I've read several poems and a single book through my life, I think he was very well know abroad, of course also because he won the nobel prize.
I had read that he was working for the mexican goverment while the goverment killed students in 60's in the famous Tlatelolco square, have you ever heard about this horrible event? When he know what the goverment had done, He left his job because he wasn't agree with them.
The book that I read was...."El laberinto de la Soledad" that describes us through the history also those events related with human relationships between Americans, Spanish, with a critical and a non subjetive point of view.
It's late and again I need to get some sleep, I'll continue this little story of my first sight to the Octavio's work.

Viel Glück!