A towering figure in the Spanish American world
of letters, with specialties in colonial literature and Hispanic
intellectual history, Professor Luis A. Arocena commanded respect
as a scholar of immense erudition. His books, particularly in the
colonial field, brought him international recognition. With these
eminent qualifications Professor Arocena gave new dimensions to
the study of Latin American Literature and Culture in the Spanish
department at The University of Texas where he came in the fall
of 1963.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May
21, 1914, Professor Arocena spent some of his formative years on
a ranch in the pampas, where he grew up in close touch with the gaucho
world of Martín Fierro. Later his family moved to Buenos Aires
where he attended school and took a degree in history at the Instituto
Superior del Profesorado, 1937. In 1957 he earned a doctorate degree
in history, summa cum laude, at the University of Madrid in Spain.
Luis Arocena embarked on his career as a university professor at the University
of Buenos Aires. During the time of the Perón dictatorship in Argentina,
he went into exile, first to Venezuela, where he taught at the University
of Caracas (1946-1948), and then to the University of Puerto Rico in San
Juan (1948-1958). He returned to the University of Buenos Aires where he
served from 1958 to 1963. During the sixties he became one of the founding
members of the prestigious University of Buenos Aires Press (Eudeba). In
addition to his teaching at the University of Buenos Aires, he rose in the
administration to the rank of chairman of the history department. While in
Puerto Rico he had met and become friends with the Spanish scholar and professor
Ricardo Gullón who, in 1963, was instrumental in bringing him to The
University of Texas at Austin. Here Arocena served as professor of Spanish
in what was then the Department of Romance Languages and now is the Department
of Spanish and Portuguese. In 1989, after twenty-six years of service, he
retired at age 75.
At UT Professor Arocena regularly taught an undergraduate course in Introduction
to Spanish American Culture and Civilization and graduate seminars such as
El Ensayo Latinoamericano, Las Crónicas Coloniales, Teoría
de la Historiografía Indiana, and from Spain, Unamuno, but more often
topics from Spanish America. Each graduate course was carefully planned and
thoughtfully presented. He also served as graduate advisor for five years
(1979-1984). Deeply interested in the welfare of the students, he undertook
this task with his usual brio, dedication, and industriousness. His door
was always open to students and colleagues for consultation or just a friendly
chat.
Professor Arocena played a lively part during his years at The University
of Texas. For example, he helped with the presentation of a week-long celebration
held in February, 1967, honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of the
renowned Latin American poet Rubén Darío, and in 1972 he organized
a symposium celebrating the centennial of Argentina’s famous 19th century
poem,
Martín Fierro. Thanks to Professor Arocena, a number
of prestigious Argentine scholars attended this milestone gathering, for
Luis Arocena had the uncommon quality of gathering people around him to learn,
to talk, and to laugh. Testament to this is his colleagues and students continually
bringing up his anecdotes and remembering his wisdom and wit.
Among his publications, the most significant is his book
Antonio de Solís,
cronista indiano; Estudio sobre las formas historiográficas del barroco (1963).
He had presented an earlier version of his research on Solís as the
subject of his doctoral dissertation. With this book Arocena cemented his
fame in the River Platte area and throughout Latin America as a distinguished
investigator of the 17th century, a crucial period in the history of Spain
and the Americas, and very importantly, he contributed a fresh new reading
of this chronicler. Interestingly, the last book Professor Arocena published
in 1992 was
Historia de la conquista de México, población
y progresos de la América Septentrional, conocida con el nombre de
Nueva España, a critical edition and monumental study complementing
his earlier work on Solís y Ribadeneyra.
Other significant Arocena publications fall into the category of long essays
or short books like
El Inca Garcilaso y el humanismo renacentista (1949),
El
maquiavelismo de Maquiavelo (1975),
El otro Maquiavelo (1980),
and
Unamuno, sentidor paradojal (1981). All of these studies are filled
with Arocena’s keen humor and vast erudition.
El príncipe
de Maquiavelo (1955),
Las cartas privadas de Nicolás Maquiavelo (1979),
and
La relación de Pero Sancho (1986) are excellent critical
editions. During his last years Professor Arocena was assiduously at work
on another ambitious project to crown his scholarly achievements, a complete
annotated edition of Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s renowned 16th
century chronicle,
La Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España. He
left this mammoth volume to be finished posthumously by his student, Professor
Angel Delgado.
Luis Arocena offered his last seminar in the spring of 1989. It was a monographic
course devoted to the study and analysis of
Martín Fierro. This "ultimo
curso" was a tour de force, an undisputable event attended by present
and past students and auditors.
Professor Luis A. Arocena died on April 16, 1993, after a long and valiant
battle with cancer. Survivors at the time of his death included his widow,
Amalia, who died in 1998, and five children: two in Buenos Aires, Luis Rodolfo
and Inés, and three in the United States, Martín of Austin,
Texas, Fernando and Amalia of Washington, D.C., ten grandchildren, and also
many students in this country and abroad who carry on his work.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared by a special
committee consisting of Professors George Schade (chair), Enrique
Fierro, and Yolanda Solé.
Distributed to the Dean of the College of Liberal
Arts, the Executive Vice President and Provost, and the President
on December 16, 1999. Copies are available on request from the
Office of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500. This resolution
is posted under "Memorials" at:
http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/ .
