Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Jr. (May 3, 1907 – July 4, 2004) was a professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and an expert on Spanish

linguistics 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 ...

, focusing on Spanish American

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. He was the son of Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr.

Personal life

Espinosa was born in 1907 in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

. His parents were Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr. (1880–1958) and Maria Margarita Garcia Espinosa (1886–1958), and he had four siblings. He later married Iraida Espinosa, with whom he had two daughters and a son, Aurelio Ramon Espinosa. He died in

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

in 2004, at the age of 97.

Career

Espinosa Jr. received his bachelor's degree at

in 1928 and his doctorate at the University of Madrid (1932). Between 1932 and 1936, he collaborated in the Linguistic Atlas of Spain and Portugal ('' Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica ALPI).'' While he collaborated with the Atlas, he took the time to compile

Spanish folklore Folklore of Spain encompasses the folklore, Fairy tale, folktales, oral traditions, and (Urban legend, urban) legends of Spain. They span the whole region of the Iberian Peninsula. The origins of these tales date back as far as the 8th century whe ...

, although his work was interrupted by the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. He then worked as a Spanish professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he taught Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian at the

U.S. Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as commissioned officers in the United States Army. The academy was founded ...

. In 1945, he was recognized as a member of the ''Real Academia de la Lengua Española'' (

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

). He became a part of Stanford University faculty in 1946, the same year his father retired. He retired and became professor emeritus in 1972, after 22 years at Stanford, holding positions as first the Executive Head of the Department of Modern European Languages, and later the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. With the help of folklorist Julio Camarena Laucirica, at the end of the 1980s, he was able to edit the stories he collected in Castilla and Leon before the Civil War. In 1995, he was recognized in the El Centro Chicano y Latino's Hall of Fame, the year it was established.

Works

Espinosa did not only publish the folk stories he collected, but he also co-wrote Spanish textbooks that were widely used in college classrooms. * Turk, Laurel Herbert, Carlos A. SoleÌ, and Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa. ''Foundation Course in Spanish''. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1989. Print. * ''Mastering Spanish''. Laurel Herbert Turk, Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa. Heath, Jan 1, 1979 * "Arcaísmos dialectales. La conservación de «s» y «z» sonoras en Cáceres y Salamanca", en ''

Revista de Filología Española The (English: ''Journal of Spanish Philology'') is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of philology, dialectology, and linguistics that was established in 1914 with Ramón Menéndez Pidal as founding editor-in-chief. It is published by the ...

, Anejo XIX'', 1935. * ''Cuentos populares de España'', 3 vols. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1923–1923. * ''Cuentos populares de España''. Buenos Aires y México: Espasa-Calpe, 1946.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Espinosa, Aurelio Macedonio Jr. 1907 births 2004 deaths Hispanos of New Mexico Linguists from the United States American folklorists Stanford University alumni Complutense University of Madrid alumni Harvard University faculty 20th-century linguists