Jose Luis Martinez Rodriguez

José Luis Martínez Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican writer, academic, diplomat, historian, editor and humanist. He was born in Atoyac, Jalisco, on January 19, 1918. He studied Spanish literature at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and also took courses on philosophy and art history. He married Amalia Hernández, the founder and director of the Ballet Folklórico de México, with whom he had his first son, José Luis Martínez Hernández, who later became the head of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts. He divorced Amalia and married Lydia Baracs, a Hungarian woman, with whom he had two more children, Guadalupe Andrea and Rodrigo. He was a professor of literature at the UNAM and a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of El Salvador in 1951. He founded the magazine Tierra Nueva with Alí Chumacero, Leopoldo Zea and Jorge González Durán. He was a member of the Mexican Academy of Language, where he occupied the chair III since 1960. He also directed the academy from 1980 to 2002 and was named honorary director for life in 2003. He was also a member of the Mexican Academy of History and the Royal Spanish Academy. He was a diplomat and served as ambassador of Mexico in Peru, Greece and before UNESCO. He was also the director of the Fondo de Cultura Económica from 1977 to 1982, where he promoted the publication of many works of Mexican and Latin American literature and culture. He was a prolific writer and published many books and essays on topics such as Hernán Cortés, Nezahualcóyotl, the colonial period, the independence movement, the modernist generation, the Mexican Revolution and the contemporary literature. He also wrote poetry and memoirs. He received many awards and distinctions for his work, such as the Alfonso Reyes Prize, the National Prize of Sciences and Arts, the Mazatlán Prize of Literature, the International Menéndez Pelayo Prize, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru and the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the UNAM. He died in Mexico City on March 20, 2007, at the age of 89. He was buried in the Panteón Francés. He is remembered as one of the most important and influential figures of Mexican culture and humanism in the 20th century.