Edmundo O'Gorman (24 November 1906 in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

– 28 September 1995 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, historian and philosopher. He is considered as being among the earlier and most influential applicants of

historical revisionism In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) scholarly views or narratives regarding a historical event, timespa ...

to commonly held narratives regarding the Spanish colonial period in Latin America.

Early life and education

O'Gorman was born in Coyoacán, in the southern part of Mexico City. He was the son of painter and

mining engineer Mining engineering is the extraction of minerals from the ground. It is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer m ...

Cecil Crawford O'Gorman, an Irishman who emigrated to Mexico in 1895, and the great-great-nephew of the first British consul to Mexico City, Charles O'Gorman, who later married a Mexican citizen. He was the younger brother of celebrated architect and painter

Juan O'Gorman Juan O'Gorman (6 July 1905 – 17 January 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect. Early life and family Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough A borough is an admini ...

. He graduated with a degree in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

(1928) from the Escuela Libre de Derecho. In 1940 he began lecturing in the

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

faculty of

Mexico City College Mexico City College was founded in 1940, as an English-speaking junior college in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1946, the college became a four-year Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', ...

. In 1948 he obtained a Masters in

and in 1951 he completed his doctorate in

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

with ''summa cum laude'' honorific distinction from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM). While at UNAM, he was at the university's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and a researcher at the university's Institute of Historical Research. During his time at UNAM, O'Gorman met and developed relationships with distinguished Mexican intellectuals and Spanish refugees, such as José Gaos, who would greatly influence his later works. O'Gorman also lectured at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

Career

Between 1938 and 1952, O'Gorman worked for the Mexican General National Archive. He became a member of the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language in 1969 and the Mexican Academy of the Corresponding History of the Real of Madrid, corporation of which he was a director from 1972 to 1987. He resigned after disagreements over concepts such as the "discovery of America", "encounter between two worlds", "cultural fusion" (or "natural mixing"), names he rejected and instead preferred the terms "empowerment", "domination" and others more according with a critical interrogation of history. O'Gorman was the author of several historical texts that were published between 1951 and 1986. O'Gorman published his first works and studies in the "Alcancía" along with his close friend Justino Fernández. He was a great admirer of authors such as

José Ortega y Gasset José Ortega y Gasset (; ; 9 May 1883 – 18 October 1955) was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. His philosoph ...

Wilhelm Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathi ...

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, among other historical and philosophical writers. These influences bolstered O’Gorman’s disagreement with previous Mexican historiography, which was full of extremism and with a leaning towards new, unedited documents. ''Op.cit.'' p.690

Achievements

*Premio Nacional de Letras in (1974) *Premio Historia Rafael Heliodoro Valle (1983) *Premio UNAM a la Docencia (1986). *Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia (1964). *Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (1969). *Received honoris causa Ph. Ds at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y de la Universidad Iberoamericana. *Emeritus professor of the

Sistema Nacional de Investigadores Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (National System of Researchers) or SNI is a governmental agency established in Mexico in 1984 to promote both the quantity and quality of research in Mexico, especially in the sciences. In the 1980s, the countr ...

and the UNAM y member of the Junta de Gobierno. *Led the Academia Mexicana de la Historia (1972–1987).

Books

* '' Destierro de Sombras'' (1986) * '' La incógnita de la llamada "Historia de los indios de la Nueva España", atribuida a Fray Toribio Motolinia'' (1982) * '' México el trauma de su historia'' (1977) * '' Guías de las actas del cabildo de la ciudad de México. Siglo XVI'' (1970) * '' 50 años de revolución'' (1962) * '' La supervivencia política novohispana'' (1961) * '' Invención de América'' (1958) * '' Coautor de Precedentes y sentido de la revolución de Ayutla'' (1954) * '' Fundamentos de la historia de América'' (1951) * '' Dos concepciones de la tarea histórica'' (1951)

References

External links

Profile
at the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language * https://txarchives.org/utlac/finding_aids/00047.xml * at the Society for Irish Latin American Studies. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogorman, Edmundo 1906 births 1995 deaths Writers from Mexico City Mexican people of Irish descent National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Members of the Mexican Academy of Language 20th-century Mexican historians 20th-century Mexican lawyers 20th-century Mexican male writers 20th-century Mexican philosophers Burials at the Panteón de Dolores National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Mexico)