Andrés Iduarte Foucher was a distinguished Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

ist and member of the Mexican Academy of Language.

Biography

Andrés Iduarte Foucher was born on May 1, 1907, in Villahermosa

Villahermosa

Like most of the Tabasco, Villahermosa has a tropical climate. The city specifically features a tropical monsoon climate. Temperatures during spring and summer seasons reach upwards of 40°C , with humidity levels hovering around 30% during the same period...

, Tabasco

Tabasco

Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....

, then known as San Juan Bautista

Villahermosa

Like most of the Tabasco, Villahermosa has a tropical climate. The city specifically features a tropical monsoon climate. Temperatures during spring and summer seasons reach upwards of 40°C , with humidity levels hovering around 30% during the same period...

. As a result of the arrival of the Mexican Revolution

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...

 conflict to Tabasco in 1914, his family moved temporarily to the cities of Ciudad del Carmen

Ciudad del Carmen

Ciudad del Carmen is a city in the southwest of the Mexican state of Campeche. Ciudad del Carmen is located at on the southwest of Carmen Island, which stands in the Laguna de Términos on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The 2005 census population was 154,197 people...

, Campeche

Campeche, Campeche

San Francisco de Campeche is the capital city of the Mexican state of Campeche, located at,...

, and Mérida

Mérida, Yucatán

Mérida is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Yucatán and the Yucatán Peninsula. It is located in the northwest part of the state, about from the Gulf of Mexico coast...

, before turning back to San Juan Bautista once order was reestablished in the city; this experience would be later put down by Iduarte into an autobiographical book entitled Niño, child of the Mexican Revolution (Un niño en la Revolución Mexicana). In 1919, his family moved to Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 as a consequence of his sister Eloísa's health problems, who got Spanish flu

Spanish flu

The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...

. In Mexico City he continued his studies at Dr. Hugo Topf College and at the Mexican College (Colegio Mexicano); by 1922 he enrolled in high school at the National Preparatory School

Escuela Nacional Preparatoria

The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria , the oldest senior high school system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico , opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founded by Gabino Barreda, M.D., following orders of then President of Mexico Benito Juárez...

 (Escuela Nacional Preparatoria) where he studied till 1925. In 1926 he enrolled in Law School at the National University

National Autonomous University of Mexico

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...

. Being influenced by José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...

' ideas, he promoted the autonomy of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

National Autonomous University of Mexico

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...

.

Between 1928 and 1930, Andrés Iduarte travelled to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and he joined the Latinamerican Student Association (Asociación de Estudiantes Latinoamericanos, AGELA) where he met other Latin American personalities such as Carlos Quijano, Miguel Ángel Asturias

Miguel Ángel Asturias

Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales was a Nobel Prize–winning Guatemalan poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and diplomat...

, César Vallejo

César Vallejo

César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...

, Gustavo Machado

Gustavo Machado

Gustavo "Ximu" Machado is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist who has competed for the International Fight League, Shooto, DEEP, RINGS, Pancrase, and King of the Cage promotions. Machado has fought top UFC fighters Thales Leites, Brad Blackburn, Demian Maia, and Nate Quarry...

, Eduardo Machado

Eduardo Machado

Eduardo Oscar Machado is a Cuban playwright living in the United States. Notable plays include Broken Eggs and Havana is Waiting and The Cook. Many of his plays are autobiographical or deal with Cuba in some way. Machado teaches playwriting at New York University. He has served as the Artistic...

, Manuel Ugarte

Manuel Ugarte

Manuel Ugarte was an Argentine author, writer and member of the Socialist Party.-Biography:Manuel Baldomero Ugarte was born in San José de Flores, now part of the City of Buenos Aires, on 27 February 1875. His father was Floro Ugarte and his mother Sabina Rivero...

 and Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...

. In 1930, just barely 23 years old, he became History Professor at the National Preparatory School and he codirected the National University Magazine (Revista de la Universidad Nacional) He continued his studies at the Central University of Madrid

Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, and became Secretary of the Hispano-American University Federation, a member of the Scholar University Federation, and Secretary of the Iberoamerican Division of the Athenaeus of Madrid. He lived there for six years; there he supported the republican cause

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 before the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, in which he actively participated in the trenches.

From 1939, Andrés Iduarte became Hispano-American Literature Professor at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, where he got his doctoral degree, remaining there till 1952.

In 1952 he was designated General Director of the National Institute of Fine Arts (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, INBA) in Mexico; there he had among his fellow associates important artists such as Andrés Henestrosa

Andrés Henestrosa

Andrés Henestrosa Morales was a Mexican writer and politician. In addition to his prose and poetry, Henestrosa was elected to the federal legislature, serving three terms in the Chamber of Deputies, and as a senator for the state of Oaxaca from 1982 to 1988...

, Celestino Gorostiza

Celestino Gorostiza

Celestino Gorostiza Alcalá was a Mexican theater and cine playwright, director and dramatist.- Biography :...

, José Durón and Pedro Ramírez Vázquez

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez is a late twentieth century Mexican architect. He was born in Mexico City. He was persuaded to study architecture by writer and poet Carlos Pellicer....

, who were chairmans of the Literature, Theatre, Music and Architecture Departments, respectively. In 1955, he was dismissed of his duties by then president Adolfo Ruíz Cortines

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines

Adolfo Ruiz Cortines was President of Mexico from 1952 to 1958, representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party he was one of the oldest presidents of Mexico...

, for allowing the Soviet flag to be laid upon Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....

's coffin at her funeral, as willed by her beliefs. From 1961, Iduarte returned to Columbia University where he eventually became Emeritus Professor.

Among the recognitions he obtained, was the First Award of the Martí's Pro-Centennial Commission in Essay written by Foreigners in Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, 1951, on his work Martí, Writer (Martí, escritor) On July 17, 1978, the Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco and the state government of Tabasco awarded him with the Silver Juchiman for Arts.

Andrés Iduarte got married twice to the same woman, Graciela Frías Amescua, though they never had any children. On April 16, 1984, Andrés Iduarte died in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

.

Works

• El libertador Simón Bolívar (1931)
• Homenaje a Bolívar (1931)
• Moral Problem of Mexican Youth (El problema moral de la juventud mexicana, 1932)
• En el fuego de España (1933)
• Pláticas hispanoamericanas (1934)
• Veinte años con Rómulo Gallegos (1934)
• Martí, escritor (1944), doctoral dissertation from Columbia University.
• México en la nostalgia (1944)
• Sarmiento: a través de sus mejores páginas (1949)
• Niño, child of the Mexican Revolution (Un niño en la Revolución Mexicana, 1951)
• Island without Poison (La isla sin veneno, 1954), conference given at Universidad de Oriente on October 16, 1954
• Sarmiento, Martí y Rodó (1955)
• Gabriela Mistral, santa a la jineta (1958)
• Don Pedro de Alba y su tiempo (1963)
• Tres escritores mexicanos (1967)
• El mundo sonriente (1968)
• Preparatoria (1983)
• Lunes de El Nacional (1970)
• Diez estampas mexicanas (1971)
• Hispanismo e hispanoamericanismo (1983)
• Semblanzas (1984)