Alfredo Barrera Vázquez (1900—December 28, 1980) was a Mexican

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, academic and Mayanist scholar. He is noted for both his research into the historical

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writin ...

of the

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

era and his contributions promoting literacy in

Mayan languages The Mayan languages In linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and a ...

and the culture of contemporary

Maya peoples Maya () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived w ...

. He has been described as "...perhaps the greatest Maya scholar to emerge from the actual land of the Maya."Stuart (1992, p.29).

Biography

His parents were Narciso Barrera Madera and Eloísa Vásquez Bolívar. He was bilingual in both Yucatec Maya and Spanish from his childhood. At a young age he traveled to Europe where he went to finish his secondary education. In 1917 he returned to Mérida, Yucatán to begin studying at the state’s School of Fine Arts, two years later he went to Mexico City to continue studying painting and engraving, as well as entering the National Normal School of Teachers. In 1922 he came back to Mérida and taught at the School of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Engineering. From 1927 to 1932 he continued his studies in Philosophy and Letters in Mexico City, and traveled to Spain to study Spanish literature.

Notes

References

* Mayanists Linguists of Mesoamerican languages Mesoamerican anthropologists Mexican Mesoamericanists 20th-century Mesoamericanists People from Yucatán Members of the Mexican Academy of Language 1900 births 1980 deaths 20th-century Mexican anthropologists {{mexico-linguist-stub