[1] Born in Puebla, Mexico, Pitol spent his childhood in Ingenio de Potrero, a provincial town in the state of Veracruz.
In 1950, Pitol moved to Mexico City to study law and literature at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM).
In 1960, he became a member of the Mexican Foreign Service and served over a number of years as cultural attaché in Rome, Belgrade, Warsaw, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, Prague, Budapest and Barcelona.
His final years were spent in poor health and he had struggled in particular with progressive aphasia, which prevented him from writing or talking.
[4] Pitol's publications as translator include literary works by such authors as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Jane Austen, Giorgio Bassani, Kazimierz Brandys, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Witold Gombrowicz, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.