Edmundo O'Gorman (1906-1995) was a Mexican historian, philosopher and lawyer whose work focused on going beyond what was known about the historiography of his country and America. He delved into the facts and debated the events that he considered did not make historical sense in order to clarify them.
O'Gorman's work was characterized by transcending what was already known. His writings had a philosophical character, based on investigating the organization of past beings to be able to live and understand the present. The historian used a cultured and precise language.
Some of the most prominent titles of this Mexican intellectual were: Crisis and Future of Historical Science, Foundations of American History, The Invention of America Y Mexico the trauma of its history. The historiographical work of Edmundo O'Gorman remains valid for having been completely revolutionary.
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Edmundo was born on November 24, 1906 in Coyoacán, Mexico City; He came from a family of Irish descent, educated and well-off. His father was a mining engineer named Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and his mother was named Encarnación O'Gorman Moreno, being related.
The philosopher had a brother named Juan O'Gorman, who was a renowned painter of his time.
O'Gorman attended elementary and high school education at institutions in his hometown. His training was complemented by the artistic and cultural knowledge of his father Cecil, who was a prominent painter. The historian grew up surrounded by writers and musicians who used to meet at his home.
Once he finished high school, the young Edmundo decided to study law at the Escuela Libre de Derecho. The lawyer obtained his degree in 1928 and carried out his profession for some time.
O'Gorman carried out his career diligently and always stayed close to the story and the lyrics. That is how in 1938 he made the decision to put the law aside and dedicate himself to the study of history. Edmundo did not hesitate to accept that same year the position of deputy director of the General Archive of the Nation, a task he carried out until 1952.
In those years he began studies of philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and at the same time began to teach at that institution. In 1947 he published the book Crisis and the future of historical science and in 1948 he obtained a master's degree in philosophy with a magna cum laude mention.
O'Gorman was part of the Centro de Historia de México, where he collaborated with the investigations that were carried out and also organized the bibliographic material. In 1951 he unveiled the work The idea of the discovery of America and obtained a doctorate sum cum laude in history at UNAM.
Edmundo O'Gorman's conception of the study of history led him to have several discussions with some of his colleagues, including: Silvio Zavala, Miguel León Portilla, Lino Gómez Canedo and Marcel Bataillon. The historian considered history to be something deeper than the mere compilation of dates and data.
For this Mexican philosopher, it was of utmost importance to know what was beyond the known and to inquire into what was below the surface. As time went by, O'Gorman stood firm in the face of his ideas and ways of knowing history, despite the attempts of his detractors to remove him from the game..
O'Gorman was not only an outstanding renovator of the history of Mexico and Latin America, but his work extended to the academy. The intellectual entered the Mexican Academy of History in the mid-sixties and was director from 1972 to 1987, the year in which he resigned..
The quality of his verb in the development of his writings earned him the VI chair of the Mexican Academy of Language in 1970. Four years later he was recognized with the National Prize of Sciences and Arts, and this award was followed by the Rafael Heliodoro Award for History Valle and the National University Award in 1986.
The intellectual spent his life dedicated to history and writing about the research he carried out around it. Among his most recent works were: Mexico the trauma of its history Y Shadows banishment.
Edmundo O'Gorman died on September 28, 1995 in Mexico City as a result of a stroke. His body was deposited in the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons in the Mexican capital on November 22, 2012, seventeen years after his departure..
Edmundo O'Gorman's literary style was characterized by the use of clear and precise language, with broad philosophical features. The work of this historian was profound and full of questions about the facts. He raised his theme from the knowledge of being as a temporary entity necessary to understand the present.
Given the above, O'Gorman has been located within the philosophical current of Mexican historicism. This movement was based on the ideas of the intellectuals Leopold von Ranke and Benedetto Croce. Edmundo laid the foundations for a new historiography thanks to his efforts and research.
- History of the territorial divisions of Mexico (1937).
- The catalog of settlers of New Spain (1941).
- Basics of American history (1942).
- Crisis and the future of historical science (1947).
- The idea of the discovery of America. History of this interpretation and criticism of its foundations (1951).
- The invention of America (1958).
- Novohispana political survival (1961).
- Mexico the trauma of its history (1977).
- Shadows banishment (1986).
It was one of the most important and representative works of Edmundo O'Gorman's thought. Its full title was The invention of America. Research on the historical structure of the New World and the meaning of its becoming. In this work the author highlighted the traditional conception of history that existed in Mexico.
The historian raised a debate about the discovery of the American continent, which is why he used the term "invention." Edmundo presented in this work arguments to clarify whether Columbus arrived in America by mistake or not. O'Gorman went far beyond the known data about the year 1492.
“… The thesis is this: that when Columbus arrived on October 12, 1492 on a small island that he believed belonged to an adjacent archipelago, he discovered America. Okay, but let's ask if that was really what he, Colón, or if that is what he is now said to have done. It is obvious that it is the second and not the first ...
“… When historians affirm that America was discovered by Columbus, they are not describing an obvious fact of their own, but rather they offer us the way in which, according to them, an evidently very different fact should be understood: it is clear, in effect, that it is not the case. Even arriving on an island that is believed to be close to Japan, than revealing the existence of a continent ...
“… In other words, when we are assured that Columbus discovered America it is not a fact, but merely the interpretation of a fact. But if this is so, it will be necessary to admit that nothing prevents, except laziness or routine, from questioning the validity of that peculiar way of understanding what Columbus did on that memorable date ... ".
- "The supreme faculty of man is not reason, but imagination".
- “I want an unpredictable story as is the course of our mortal lives; a history susceptible of surprises and accidents, of adventures and misadventures; a story woven from events ... a mirror story of changes, in the way of being of man ... ".
- "The true historical science consists in showing and explaining the structure of being with which we endow the past by discovering it as our own".
- "The difference in the number of leaves of trees of the same species or in the names or specific symbols of fertility gods worshiped by neighboring tribes, are circumstances that, respectively, can legitimately be omitted by the botanist or anthropologist".
- "Instead of being a reality alien to us, the human past is our reality, and if we concede that the human past exists, we will also have to concede that it exists in the only place it can exist: in the present".
- "The evil that is at the root of all historical process of the idea of the discovery of America, is that it has assumed that this piece of cosmic matter ... has been that forever, when in reality it has not been until in which it was granted that significance ... ".
- “… Any transcendental or immanent purpose of historical becoming. Here neither religious providentialism nor idealistic theology prevails ".
- "This new historiography, hostile to tradition, consists in being aware of the historical in a new and radically revolutionary sense".
- "... In the belief that our being, the human being, like the being of all things, is something fixed, static, prior, always the same invariable".
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