José Fernando Ramírez (5 May 1804 – 4 March 1871) was a Mexican historian of the 19th century and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the regime of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. He was a mentor of Alfredo Chavero, who considered him "the foremost of our historians."quoted in Cline, Howard F., "Selected Nineteenth-Century Mexican Writers on Ethnohistory," in Handbook of Middle American Indians, Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, Part 2. p. 374. University of Texas Press 1983.
Life Ramírez was born in Parral, Chihuahua but grew up in Durango, Durango, where he served as a prominent liberal politician. After graduating with a degree in law from San Luis Gonzaga he was elected several times to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. He chaired the Ministry of Foreign affairs under three different administrations and became a minister in the Supreme Court of Justice.
A moderate liberal republican, Ramírez opposed the French invasion of Mexico and establishment of monarchy in 1862, but accepted the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the regime of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. He was a valuable asset for the emperor, who wished to have a broad appeal to Mexicans.Edward Shawcross, The Last Emperor. New York: Basic Books 2022, p. 129
He paid an emotional goodbye to the emperor. After the fall of the Empire and execution of Maximilian, he went into exile in Europe, since Mexico was no longer considered safe for someone who had served in the imperial government. Shawcross, The Last Emperor of Mexico, p. 235. He died in Bonn, Germany on 4 March 1871.
Scholar on pre-Columbian history Ramírez's scholarship focused on prehispanic and sixteenth-century Mexican history and excelled as a biographer. During the Second Mexican Empire, he headed the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Literature, directed the National Museum (1852) and built an impressive collection of historical documents. Among his works are one on Toribio de Benavente Motolinia, a Franciscan missionary who was one of the famous Twelve Apostles of Mexico who arrived in New Spain in May 1524, and several translations of Aztec codices such as Mapa Quinatzin and Codex Aubin. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1862.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory A bibliography of his writings on Mesoamerican ethnohistory appears in the Handbook of Middle American Indians published in the 1960s and 1970s."Appendix B, Ramírez, selected writing of ethnohistorical interest. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, Part 2. pp. 404-406. University of Texas Press 1983.
His achievements as a scholar of Mexican history are untarnished by his political role in the Second Mexican Empire.
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References
External links Academia Mexicana de la Lengua: José Fernando Ramírez (in Spanish). José Fernando Ramírez: su último exilio europeo y la suerte de su última biblioteca (in Spanish).