is known in Mexico, was born 11 January 1949 in Gijón, Asturias, Spain, and moved to Mexico when he was nine years. He participated in the Student Rebellion that led to the infamous Massacre of 1968. Besides his novels, he is known for non-fiction books, most importantly his books including Guevara, Also Known as Che (St. Martin's) and '68 (Seven Stories Press.) In 2006, Taibo co-authored a murder mystery with the Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos entitled The Uncomfortable Dead (Akashic Books). Most recently he had written a book in Spanish titled Pancho Villa: Una biografía narrativa (Planeta). | | |
Exiled from Franco's Spain, he authored more than 50 novels.
Mexico City - Distinguished Spanish-born journalist Paco Ignacio Taibo I died Thursday in his adopted homeland of Mexico, family members told Efe. He was 84.
The reporter and writer's wake will be held all day long at his home in Mexico City's Condesa neighborhood.
"He always received all his friends here and he will also receive them today," explained poet Benito Taibo, who confirmed the death of his father, who was exiled from Francoist Spain in 1950 for his socialist activism.
"He lived a marvelous life," recalled Benito, who emphasized that his father wrote more than 60 books and leaves behind "a moral example regarding his relationship with the world ... (and) with journalism."
He began his career as a cycling reporter and was the author of some 50 novels and innumerable news articles.
About that profession he came to say that it was no more than "converting oneself into an extansion of the eyes that are not there to see, the ears that are not there to hear and, on some honorable occasions, into the voice of those who cannot speak as loudly as they would like to be heard."
"El Jefe" (the boss), as everyone called him - including his sons Benito and Paco Ignacio II - in 2006 received the Great Cross of the Order of Civil Merit presented by the Spanish government.
In addition, Taibo received a number of important honors, including one for his contribution to cultural journalism at the 2004 Guadalajara International Book Fair and Mexico's National Journalism Prize last May.
In his acceptance speech for the latter award, he exhibited his proverbial good humor, quoting his literary character "El gato culto" by saying, "I don't care about awards except when they give them to me." |
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