Americo Paredes - Biography

Biography

Growing up in Brownsville, Texas, Paredes was to experience the double life of American and Mexican culture. Paredes was both a lover of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books, and Mexican poetry—his father in fact composed décimas (a ten line poem with set rhyme scheme). This love of poetry was to hold Paredes in good stead when, at the age of 18, he won a poetry contest sponsored by Trinity College. This award was to gain him the attention of the high school principal, Mr. Irvine, who in turn, expedited his entrance into junior college in 1934. The same year Paredes entered college, an event that would mark his life occurred, the assassination of Cesar Augusto Sandino, about whom, five years later, Paredes would write “A Cesar Augusto Sandino.”

While in his second year of junior college, Paredes was also to write George Washington Gomez: A Mexico-Texan Novel. Although it was not published until 1990, George Washington Gomez is Paredes' most well known work. The book tells the story of a young man growing up in Jonesville on the River (a fictional city Paredes used to represent the city of Brownsville) in the early 20th century. In the work, George Washington Gomez reveals the conflict in identity (as the title name suggests) the young man experiences growing up in an Anglo-Texan environment, particularly with regards to the educational system.

While in college, Paredes worked not only at the local grocery store (where he bought his first guitar from a co-worker), but also at the The Brownsville Herald as a proofreader and reporter, a job he would continue to work, even after graduation in 1936. In 1940 as World War II began for the Americans, Paredes took a second job with Pan-American Airways overseeing the outfitting of airplanes with fifty-caliber machine guns. Simultaneously, he was to begin playing guitar on the radio, a talent he had taught himself during junior college. Americo Paredes soon was drafted into the army as World War II heated up, but here as well he was to be a journalist, reporting for the army publication Stars and Stripes, a publication which - while in Japan - allowed him to interview the military leader Hideki Tōjō. While in Japan, Paredes was to also begin taking correspondence courses from the University of Texas, through an army school, affectionately referred to as the Tokyo College. By 1950, Paredes was to follow this up by moving to Austin to pursue first his masters then his Ph.D. Upon returning to the United States he brought with him his half-Japanese, half-Uruguayan wife Amelia Nagamine, whose visa issues almost cast a wrench in his education. By 1951, Paredes was teaching as a graduate student at the University of Texas and drawing attention. In 1952 he would win an award from the Dallas Times Herald for a collection of short stories he had selected from his larger work, The Hammon and The Beans. He called it Border Country. Following this accolade, he would win an award of 500 dollars for his novel The Shadow in 1955, yet this book would not be published until 1996.

In his graduate school years it would be a twist of fate that would lead Paredes down the road of folklore. While taking English courses during his masters, he encountered a test comparing two Scottish ballads, which Paredes was to compare to the Mexican corrido (a comparison that would crop up again in his dissertation of With His Pistol in His Hand). His professor at the time introduced him to Robert Stephenson, then a professor of English teaching folklore, who would persuade him to pursue a future in the field. In 1956, Paredes’ dissertation, which was to turn into his opus With His Pistol in His Hand, published in 1958 told the story of the legendary Gregorio Cortez and his conflict with the Texas Rangers. The text portrayed the famed Texas Rangers in a negative fashion, which was unheard of in the history of that organization. There was a suggestion, jokingly perhaps, by some Texas Rangers that Paredes should be shot in retaliation for his blemishing of the reputation of the Texas Rangers in that book.) With His Pistol in His Hand was actually Paredes' dissertation and was published as a book by the University of Texas at Austin., garnered the attention of famous folklorist Stith Thompson, who was to recommend the work to the University of Texas Press for publication (this project however would not reach publication until 1958).

The same year With His Pistol in His Hand was published, Paredes was hired by University of Texas, Austin to teach, a decision which would change the face of their curriculum. In the 1960s and 70’s Americo Paredes was to join the Chicano movement along with Tomás Rivera and Miguel Méndez. During this same period he would also expand the educational curriculum of UT by founding their Center for Folklore Studies (1967). Paredes would continue on to found their Center for Mexican American Studies as well. In 1989 Paredes would become one of five men to be awarded the Charles Frankel Prize of the National Endowment for the Humanities and in 1991 (the same year his high school and young adult poetry Between Two Worlds would publish) he received the Orden del Aguila Azteca along with Cesar Chavez and Julian Samora.

In 1970, his Folktales of Mexico was published as part of the Folktales of the World series.

On May 5, 1999 Americo Paredes died in Austin, Texas.

Paredes has the distinction of being one of the few scholars "to ever have a corrido...composed in his honor".