[D66] [JD: 140] Mexican historian receives prestigious award

[R.O.]

mexiconewsdaily.com
<https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mexican-historian-receives-prestigious-award-from-king-of-spain/>



  Mexican historian receives prestigious award from King of Spain

4-5 minutes
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News

Enrique Krauze The award recognizes Enrique Krauze's 'broad career as a
historian, essayist, editor and thinker,' the king said.


    The award's jury said Enrique Krauze offers an independent vision of
    Mexican history

Published on Thursday, July 8, 2021

Mexican historian Enrique Krauze has received a prestigious Spanish
award in recognition of his long career in the academic discipline of
history.

King Felipe VI of Spain presented the Ordenes Españolas History Award to
Krauze at a ceremony held Wednesday at a historical royal residence near
Madrid.

The award, which was first presented in 2018 and comes with a
60,000-euro (US $71,000) prize, recognizes the 73-year-old’s “broad
career as a historian, essayist, editor and thinker,” the king said.

The jury that selected Krauze as the winner said his work “covers the
entire history of Mexico as a nation from a broad perspective that
considers both its actors and institutions.”

“… He offers an independent vision of Mexican history in which
indigenous elements combine with the Christian culture received from
Europe.”

Among the more than 20 books Krauze has authored are /Mexico: Biography
of Power/,  /History of the Mexican Revolution: The Economic
Reconstruction/ and /Century of Leaders: Political Biography of Mexico/.

He was nominated for the award by the National Autonomous University of
Mexico, of which the historian is an industrial engineering graduate.

In his acceptance speech, Krauze said he has “many affectionate links to
Spain” and that receiving the award in 2021 was “a very high honor”
accompanied by “the responsibility to remember the fifth centenary of
the conquest of Mexico.”

The historian, who was highly critical of President López Obrador’s
request that the King of Spain apologize
<https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/amlo-asks-spain-to-apologize-for-the-conquest/>
for the conquest, said the civilization conquered by the Spanish was
neither the “Arcadia,” or utopia, depicted by Mexican indigenous
historiography nor the “hell” depicted by its “Hispanicist counterpart.”

Krauze also said that the discipline of “history is not a tribunal,”
meaning that historians don’t have to establish a definitive version of
events.

“… The duty of the historian, especially in the face of such a distant
drama [such as the conquest] is not to judge but rather … document,
explain and understand,” he said.

Krauze highlighted the importance of the mixing of Spanish and
indigenous blood – the /mestizaje/ – in forging a new culture and
identity in Mexico, asserting that it was the greatest legacy of the
conquerers and colonizers.

“The indigenous influence dominated in diet, both cultures came together
in medicine and herbalism and in language, despite the dominance of
Spanish … indigenous languages survived and pervaded Spanish with a
variety of /mexicanismos/, tonalities and accents,” he said.

Krauze said that Mexico and Spain should commemorate the conquest
together and not allow hate to impede dialogue, as occurred after the
former won independence from the latter in a bloody war at the start of
the 19th century.

“In that way history will be able to achieve its highest mission, that
of being a path of understanding and harmony,” he said.

British historian John H. Elliot won the 2018 Ordenes Españolas History
Award, while Spanish historian Miguel Ángel Ladero triumphed in 2019.
The prize wasn’t presented last year due to the pandemic.

/With reports from El País
<https://elpais.com/mexico/2021-07-07/el-historiador-mexicano-enrique-krauze-recibe-el-premio-de-historia-ordenes-espanolas.html>
and El Universal
<https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/enrique-krauze-la-historia-no-es-un-tribunal> /

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