González Obregón, Luis (1865–1938)

Luis González Obregón was a historian, author, and journalist whose aim, as he put it in the introduction to his collected newspaper columns, was to "rescue, demystify and restore the colonial past" of Mexico. Born in Guanajuato, Mexico, on August 25, 1865, he moved with his family to Mexico City two years later. During his childhood he received a bilingual education that cultivated his talents as a writer. In 1885 he became involved with the foundation El Liceo Mexicano. The foundation's mission to uncover Mexico's past and understand its present became his lifelong preoccupation. In 1890 he began his career as a journalist, working for the newspapers Siglo XX and El Nacional. His weekly columns for El Nacional were compiled in a collection, México viejo, in 1895. Notable among his subsequent works are La vida en México en 1810 (1911) and Los precursores de la Independencia Mexicana en el Siglo XVI (1906). He also held public posts, including chief of publications of the National Museum, chief of publications at the National Library, and director and chief of historical investigation at the National Archives. He died in Mexico City, on June 17, 1938, on the street that the city named after him.

See alsoJournalism .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

De Morelos, Leonardo C. Luis González Obregón (1865–1938): Chronicler of Mexico City. New York: Hispanic Institute in the United States, 1956.

González Obregón, Luis. México viejo (época colonial): Noticias históricas, tradiciones, leyendas y costumbres. Mexico: Editorial Patria, 1991.

                                          Stacy Lutsch