Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Paco Ignacio Taibo II (born Francisco Ignacio Taibo Mahojo; on January 11, 1949), also known as Paco Taibo II or informally as PIT, is a Spanish-Mexican writer, novelist and political activist based in Mexico City. He is most widely known as the founder of the neopolicial genre of novel in Latin America and is also a prominent member of the international crime writing community. His Spanish language work has won numerous awards including two Latin American Dashiell Hammett Prizes. In 2018, Taibo was appointed as head of the Fondo de Cultura Económica by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Biography

Taibo has lived in Mexico City since the age of 9, when in 1958 his family fled from Spain to Mexico. Taibo II is an intellectual, historian, professor, journalist, social activist, union organizer, and world-renowned writer. Widely known for his policial novels, he is considered the founder of the neopolicial genre in Latin America and is the president of the International Association of Policial Writers. One of the most prolific writers in Mexico today, over 500 editions of his 51 books have been published in 29 countries and over a dozen languages, and include novels, narrative, historical essays, chronicles, and poetry.

Some of PIT's novels have been mentioned among the "Books of the Year" by The New York Times, Le Monde, and the Los Angeles Times. He has received numerous awards including the Grijalbo, the Planeta/Joaquin Mortiz in 1992, the Dashiell Hammett three times for his policial novels, and the 813 for the best police novel published in France. His biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Ernesto Guevara, tambien conocido como el Che, 1996) has sold over half a million copies around the world and won the 1998 Bancarella Book of the Year award in Italy. To date nobody has been held accountable for these crimes.

Among PIT's most popular works is a series of detective novels, written against the prevailing bourgeois state in Mexico in the last few decades of the 20th century, with the protagonist, Mexican Private Investigator Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, who was introduced in the novel Días de combate. PIT wrote eight more novels with this character. The character has been adapted several times for film and television, most recently for the 2022 Netflix series Belascoarán starring Luis Gerardo Méndez.

Other novels include: Cuatro manos (Four Hands); Sombra de la sombra (Shadow of the Shadow); Amorosos fantasmas; and Temporada de Zopilotes: Una historia narrativa sobre la Decena Trágica (Buzzards' season: A narrative history about the Ten Tragic Days) and, the last of the series, Muertos incómodos (The Uncomfortable Dead), co-authored with Subcomandante Marcos.

PIT organizes the "Semana Negra" ("The Noir Week"), a crime fiction festival held every year in his birth city of Gijón in Spain.

One of Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s most recognized works is his biography of Pancho Villa, a prominent leader of the Mexican Revolution. In Pancho Villa: Una Biografía Narrativa (2006), Taibo combines historical research with narrative storytelling. He portrays Villa as a complex and charismatic figure, emphasizing both his military skill and personal contradictions, including moments of ruthlessness alongside acts of compassion. The biography examines Villa’s role in the Revolution and his commitment to social justice, presenting him as a man shaped by poverty, ambition, and the political upheaval of early 20th-century Mexico.

Family He is the son of Paco Ignacio Taibo I (†, 6/19/1924-11/13/2008) and the brother of movie producer Carlos Taibo and poet Benito Taibo.

Awards and honors 1991 Dashiell Hammett (Spain) for his novel Cuatro Manos 1994 Dashiell Hammett (Spain) for his novel La Bicicleta de Leonardo 1998 Premio Bancarella (Italy) for his novel Senza Perdere la Tenerezza