Américo Castro
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Américo Castro y Quesada (May 4, 1885 – July 25, 1972) was a Spanish cultural
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
,
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
, and literary critic who challenged some of the prevailing notions of Spanish identity, raising controversy with his conclusions that
Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both in ...
did not become the distinct group that they are today until after the Islamic conquest of Hispania of 711, an event that turned them into an Iberian caste co-existing among
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and
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, and that the history of Spain and
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was adversely affected with the success in the 11th to the 15th centuries of the "
Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
" or Christian reconquest of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
and with the Spanish expulsion of the Jews (1492).


Life

Castro was born to Spanish parents on May 4, 1885, in Cantagalo,
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,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. In 1890, his parents returned with him to Spain. In 1904 he graduated from the
University of Granada The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Ap ...
, going on to study at the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
in
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from 1905 to 1907. After returning to Spain he organized the Center for Historical Studies in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
in 1910 and headed its department of
lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...
. In 1915, he became a professor at the University of Madrid. Later, when the Spanish Republic was declared, Castro became its first ambassador to
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in 1931. However, when the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
broke out in 1936, he moved to the
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, where he taught literature at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
from 1937 to 1939, at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
from 1939 to 1940 and at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
from 1940 to 1953. Among Castro's most notable scholarly works are ''The Life of Lope de Vega'' (1919); ''Language, Teaching, and Literature'' (1924); ''The Thought of Cervantes'' (1925); ''Ibero-America, Its Present and Its Past'' (1941); ''The Spaniards: an Introduction to their History'' (1948); ''The Structure of Spanish History'' (1954); and ''Out of the State of Conflict'' (1961).


References


Sources

* Castro, Americo. Edmund L. King, Tr. (1954). ''The Structure of Spanish History.'' Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. * "Castro, Americo." (2005). ''The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia'', 6th ed. Retrieved January 21, 2006, from Info Pleas
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0810798.html
* "Castro, Américo." (2006). ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved January 21, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Servic
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9020733
* José Luis Gómez Martínez, "Américo Castro y Sánchez-Albornoz: Dos posiciones ante el origen de los españoles." ''Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica'' 2l (1972): 30l-320. * Martin, Marina. (2006). "J. Goytisolo's Vindication of Muslim Spain: Count Julian's Revenge" (description of scholarly paper). The Fourth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities. Retrieved January 19, 2006, from The Humanities Conference 06 websit
http://h06.cgpublisher.com/proposals/141/index_html
* Sicroff, Albert A. "Américo Castro and His Critics: Eugenio Asensio." Hispanic Review, Vol. 40, No, 1, 1972, pp. 1–30. {{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Americo 1885 births 1972 deaths University of Paris alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty Brazilian people of Spanish descent Princeton University faculty Hispanists Ambassadors of Spain to Germany Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in the United States 20th-century Spanish historians Spanish expatriates in the United States Spanish expatriates in France