This was an interview by Enrico Mario Santí with Octavio Paz in 1996 in the framework of a conversation with a poet for the book "A Portrait of Octavio Paz," requested by Editorial Galaxia Gutenberg of Barcelona, which will be published soon. Octavio Paz talks here, among other subjects, of his poetic origins as well as of his difficult debate with the Mexican intellectual class in contrast with his fruitful dialog with the country and his people.