Octavio Paz Lozano was a Nobel Prize winning Mexican poet, essayist and a diplomat born in the middle of the Civil War that raged through the country in the early twentieth century. As his father was a member of a revolutionary group, young Octavio spent his early childhood under the care of his grandfather, also a noted writer. The elder Paz kept an extensive library and Octavio was introduced to both Mexican and European literature through these books while he was still a child. He began writing at the age of eight and had his first book of poems published at nineteen. Later he joined Mexican diplomatic service and it was during his stint as Ambassador to India that he had the opportunity to study Hindu and Buddhist philosophies which influenced his later writings. Although known as a leftist writer, Paz did not support Cuban leader Fidel Castro or the Sandinista guerrilla movement of Nicaragua. He later said, "Revolution begins as a promise, is squandered in violent agitation, and freezes into bloody dictatorships that are the negation of the fiery impulse that brought it into being."