Life and work
Francisco Javier Santamaría was born in 1886 in the ''ranchería'' of Cacaos, to a ''criollo (people), criollo'' family of modest means. He began his schooling in Macuspana and completed his studies in Villahermosa (then called San Juan Bautista) at the Universidad de Tabasco, Instituto Juárez, where he graduated with a teaching degree. He subsequently moved to Mexico City to study law, obtaining his license in 1912. Beginning at a young age Santamaría demonstrated a talent for composition and an appreciation for the belles-lettres which would eventually evolve into a prolific career as a writer, lexicographer and linguist; his two most often cited works are the ''Diccionario General de Americanismos'' and the ''Diccionario de Mejicanismos'', the second of which is a continuation and completion of Joaquín García Icazbalceta, Joaquín García Icazbalceta's original project. At the start of his political career Santamaría was an outspoken critic of Plutarco Elías Calles and the Laborist Party (Mexico), Partido Labortista over which he presided. He was also a close friend and political associate of Joaquín Amaro#Amaro as Secretary of War, General Francisco R. Serrano (an inveterate enemy of Calles's), and supported the latter's presidential campaign for the 1925-1928 term, an enterprise which would ultimately end in the murderous defeat of Serrano and his closest associates. Santamaría would be the only one on Elías Calles's contract killing, hit list to not fall the night of October 2, 1927, an event known as the "Huitzilac Massacre," which resulted in the summary executions of Serrano and twenty six other generals, and which President Álvaro Obregón ordered out of fear of military rebellion. His escape and survival would, however, result in years of exile and poverty in the U.S., an account of which he gives in ''Crónicas del destierro: Desde la ciudad de hierro'' (Chronicles of Exile: From the Iron City). After returning to Mexico Santamaría re-entered politics by joining the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); eventually going on to serve as a Senator of the Republic forPublished works
(list not comprehensive) *''El artículo 91''. 1912 *''El periodismo tabasqueño''. 1920 *''Americanismos y barbarismos''. 1921 *''Ley orgánica de los tribunales del fuero común en el Distrito y territorios federales, con un apéndice que contiene la Ley de jurados, la Ley de licencias a funcionarios públicos y otras disposiciones''. 1923 *''Un valioso hallazgo bibliográfico cervantino: la segunda parte de la edición más discutible de "Don Quixote de la Mancha, El quijote". 1926 *''Glosa lexicográfica''. 1926 *''Bibliografia general de Tabasco: Tomo I''. 1930 *''Crónicas del destierro: Desde la ciudad de hierro. Diario de un desterrado mejicano en Nueva York. Recordaciones del destierro''. 1933 *''Nuevo codigo civil para el distrito y territorios federales''. 1933 *''Las ruinas occidentales del viejo imperio Maya: en la Sierra del Tortuguero en Macuspana, Tabasco: notas de una excursión''. 1933 *''Código de procedimientos civiles para el Distrito Federal y territorios: expedido el 30 de agosto de 1932''. 1934 *''Código civil para el Distrito y territorios federales (vigente desde el 1. de octubre de 1932)''. 1935 *''Diccionario del Código civil para el Distrito y territorios federales''. 1935 *''Código civil para el Distrito y territorios federales: expedido en 30 de agosto de 1928; exposición de motivos, de la Comisión autora del Proyecto''. 1935 *''Ley orgánica del poder judicial de la federación''. 1936 *''Datos, materiales i apuntes para la historia del periodismo en Tabasco (1825–1935)''. 1936 *''Ensayo de crítica del lenguaje''. 1941 *''Diccionario General de Americanismos''1942 *''El movimiento cultural en Tabasco''. 1946 *''El verdadero Grijalva : identificación i rectificación históricas-jeográficas, Centla, Potonchán, Santa María de la Victoria'' 1949 *''La poesía tabasqueña : antología, semblanzas literarias'' 1950 *''Documentos históricos de Tabasco''. 1950-1951 *''Antología folklórica y musical de Tabasco'' 1952 *''Diccionario de mejicanismos: razonado; comprobado con citas de autoridades; comparado con el de americanismos y con los vocabularios provinciales de los más distinguidos diccionaristas hispanamericanos''. 1959 *''Domingos académicos''. 1959See also
*Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española *Joaquín Amaro *Marcos E. Becerra *Andrés Bello *Miguel Antonio Caro *Rufino José Cuervo *Rosario María Gutiérrez Eskildsen *María Moliner *Ramón Menéndez Pidal *MeshicoNotes
Bibliography
*(English) Camp, Roderic Ai, ''Mexican political biographies, 1935-1993''. The Hague: Mouton, 1993. *(English) Yakov Malkiel, Malkiel, Yakov, ''Linguistics and philology in Spanish America. A survey (1925-1970)''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995,External links