Octavio Paz's famous essay "The Labyrinth of Solitude," first published in 1950, remains the most important work for understanding Mexico, "this Castilian people with Aztec stripes." For Paz, Mexicans are both Spaniards and Indians, even if they do not wish to descend from either. By rejecting their past, Mexicans deny themselves: "They become sons of nothing and begin within themselves." Walter Haubrich, FAZ.