His things are here. The day will come, but I cannot go yet. Marijo, who was Paz's second wife, declines to give her age, as though that were a ridiculous bit of information for anyone but her to have. She was far younger than her husband when they met in 1964 and she still reminds one of a Hollywood star with her trademark long blond locks. Many of Paz's poems and books were dedicated to this French-born woman, an artist herself.
Friends describe the two as unusually close.
Tomorrow I can say I want to move his foundation to Timbuktu. She chuckles at this thought, recalling how her husband delighted in how she made him laugh. She comes alive as she digresses into stories about her husband. He was so intense . . . Homero Aridjis, a Mexican poet who is also the current president of the London-based PEN International writers association, says many heirs of famous writers get in similar public disputes over the legacies they inherit if the works are deemed of national importance.