The historian and former head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Enrique Florescano, died on the afternoon of this Monday, March 6, at the age of 85, as confirmed by Mexican authorities.
The causes of the death of the thinker are still unknown, who received the Alfonso Reyes award from the Colegio de México in past years, and was considered a “Mexican historian who has distinguished himself by the renewal of historical research in our country, and the dissemination of knowledge and culture in the fields of history, archeology and anthropology”.
Diego Prieto, current head of INAH, was the one who shared the news of his death through his social networks: “It is with great sadness that I learn of the death of Enrique Florescano. He leaves the great historian of Mexico of all times, a good friend and a great director of the INAH and the DEH (Directorate of Historical Studies). With a loving hug to Alejandra and her entire family, ”he wrote.
Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Foreign Relations, also wrote a message regarding the death of Florescano: “I regret the sensitive death of Dr. Enrique Florescano, a great Mexican historian and thinker. My condolences to Alejandra Moreno and her family, her friends and colleagues. Rest in peace”.
Who was Enrique Florescano?
Born in Veracruz on July 7, 1937, Enrique Florescano was a historian who trained at the Universidad Veracruzana to do his master’s degree at the Colegio de México years later and obtain his doctorate at the Practical School of Higher Studies of the University of Paris. .
From 1977 to 1982 he was in charge of the Directorate of Historical Studies (DEH), and in 1988 he assumed the direction of INAH.
Throughout his career, Enrique Florescano worked with and was friends with great figures in Mexican literature such as Carlos Monsiváis, José Emilio Pacheco, Héctor Aguilar Camín, José Joaquín Blanco, Antonio Saborit, and Solange Alberro.
Throughout his publications, the historian asserted that historical studies are a way of uniting the past with the present, so the job of people who are dedicated to history consists of building bridges between both times, with the purpose that readers know other realities, since this favors the strengthening of citizen values.
Some of his most significant works are:
- Illustrated History of Mexico Collection.
- The Social Function of History.
- Origin and development of the agrarian problems of Mexico 1500-1821.
- Power and the struggle for power in Mexican historiography.
- Ethnic group, state and nation, essays on the collective identities of Mexico.
- indigenous memory.
- Mexican memory, essays on the reconstruction of the past.
- Quetzalcoatl and the founding myths of Mesoamerica.
- The origins of power in Mesoamerica.
