PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Martín Galindo, José Luis (1918-1998)

Fechas de existencia:

Valladolid (España) 1918 - Valladolid (España) 1998-11-30

History:

Spanish geography teacher in Valladolid's University. Member of the Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos. Pioneer in the geographical investigation in Spain, once finished the Civil War, he did some featured studies about the rural and urban geography of Castilla y León, from the Alta Edad Media, in particular in León's province.

Born in Valladolid in 1918. He licensed in Philosophy and Letters in Valladolid's University, and after doing an exam for the Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros y Bibliotecarios, he got destined to the Biblioteca Pública of León, of which he was director between 1944-1955. During those years, he published a great amount of studies related to physic and human geography of the Leonese Maragatería, topic approached from a previously unknown historical ad scientific perspective. Between the 50s and 60s, he moved his interest to other places in León's province, specially in the mountainous areas, like the comarca of Valdeburón, and studies the historical geography in León's city.

In the middle of the 50s, he moved to Valladolid, where he simultaneously taught and investigated in the Geography department of the University, and was an archivist and librarian in Simancas and in the city of Valladolid, where he was director of the Bibliotecas Populares. He collaborated with Jesús García Fernández, Geography professor in Valladolid's University, in this academic renovation of the geographic studies, expanding his investigations to other territories of Castilla y León, and of the rest of Spain. Following the new perspectives introduced by Manuel Terán and the French school of Jean Tricart, he published several works about ways of life, the population and the traditional architecture in Spain, which include those dedicated to Basque farmhouses, Extremadura's dehesa of the Moorish agriculture of Almería.

He was an admired figure among the Spanish Geography scholars. He passed away in Valladolid on 11 November 1998.