Germán Arciniegas
Germán Arciniegas | |
---|---|
Jorge Zalamea Borda | |
Personal details | |
Born | Bogotá, Colombia | December 6, 1900
Died | November 29, 1999 Bogotá, Colombia | (aged 98)
Resting place | Central Cemetery of Bogotá |
Political party | Colombian Liberal Party |
Spouse | Gabriela Vieira |
Parent(s) | Rafael Arciniegas Tavera, Aurora Angueyra Figueredo |
Relatives | Joaquín Arciniegas Tavera Ricardo Armando Novoa Arciniegas |
Alma mater | National University of Colombia |
Occupation | Writer, politician, ambassador and professor |
Germán Arciniegas Angueyra (December 6, 1900 - November 29, 1999) was a
Family
Arciniegas was the son of Rafael Arciniegas Tavera, a farmer, and his wife Aurora Angueyra Figueredo. He had three brothers and four sisters. His father died young, leaving his mother struggling to support the family, his sister Maria Mercedes and his younger brother
Early years
At the age of eighteen, he began studying law at the National University of Colombia. At that time he had already created two journals: Año Quinto (1916) and Voz de la Juventud (1917). While a student he founded and managed the magazine Universidad (1921). He collaborated with many well-known figures at all three periodicals, including Luis López de Mesa, José Vasconcelos, León de Greiff and José Juan Tablada, who introduced the haiku into Spanish literature via Universidad. His love of journalism led him to establish and manage numerous cultural magazines throughout his life. In 1928, he joined El Tiempo, a daily newspaper in Bogotá, where he managed the editorial section, put together the Sunday Literary Supplement and wrote a weekly column, becoming the general manager in 1937. He would continue to contribute articles and opinion pieces to El Tiempo for the rest of his life,[1] speaking out against drug trafficking, Marxist guerrillas and restrictive immigration policies.
With the assistance of
Later career
He continued his fight for students' rights during his brief tenures as Minister of Education in 1942 and 1945-46. During this time, he founded the Caro and Cuervo Institute and moved the Colombian National Museum to its current home in a former prison building.[4]
During World War II, he supported giving aid and asylum to refugees. This was in opposition to
In terms of culture, Arciniegas strove to achieve and maintain a synthesis between the indigenous and the European. This approach was the driving force behind all of his diplomatic and political activities. He served as
In 1992, he was appointed President of the National Commission for the Celebration of the Five-Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of America. He was summarily dismissed by then First-Lady
Honors and awards
- Order of Civil Merit Grand Cross of Spain (1982)[6]
- Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1962)[7]
- Maria Moors Cabot Prize(1963)
- Alfonso Reyes International Prize (1994)
- Honorary member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (1949).
- Doctor Honoris Causa at the Faculty of Humanities and Education of the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU, 1984).[8]
Selected works
English
- The Knight of El Dorado: The Tale of Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and His Conquest of New Granada, translated by Mildred Adams, Viking Press (1942)
- Germans in the Conquest of America: A Sixteenth-Century Venture, translated by Ángel Flores, Macmillan (1943)
- The State of Latin-America: Twenty Nations Between Freedom and Fear, translated by Harriet de Onís, Knopf (1952)
- Latin-America: A Cultural History, translated by Joan MacLean, Knopf (1967)
- Amerigo and the New World : The Life & Times of Amerigo Vespucci, translated by Harriet de Onís, Octagon (1978) ISBN 0-374-90280-1
- America in Europe: A History of the New World in Reverse, translated by Gabriela Arciniegas and Victoria Arana, Harcourt (1986) ISBN 0-15-105555-6
- Caribbean: Sea of the New World, translated by Harriet de Onís, Markus Wiener (2003) ISBN 1-55876-312-0
Spanish
- El Estudiante de la Mesa Redonda, Ercilla (1937)
- Los Comuneros, Editorial ABC (1938)
- Este Pueblo de América, Fondo de Cultura Economica (1945)
- América Mágica. Los Hombres y los Meses, Sudamericana (1961)
- América Mágica. Las Mujeres y las Horas, Sudamericana (1961)
References
- ^ a b c Encyclopædia Britannica: Germán Arciniegas
- ^ "Germán Arciniegas. Por Rafael Grillo. En El Caimán Barbudo". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2013-09-10.
- ^ a b c "The Perucho Figueredo Page: Biography of Arciniegas". Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
- ^ a b La Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango del Banco de la República: Germán Arciniegas
- JSTOR 20020095.
- ^ "Boletín Oficial del Estado" (PDF) (in Spanish). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. 5 Jan 1981. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ President of the Italian Republic: Honorees
- ^ UNPHU: Dr. Honoris Causa V
External links
- New York Times: Obituary
- The Guardian: Obituary
- Universidad de Los Andes: El Legado de Germán Arciniegas
- El Tiempo Archive: Articles by and about Germán Arciniegas
- Germán Arciniégas recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division's audio literary archive on 23 April 1974