Antonio Castro Leal

Infobox_Officeholder
name = Antonio Castro Leal


caption =
order =
office = Director of the Department of Fine Arts of Mexico
salary =
term_start = 1934
term_end = 1934
predecessor =
successor =
constituency =
order2 = 2nd
office2 = Mexican Representative to UNESCO
salary2 =
term_start2 = 1950
term_end2 = 1954
predecessor2 = Manuel Martínez Báez
successor2 = Pedro de Alba
office3 = Member of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
salary3 =
term_start3 = 1958
term_end3 = 1961
predecessor3 =
successor3 =
constituency3 = 8th district, Mexico City
birth_date = March 2, 1896
birth_place = San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
death_date = January 7, 1981
death_place = Coyoacán, Mexico City, Mexico
party = PRI
occupation = Writer, Politician
nationality = Mexican
alma_mater = UNAM, Georgetown University

Antonio Castro Leal (March 2, 1896 - January 7, 1981) was a Mexican diplomat and intellectual.

Biography

Antonio Castro Leal was born on March 2, 1896 in San Luis Potosí. He received his licenciate and doctor of law degrees from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and his PhD from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Castro Leal was rector of UNAM in 1929 during the student strikes that ultimately lead to the university becoming autonomous, after which he resigned his post. In 1934 as Director of the Department of Fine Arts he inaugurated the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He lived in Paris from 1949 to 1954 as Mexico's ambassador and executive board member for UNESCO, after which he moved to Coyoacán, in Mexico City, where he lived for the rest of his life. He died on January 7, 1981.

Main posts held

(This is an incomplete list.)

*Rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) - 1928-29
*Director of the Department of Fine Arts - 1934
*Mexican ambassador to UNESCO - 1949-52
*Member of UNESCO's executive board - 1950-54
*Member of Congress - 1958-61

Works

(This is an incomplete list.)

* "Las cien mejores poesías liricas mexicanas" (ed. with Manuel Toussaint and Alberto Vázquez del Mercado) (1914)
* "The Church Problem in Mexico" (pamphlet) (1926)
* "Las cien mejores poesias mexicanas" (ed.) (1935)
* "Juan Ruiz de Alarcón. Ingenio y sabiduría" (1939)
* "Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art" - (introd.) (1940)
* "Revista de literatura mexicana" (1940-1941)
* "El libro de oro del cine mexicano" ("The Golden Book of Mexican Cinematography") (coord.) (1948) (Comisión Nacional de Cinematografía, México, D.F.)
* "Las dos partes del Quijote" (1949)
* "La poesía mexicana moderna" (1953)
* "Una historia del siglo XX" (1955)
* "Las ideas de Salvador Díaz Mirón" (1956)
* "La novela de la Revolución Mexicana" (1958-1960)
* "El laurel de San Lorenzo" (1959)
* "Un mensaje a la América Latina y una elegía por España" (poem) (1960)
* "Alejandro de Humboldt y el arte prehispánico" (1962)
* "El Primer Congreso Internacional de Americanistas" (1963)
* "El pensamiento musical de Carlos Chávez" (1963)
* "La novela del México colonial" (1964)
* "Luis G. Urbina" (1964)
* "Las tragedias de Shakespeare" (1965)
* "Thoreau y su discípulo Cassius Clay" (1967)
* "¿A dónde va México? Reflexiones sobre nuestra historia contemporánea" (1968)
* "Hombres e ideas de nuestro tiempo" (1969)
* "Díaz Mirón, su vida y su obra" (1970)
* "El español, instrumento de una cultura" (1970)
* "La poesía de Manuel José Othón" (1971)
* "El imperialismo andaluz y otras historias" (1984)

As a translator

Castro Leal also translated Maurice Dobb's "Introduction to Economics" for Mexico's Fondo de Cultura Económica.

References

*cite web
last = Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
first =
title = Antonio Castro Leal (1896 - 1981)
work =
publisher = UNAM
date = 2006
url = http://www.unam.mx/rectoria/htm/castro.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-12-04
*cite web
last = Diccionario de Escritores de México
first =
title = Castro Leal, Antonio
work =
publisher =
date = 2006
url = http://www.arts-history.mx/feeds/ilce/sitio.php?id_sitio=7851&id_seccion=3426&id_subseccion=9737&id_documento=1245
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-12-05
*cite web
last = El Colegio Nacional
first =
title = Obras: Antonio Castro Leal
work =
publisher = colegionacional.org.mx
date = 2007
url = http://www.colegionacional.org.mx/Castro1.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-05-15
*cite web
last = DurangoNet
first =
title = Antonio Castro Leal: Escritor
work =
publisher = DurangoNet
date = 2007
url = http://www.durango.net.mx/biografias/biografia.asp?id=274
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-05-15

ee also

*Los Siete Sabios de México (The Seven Mexican Sages)