Marcos E. Becerra (April 25, 1870 – January 7, 1940) was a Mexican prolific writer, poet, and politician. He produced pioneering

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

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

, and

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

studies relating to his country's

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

and early colonial past. He held important posts in the

Mexican Federal Government The politics of Mexico function within the framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic whose government is based on a multi-party congressional system, where the President of Mexico is both head of state and head ...

as well as in the state governments of Tabasco and

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

. He was a distinguished member of the Mexican Academy of History.

Biography

Marcos Enrique Becerra was born in

Teapa Teapa is a municipality in the Mexican state of Tabasco. The municipal seat is the city of Teapa. Etymology Its name comes from the Nahuatl words "Tetl'' and ''apan", which mean "river over stones" or "stone's river". It refers to one of the riv ...

Tabasco Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tabasco, 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It i ...

, to Camilo Becerra y Ballinas, a native of San Cristóbal de las Casas,

, and Luisa Sánchez Formento. Becerra completed his early schooling in his hometown. In 1900, by way of independent study, he received a teaching degree from the Instituto Juárez of San Juan Bautista. During his youth he worked as a

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

, store clerk, theatre prompter, and, eventually, teacher. One of his very first published works, ''Guia del lenguaje usual para hablar con propiedad, pureza y corrección'', dates from this period (1901) and is based on his

autodidactic Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodid ...

studies of the

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

. Fame of his remarkable erudition spread quickly and he was encouraged to run in forthcoming elections for

Federal Deputy A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-national ...

for the State of Tabasco, succeeding in his first attempt. During the final years of the ''

Porfiriato The Porfiriato or Porfirismo (, ), coined by Mexican historian Daniel Cosío Villegas, is a term given to the period when General Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico under an Authoritarianism, authoritarian military dictatorship in the late 19th and e ...

'' he held the federal post of

Director General A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

Secondary Education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

of the

Secretariat of Public Education In Mexico, the Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation o ...

. At the XVII

International Congress of Americanists The International Congress of Americanists (ICA) is an international academic conference for research in multidisciplinary studies of the Americas. Established August 25, 1875 in Nancy, France, the scholars' forum has met regularly since its incep ...

, celebrated in Mexico City in September 1910, Becerra presented an important historical paper on Hernán Cortés's 1524-25 expedition to Las Hibueras. The next year, he returned to Tabasco to serve in Governor

Manuel Mestre Ghigliazza Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name), a given name and surname * Manuel (''Fawlty Towers''), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manuel I of Portugal, king of Po ...

's administration as

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of Government and as Director of Public Education; consequent to the assassination of President

Francisco I. Madero Francisco Ignacio Madero González (; 30 October 1873 – 22 February 1913) was a Mexican businessman, revolutionary, writer and statesman, who served as the 37th president of Mexico from 1911 until he was deposed in a coup d'état in Februa ...

in February 1913 both Ghigliazza and Becerra resigned their posts in protest. In 1914, Becerra moved to

Tuxtla Gutiérrez Tuxtla Gutiérrez, or Tuxtla, (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Mexico, Mexican southeastern state of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of the same name, which is the most developed and populous in the state. A busy govern ...

(the Chiapas state capital), where he would labor as an educator and occupy the same post of Director of Public Education for ten years; during which time he successfully reorganized the state's educational system, founded a school of commerce as well as the Internado Indígena de San Cristóbal (the San Cristóbal

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

Boarding School A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

), which was a model of its kind. In 1921, while still in Tuxtla, he published an important

lexicographical Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical lex ...

work titled ''La nueva gramática castellana'', which, like all his published writings, was the fruit of autodidactic erudition. In 1932, appeared what remains one of his best known scholarly works, ''Nombres geográficos indígenas de Chiapas'', a study of

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

place names Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

. To these followed sundry studies, published as

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

s or articles, on the languages and traditions of the Ch'ol, Mangue,

Nahua The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...

Yucatec Maya Yucatec Maya ( ; referred to by its speakers as or ) is a Mayan languages, Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, including part of northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Fra ...

, and Zoque. In 1954, occurred the

posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

publication of Becerra's monumental 800 page ''Rectificaciones y adiciones al Diccionario de la Real Academia Española'': a work which encompasses thousands of words and definitions, is rich in

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

etymologies Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

and grounded in lexicographical authorities. Marcos E. Becerra, during the last ten years of his life, was a numerary member of the

Academia Mexicana de la Historia The Academia Mexicana de la Historia (''Mexican Academy of History'', also known by the acronym AMH), is a national academy in Mexico, which promotes history in Mexico. History While Antonio López de Santa Anna issued mandates to establish a Me ...

and held

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

21. He was married twice and was twice a widower, He died, following a long illness, 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 ...

on January 7, 1940.

Published works

(List not comprehensive) *''Guia del lenguaje usual para hablar con propiedad, pureza i corrección'', 1901. *''Musa breve; sonetos'', 1907. *''Nombres geograficos del estado de Tabasco de la Republica Mexicana; origen lingüístico, estructura original y significación de los nombres de lugares de Tabasco que no corresponden á la lengua castellana'', 1909. *''Verdadero concepto de nuestra guerra de independencia'', 1910. *''Itinerario de Hernan Cortés en Tabasco; determinación de los lugares que tocó el conquistador don Hernando Cortés a su paso por Tabasco, en su expedición a Hibueras, en 1524-1525'', 1910. *''Los nombres del

Palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamha ("big water" or "big waters"), was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD ...

'', 1911. *''La papaya orejona (Pileus pentaphyllus)'', 1921. *''La nueva gramática castellana. Cursos graduados para el estudio de la lengua castellana en las escuelas secundarias de la república, mexicana'', 1921. *''Que quiere decir el nombre de Chiapas? (Estudio etimológico i geroglífico)'', 1922. *''Origen y significado del nombre de Yucatán'', 1923. *''Palavicini desde alla abajo'', 1924. *''Breve noticia sobre la lengua e indios tsoques'', 1925. *''El huacalxochitl de Hernández en un petroglifo'', 1925. *''Vocabulario de la lengua Chol'', 1927. *''Nombres geográficos indígenas del estado de Chiapas. Catálogo alfabético, etimológico, geográfico, histórica i mitológica, de todos los nombres de lugar (poblaciones, parajes, comarcas, regiones, alturas, valles, rios, arroyos, lagunas, esteros, etc.) que estan en las lenguas nahoa, soque, chiapaneca, sotsil, sendal, chaneabal, mame, chol, maya i quiché'', 1930. *''El antiguo calendario chiapaneco; estudio comparativo entre este i los calendarios precoloniales maya, quiché i nahoa'', 1933. *''Crónica de Nueva España'' (

Francisco Cervantes de Salazar Francisco Cervantes de Salazar (1514? – 1575) was a Spanish man of letters and rector of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, founded in 1551. Biography He was born and raised in Toledo, Spain. He first attended Alejo Venegas’s ...

; Francisco del Paso y Troncoso; Federico Goméz de Orozco; Marcos E. Becerra ditor, 1914-1936. *''La planta llamada quapaque o paque (correa guapaque, n. gen., n. sp.; trib. Dalbergiae. fam. Fabaceae)'', 1936. *''En defensa del idioma maya (polémica)'', 1937. *''Juegos precoloniales'', 1945. *''Rectificaciones y adiciones al Diccionario de la Real Academia española'', 1954.

Bibliography

*(English) MacCurdy, George Grant, “Seventeenth International Congress of Americanists Second Session - City of Mexico“, ''

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 m ...

, New Series'', Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1910), pp. 600–605. *(Spanish) García Mora, Carlos, ''La Antropología en México: panorama histórico''. Mexico, D.F.:

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH, ''National Institute of Anthropology and History'') is a Federal government of the United Mexican States, Mexican federal government bureau established in 1939 to guarantee the researc ...

, 1987–1988. *(Spanish) Navarrete, Carlos, ''Los primeros antropólogos chiapanecos: 1. Alberto Culebro, 2. Marcos E. Becerra''. Mexico: Secretaría de Educación y Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas, 1986. *(Spanish) Santamaría, Francisco J., et al., ''Bibliografía general de Tabasco''. Mexico:

Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores The Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (, ''SRE'', lit: Secretariat of External Relations) is the government department responsible for Mexico's foreign affairs. Mexico currently has 80 embassies, 33 consulates-general, 35 consulates, 1 representa ...

, Gobierno del Estado de Tabasco, 1930.

External links

*
Marcos E. Becerra
by

Miguel Leon-Portilla --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

Marcos Enrique Becerra at bibliotecachiapas.gob.mx

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becerra, Marcos E. Scholars of the Aztecs Mexican ethnographers Historians of Mexico Mexican lexicographers Mayanists Mexican archaeologists Mexican anthropologists Mexican botanists 20th-century Mexican educators Mexican male essayists 20th-century Mexican historians Linguists from Mexico Mexican Mesoamericanists Mexican male poets Mexican scientists 20th-century Mexican writers 20th-century Mexican male writers People from Chiapas Writers from Tabasco Mexican philologists Pre-Columbian scholars 1870 births 1940 deaths 20th-century Mesoamericanists State political office-holders in Mexico 20th-century Mexican essayists

Biography

See also

Published works

Bibliography

External links