| MÉXICO | DÍA DE MUERTOS | OCTAVIO PAZ |

Emb. Francisca Méndez: Rendir homenaje a Paz nos permite rendir honor al idioma de Sor Juana, Neruda y de García Lorca

DISCURSO INAUGURAL DEL ALTAR DE MUERTOS DE LA EMB. FRANCISCA E. MÉNDEZ ESCOBAR, REPRESENTANTE PERMANENTE DE MÉXICO ANTE LA OFICINA DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS EN GINEBRA

[[Geneva, November 2nd, 2023, Edificio de OMPI.
El evento contó con la presencia de 24 embajadores (Representantes Permanentes) y también de la presencia del Director General de la OMPI, Daren Tang y de la Secretaria General de la UIT, Doreen Bogdan-Martin. ]]

¡Buenas noches a todas y a todos!
Bonsoir! Good evening!

On behalf of the Permanent Mission of Mexico, I would like to thank you all for joining us tonight on such a wonderful Mexican occasion; the inauguration of the Exhibition of a traditional Altar the Muertos/Day of the Dead, a colourful Mexican festivity that reunites the living and dead.

Day of the Dead is one of the most important rituals of the year in Mexico, and its most concrete expression is the Altar, which is a beautiful amalgam of Mesoamerican indigenous beliefs and Christian influences.

Día de Muertos is a special day where Mexican families come together around the altars they prepared with love, as well as cemeteries, rendering homage to the ancestors of the Mexican people and their departed family members.

This Mexican festivity was incorporated in the List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2003, and it usually has different manifestations throughout the various States and regions of Mexico.

This year’s Altar or “Ofrenda” is dedicated to the Mexican Nobel Prize of Literature Octavio Paz who was also a skillful career diplomat and served at the Mexican Permanent Mission in Geneva seventy years ago, back in 1953.
We know for a fact that his literary skills even made an imprint on his diplomatic tenure in Geneva and there are some documents on official archives offering us testimony of his demarches before the International Labour Organisation.
Don Octavio was appointed afterwards Director for International Organisations at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it is safe to assume that many instructions to the Mexican multilateral missions, including Geneva, were crafted by him.
Octavio Paz’s work is best known for the brilliant poetry and analytical essays that granted him the 1990 Nobel prize for his impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.
In the words of the Nobel Prize Committee:

“Paz’s poetry and essays evolve from an intractable but fruitful union of cultures: pre-Columbian Indian, the Spanish Conquistadors and Western Modernism. Experiences from India and other areas are included as well. All of this has, in shifting configurations, been reflected in his work. His own identity, Mexican and, in its broader meaning, Latin-American, has already been explored decisively in The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950)”.

The Altar was designed to represent some of Paz influences throughout his life: his stay in France, India, Japan and naturally Switzerland. His experience as a young artist in which he visited Spain to express his support to the Spanish Republic during the civil war is also depicted.

Permítanme dirigirme ahora en idioma español, la lengua literaria de Octavio Paz y la cual, defendemos y promovemos con pasión en la Ginebra multilateral.

Rendir homenaje a Paz nos permite rendir honor al idioma de Sor Juana, Neruda y de García Lorca, quienes influyeron en la formación artística de este poeta mexicano.

La vocación literaria y poética de Octavio Paz se entrelaza con su vivencia del idioma español pues, desde joven, fue confrontado con la experiencia de transitar entre culturas y los retos y frustraciones de la comunicación.

Agradezco la presencia de nuestros connacionales y la comunidad de lengua española esta noche para la conmemoración de Dia de Muertos. Todas las culturas del mundo poseen ritos y rituales asociados a la muerte, pero la celebración de México es particular por su colorido y riqueza.

En palabras de Octavio Paz: “nuestro culto a la Muerte es el culto a la vida, del mismo modo que el amor que es hambre de vida es anhelo a la muerte”

Tonight, we want to bring to you, our dear colleagues, and friends of Mexico, a taste of the rich Mexican colors and flavors, with the aim of bringing our peoples together in peace, through culture, and joy.  In the difficult times we live, where war rages, I would like to express my hope for peace (paz).

And now I invite you all to taste a Mexican traditional delight: Pan de Muerto

¡Salud y Viva Mexico!