In this article we present the interesting life of a character whose name is Rafael Altamira placeholder image, is a historian, critic, jurist, literary and for others a man who dedicated his existence to imparting his knowledge in the pedagogical area. Don't stop reading it.
Biography of Rafael Altamira
Rafael Altamira y Crevea, born in Alicante on February 10, 1886, was an enlightened man, historian and Hispanist, professor, jurist, literary critic and Spanish playwright.
In the city of Alicante, he studies high school. Later, in July 1882, he went to the University of Valencia to study Law, a companion of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, a Spanish writer, journalist and politician who promoted naturalism and realism, to whom he was united by a sincere friendship.
During his stay in the Mediterranean city, he came into contact with Joaquín Sorolla, Azorín, Teodoro Llorente and the institutionalist pedagogue Eduardo Soler, who brought him into contact with the followers of the KC Friedrich Krause philosophical system current, the playwrights Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Manuel Bartolomé Cossío and Joaquín Costa and many others.
As a young man, he dedicated himself with all eagerness and freedom to his naturalistic-looking literary inclinations, and that is when he captured “Cuentos de Levante” and his novel “Reposo”.
In 1886, he went to Madrid to pursue doctoral studies, which concluded with his thesis called "History of Communal Property", which was tutored by Gumersindo de Azcárate, a Spanish Krausist professor and politician.
In 1888, Nicolás Salmerón, a Spanish lawyer and philosopher, gave him the opportunity to participate in the writing of La Justicia, a newspaper that belonged to the Centralist Republican Party, and which was later assigned the director.
By then, all the writings captured were signed under the pseudonym "Ángel Guerra". During that time, the Institución Libre de Enseñanza sealed his ideals, his anxieties related to education and his moral quality forever.
Being in the city of Madrid, he works as secretary in the famous Museum of Primary Instruction, which was later the National Pedagogical Museum, and accepts the direction of the Bulletin of the Free Institution of Education.
After a good time, he began to work as a lawyer in the legal office of Nicolás Salmerón. In the year 1891, he manages to publish "The teaching of history". Then in the month of March 1895, he forms and in turn co-directs, together with Luis Ruiz Contreras, Spanish playwright and translator, the "Critical Magazine of Spanish History and Literature".
From the month of December 1895, with the title of Critical Magazine of History, Spanish, Portuguese and American, the literary Rafael Altamira, is designated the person in charge who will exercise the conduction that he directs successfully until the year 1898.
In the year 1897, he became worthy of the chair of History of Law at the University of Oviedo, getting involved in a running of the bulls in which Leopoldo Alas "Clarín" participated, well-known students of Francisco Giner de los Ríos, Adolfo Álvarez Buylla, Adolfo González Posada , Aniceto Sela Sampil, people needed to carry out the imperative renovation of university education, as well as of Spanish society.
In the year 1898, in the company of other pedagogues, he founded the Faculty of Law of the University of Oviedo, the specific University Extension of the University, with the sole objective of disseminating the knowledge produced in this house of study, through conferences, courses and other tasks, aimed at social classes that did not have the capacity to reach them. He can also know the trajectory of Biography of Jose Vasconcelos
The model of various English higher education houses continued, because it was expanded to other European countries, being Germany and Belgium. After the calamity of 1898, inspired by the regenerationist gift, he collaborates in dispelling Spanish despair with his Psychology of the Spanish people, and particularly with his famous and interesting well-known work "The History of Spain and of Spanish civilization".
Path through Latin America
When the time has come to celebrate the III Centenary of the University of Oviedo, the confinement where the pedagogues remain, they resolve to appear in American cultural life, which they would do through a trip with good intentions to reestablish the links between Spain and the American continent, which they were fragmented after the loss of the past colonies in 1898, where the literary Rafael Altamira was selected by absolute agreement.
The completion of the trip was planned in a few months, however, it lasted approximately one year. Since then, Rafael Altamira's gifts began to flourish, to bring talent as an intermediary service. Finally, the trip takes place in the month of June 1909 until March 1910.
During that time, he intends to visit several countries such as: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico, the United States and Cuba, where he successfully gave around 300 conferences in universities and cultural houses of these nations; working alongside editors, politicians, professors and students from all the universities, previously visited, and establishing exchange agreements for the formation of different associations, new public events and upcoming congresses.
Absolutely all his trip, is gathered in the work of documents My trip to America. In the year 1909, he is designated as doctor honoris causa, by the University of La Plata, by the University of Santiago de Chile, and by the University of Lima; and in 1911 by the National University of Mexico.
Return to Spain
Once he returned to Spain, the literary Rafael Altamira, was appointed Inspector General of Education, and in a short time he was assigned as Director General of Primary Education, an institution founded on January 1, 1911, not having any type of political characteristic.
Under the responsibility of this position, Rafael Altamira managed to reform and optimize the economic and professional aspect of the entire teachers' union, reorganized the Technical Inspection, which was worthy of endowing a Women's Corps that did not exist at that time, protected the Graduate School, transformed the teaching careers, and was particularly concerned about the structures of the student campus, as well as the bibliographic supply.
In the same way, he tried to implement new study methods such as the Garden School and the School in an open environment. In the year 1913, he handed in his resignation from office, due to political pressures.
In 1914, he was appointed as a professor at the Diplomatic Institute. During that same year, he competed and won the Chair of History of Political and Civil Institutions of America at the Central University of Madrid, which was created as a special subject in the doctorate of the Faculties of Law and Philosophy and Letters, with emphasis on Hispanic themes.
Rafael Altamira held this position until he retired in 1936. He also provided his own materials as a donation. Visibly as a person in favor of the allied nations, in the First World War, he publishes The current war and the Spanish opinion. It may also be interesting to meet Pancratius Celdran
In the year 1916, he is appointed senator by the University of Valencia, in the registry of the Liberal party that is led by Count Romanones. During that year, he moved to Paris with the Spanish Mission of Fraternal Intellectuals with France, which is made up of the Duke of Alba, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Miguel Blay, Odón de Buen, Américo Castro and Manuel Azaña, and others.
international jurist
In 1919, he was appointed judge at the Mining Litigation Court in Paris, to solve the existing disputes between France and Spain, regarding the mines of Morocco.
In the year 1920, he is selected as a member of the Commission of Jurists, responsible by the Council of the League of Nations, in writing the draft of the Permanent Court of International Justice.
In the year 1921, he is appointed to participate as one of the ten titular judges, Committee of the Ten, a position to which Altamira will later be elected again to continue with the following leadership, which he exercises until the year 1940, during this year the Court finds itself in a forced situation of stopping functions.
Despite his important international work during these years, he did not leave his chair in Madrid, he continued with his classes, as well as with his publications, with great emphasis on International Law and pacification.
In 1922, he was appointed academician of the Royal Academy of History. In 1923, he is appointed professor at the College de France in Paris.
In 1924, he is honored with an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux, as well as in 1928 from the University of Paris.
In 1929, he offered classes on History and Spanish Thought at the University of La Soborna. In this same year, he began his preparation for the edition of his Complete Works, containing the aforementioned, his History of Spanish Civilization, the Epitome of the History of Spain, Modern Questions of History, Of History and Art, Worker Questions, Giner educator, political ideology, among others. The warlike aspects and exile did not allow him to finish his project.
In 1930, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. In the year 1931, he is selected as dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Madrid. In the year 1933, he was suggested for the Nobel Peace Prize, for his great interventions to stop the war.
The proposal was signed by numerous Spanish and European scholars. In the year 1935, he is designated as president of the House of Valencia in Madrid. In 1937, Columbia University in New York gave him the honor of naming him an honorary doctorate.
Exile in Mexico
In the year 1936, the Spanish Civil War breaks out, because of this fact, Rafael Altamira, finds himself in the need to travel to Holland, here he continues with his work as a permanent judge of the Court of The Hague. But, as a result of the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, he demands that he protect himself in the French city of Bayonne.
In this place, it remains until 1944, and must be removed again, due to the arrival of the Germans. After a short stay in Portugal, there he supports the University of Coimbra, and writes "Men's Letters", he is invited by the Carnegie Foundation to teach a course at Columbia University, New York.
As a result of an incident, he suffered a broken hip, which happened to him on one of his trips, required him to change his plans and he settled permanently in Mexico City, where his two daughters were in exile: Pilar and Nela.
Although he was already advanced in age, he continues to offer courses at the Colegio de México and the Universidad Nacional de México, and is involved in republican exile efforts.
In the year 1946, with his knowledge as a pedagogue, he teaches at the Colegio de México the seminar chair "Preparation for historical research", at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National University, dictating the course that talks about "History of Spanish civilization”, he also supports with different articles that are published in: Magazine of American History, Magazine of the National School of Jurisprudence, American Notebooks and in Mediterrani.
During his stay in Mexico, he dedicated himself to completing literary topics that he had previously begun, such as: the Castilian Dictionary of legal and technical words, which were collected from the Indian legislation and its state, and his Analysis of the compendium of the Laws of the Indies of the year 1680.
In 1947, while in the capital of Mexico, the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History awarded him his first "America History Award". In the year 1951, he is again suggested for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Honor that he could not receive, because he died on June 1, 1951 in Mexico City. His remains were buried in the Spanish Pantheon in Mexico City.
Your activities
Rafael Altamira, recognized as one of the pioneers who narrated history and promoted the study and analysis of history in Spain, starting from his link with culture and the history of thoughts.
Despite the fact that he stimulated and collaborated permanently with the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and the ideas of the institutions, where he developed as a teacher, he remained independent with his own criteria in relation to krausismo, which is characterized by pretending to reconcile rationalism with morality.
He promoted popular educational training, and protected a pedagogical system with a great moral sense. In the year 1898, together with other magistrates of the Faculty of Law of the University of Oviedo, he founded the University Extension as a specific area of the house of study, in order to publicize the own learning in this institution, through conferences, courses and others, in a way that happens in various English universities and European countries such as Germany and Belgium.
In this same order of ideas, and in his function as secretary of the National Pedagogical Museum, he was assigned the task of crystallizing the project of creating a circulating network of libraries, in order to rescue many popular libraries that had been forgotten, formed in the year 1869 by Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla.
In the same way as he coordinates and manages these organizations, he continues to deliver his knowledge through courses, conferences and others, in different universities in Spain and abroad: Argentina, Peru, the United States, France and England.
His works are registered in the same way, in the ideological movement of Spain, known as regenerationism, in continuation of the Spanish historian Joaquín Costa, and with the fervor of evolutionism, and with an enormous interest in experimental science.
I permanently preserve art through journalism, as well as through literary criticism, and I deliver more than seventy literary works, among which are narrations such as his Cuentos de amor y triste, or his novel Rest, it should be noted that his famous Historia of Spain and Spanish civilization, as well as the Psychology of the Spanish people and the History of Spanish Law.
Awards and Decorations
The Spanish historian and literary Rafael Altamira, with his wisdom, was a man who deserved to be worthy of obtaining countless awards and decorations, which for your knowledge we detail:
Year 1910: Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso XII. Grand Cross of the Order of Naval Merit.
Year 1909: Silver Medal of the Hispanic Society of America. Gold Medal of the city of Lima
Year 1904: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium. Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II of Belgium. Officer of the French Legion of Honor. Order of the White Lion of Czechoslovakia.
Tributes
The day being March 9, 2013, his anniversary of his appointment as dean of that faculty in 1931, in the Deanship of the Faculty of Law of the Complutense University of Madrid, the "Altamira Day" was established, which is celebrated annually, as well as an award entitled Rafael Altamira Research Award.
Honorary doctorate
Year 1909: University of La Plata. Argentina. University of Santiago de Chile, Chile. Lima University. Peru.
Year 1911: National University of Mexico. Mexico DF.
Year 1924: University of Bordeaux. France
Year 1928: University of Paris. Paris
Year 1930: University of Cambridge. United Kingdom
Year 1937: Columbia University. United States
Adoptions
The historian Rafael Altamira, had the opportunity to be accepted as an adopted son in many places and dates, namely:
September 20, 1909: Adoptive son of San Juan de Alicante.
March of the year 1910: Privileged son of Alicante.
March 26, 1910: Adoptive son of El Campello.
April 7, 1910: Adoptive son of San Vicente del Raspeig.
Year 1910: Adoptive son of Elche.
academic positions
Rafael Altamira, in his role as pedagogue, held a variety of academic positions, including:
Year 1894: Member of the Royal Academy of History, appointed by Eduardo Hinojosa and Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo.
Year 1937: Member of the Royal Czech Academy of Sciences, Literature and Art
Year 1928: Full member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, The Hague.
Year 1922: Academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos of Valencia. Member of the Royal Academy of History.
Year 1920: President of the Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid
Year 1912: Full member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. Senator from the University of Valencia.
Main works of Rafael Altamira
The historian and writer Rafael Altamira, among many of his activities, also had time to capture well-known literary works such as:
Year 1890
History of communal property. Thesis supervised by Gumersindo de Azcárate
The formation of the jurist, in Rafael Altamira's lectures at the UNAM National School of Jurisprudence.
Year 1891
The teaching of history. Akal Editions. Madrid 1997
Year 1895
Levante stories and other stories. Thule Editions 2003.
Year 1902
Psychology of the Spanish people. New Library Edition. Madrid 1997.
Year 1903
History of Spanish law. Kessinger Publishing, United States. Year 2010
1900-1911 Years
History of Spain and Spanish civilization. Editorial Critical, Barcelona. Year 2001
Year 1910
Historical Summary of the Independence of Spanish America. Menéndez & Galli – Publishers, Athenas Bookstore, Buenos Aires.
Year 1911
My trip to America, University of Oviedo. Publications Service. Oviedo. Year 2008
Year 1913
Workers' issues, Prometheus. Valencia. Year 1914.
Year 1915
Giner de los Ríos, educator, Prometheus. Valencia
Year 1921
Art and reality, Cervantes, Barcelona
The policy of Spain in America, EDETA. Valencia
Political ideology, Prometheus. Valencia
Year 1923
Pedagogical ideology, Madrid, edit. Reus
Year 1924
The imprint of Spain in America, University of Salamanca Editions, Salamanca Year 2007
Year 1925
Tales of my land, Madrid
Year 1929
Latest Americanist writings, Fernando Fe, Madrid
Year 1948
Research Manual of the history of Indian law, Pan-American Institute of Geography and History, Mexico.
Historical Process of Human Historiography. College of Mexico. Year 2011
Year 1949
Lands and men of Asturias. Editions University of Oviedo. Oviedo. Year 2005
Year 1951
Spanish dictionary of legal and technical words taken from Indian legislation, Pan-American Institute of Geography and History. Mexico
Year 2012
Labor issues 2nd edition. University of Valencia
Year 2014
American readings. Co-published by the Lázaro Galdeano Foundation and Editorial Analecta.
The current war and Spanish public opinion, 2nd edition. Analecta Editorial
Works on Rafael Altamira
In this fragment, some other works related to the literary Altamira will be briefly named:
- In this fragment, some other works related to the literary Altamira will be briefly named:
- Altamira, Pilar, Biography in Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
- International Conference Rafael Altamira 1st, 2002, Alicante in Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
- Studies, Pilar Altamira, Miguel A. Richart Bernardo, Javier Ramos Altamira, Eva María Valero Juan. Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library