Gabriel Zaid

Gabriel Zaid was born in Monterrey, N. L., on January 24, 1934. He is one of the most provocative and uncategorizable figures in contemporary Ibero-American culture. He studied mechanical engineering, and ever since his thesis on the publishing industry, he has shown a singular ability to read texts, events, and processes through a unique lens that eludes easy dichotomies. He was a contributor to journals such as Diálogos, México en la Cultura, Revista de Bellas Artes, Plural, Vuelta, El Gallo Ilustrado, Revista de la Universidad de México, and Contenido. He currently writes for the magazine Letras Libres and the newspaper Reforma, among other publications. He was also a member of the editorial board of Vuelta (1976–1992). Some of his poetry collections include Fábula de Narciso y Ariadna (1958), Seguimiento (1964), Campo nudista (1969), Práctica mortal (1973), Cuestionario (1976), Sonetos y canciones (1992), Reloj de sol (1995), and La claridad furiosa (2019). His poems have been set to music by Fabio Morábito (1980), Braulio Hornedo (1980, 1999, 2023), Tage Nielsen (1982), Carmen Leñero (1997), Jorge Vidales (1998, 2007), Leticia Servín (1999), Georgina Ramírez Espíndola (2012), Jeff M. Brown (2014), Julián Herbert (2015), Rogelio Guedea (2018), and Pilar Horner (2021). As an essayist, his published works include La máquina de cantar (1967), Los demasiados libros (1972), Leer poesía (1972), Cómo leer en bicicleta (1975), El progreso improductivo (1979), La poesía en la práctica (1985), La economía presidencial (1987), De los libros al poder (1988), Adiós al PRI (1995), Tres poetas católicos (1997), Empresarios oprimidos (2009), Dinero para la cultura (2013), El secreto de la fama (2009), Cronología del progreso (2016), Mil palabras (2018), and El poder corrompe (2019), among others. His work has been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Slovenian, Dutch, Serbian, and Estonian. El Colegio Nacional has published six volumes of his collected works.