AMÉRICO PAREDES (1915-1999)
Folklorist, educator, author, novelist, poet, and musician Américo Paredes was born in 1915 in Brownsville, Texas. He was raised on the border and spent the summers of his childhood in northern Mexico, listening to the ballads of storytellers and the corridos of border musicians. He once wrote that "borders and ballads seem to go together, and their heroes are all cast in the same mold." Paredes worked as a journalist for fourteen years and served in World War II, writing for the Stars and Stripes. He became a scholar after earning his Ph.D. in English, Spanish, and folklore studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 1956. The following year he became a professor of English there. He founded the university's Center for Mexican American Studies in 1967 and its Mexican American Studies Program in 1972. In 1983 he became the Dickson, Allen, and Anderson Centennial Professor in Southwest Folklore, History, and Literature. During his career he wrote numerous articles, academic books, books of poetry, and other works capturing the essence of Mexican American border folklore, including his 1958 book about the legendary Gregorio Cortez, With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. He also traveled the border collecting Mexican corridos and transmitting them to others with his own voice. For his lifetime of achievement, in 1989 Paredes was awarded the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities; in 1990, the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government, the highest award given to noncitizens for preserving Mexican culture; and in 1991, Mexico's Order of José de Escandón.
