Professor Jacques Lafaye, (born 21 March 1930) is a French historian who, from the early 1960s has written influentially on cultural and religious Spanish and Latin American history. His most popular work is Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe written in 1974 regarding the formation of the Mexican National Consciousness and includes a prologue of Octavio Paz and is regarded as a key stone for the understanding of the contemporary Mexican culture and is regarded as one of the most comprehensive analysis of the colonial period in Mexico.
Jacques Lafaye has a long trajectory in Spanish and Latin American history. His book Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe. The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness became an important reference for Mexican colonial history. First printed in París by Gallimard Publishers (1974), then in the United States by the Chicago University Press (1976) and in Mexico by Fondo de Cultura Económica (1977), has contributed to the understanding of the merging of the Spanish and Mexican Prehispanic cultures. Lafaye has also written on the history of culture in general, including the Greek humanist tradition, the predecessors of the print.
Licence and Master of Spanish language and literature. (1951–53).
Professor agrégé des Lycées. (1954)
Midship of the French Navy, ORIC (1955–1957)
Student (Eleve titulaire) of Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (IV y VI Section) (1954-55 y 1957-60)
Licence of ethnology, Institut d’ethnologie (Musée de l´homme, Paris, 1956–57)
Maitre-Assistant, Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Amérique Latine des Universités de Paris. (1959–1968)
Maitre-Assistant, Sorbonne (Assistant of Prof. Robert Ricard, Director of the Institut hispanique) Paris (1960–1962)
Research Attache, CNRS, (1962–1964)
Maitre de Conférences, University of Strasbourg, and Director Institut d´español et de portugais (1964–1968)
General Secretary of Societé des Américanistes de Paris (Musée de l'Homme), and editor of Journal des Américanistes (1964-1977) and Acts of the XLII International Congress of Americanists- 12 Vols. (Centenary, Paris, 1976)
Docteur de III cycle, University of Paris X-Nanterre (1967)
Member of the Scientific Section of the Casa de Velázquez (Ecole franCaise des Hautes Etudes hispaniques) Madrid (1968–1971)
Docteur d´Etat, University of Sorbonne-nouvelle (Paris III) (1971)
Professor, University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) (1972–1990)
Maitre de Conférences associé, College Erasme (Université Catholique de Louvain), Belgium (1971–1985)
Chargé de cours, Ecole Normale supérieure (rue d’Ulm) (1971–72)
Charge de cours, Centre National de Téléenseignement agrégation (1972–1974)
Director of the Institut d’Etudes ibériques et latinoaméricaines, Sorbonne (1985 a 1988)
Director of the Centre Universitaire d’études catalanes, Sorbonne (1979–1989)
Professor and researcher at El Colegio de Jalisco, Guadalajara-Zapopan, México.
Member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, México (SNI)(2000, to now)
Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (Santander) (1958)
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (1960)
Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) (1964)
Member of The Associates of the John Carter Brown Library
University of California, Berkeley (1973)
University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) (1974)
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Smithsonian Institution), fellow, Washington DC, (1977 and 1989).
The Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). Guest Member.(1980–1981)
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.), Visiting Professor (1991)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Visiting Professor (1992)
Universidad de Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares), Visiting Professor (1992–1993)
Universitat de València (research, 1994)
Guest speaker to the Cátedra Julio Cortázar, Universidad de Guadalajara, by Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez (1995)
Universidad de Guadalajara, México, Visiting Professor (1996)
Universidad de Puerto Rico (Río Piedras), Visiting Professor (2000)
Prix Lugné Poë, Paris, 1949.
Prix du duc de Loubat, Paris, 1974.
Prix Becucci, Louvain, 1976.
Prix de la Fondation Singer-Polignac, Paris, 1984.
Associate Member of Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, 1980.
Associate Member of Real Academia Española, Madrid, 1981.
Member of the Publisher Committee of the Boletín de la Real Academia Española, Madrid, 2010.
Member of The Hispanic Society of America, New York, 1991.
Commander of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic, Spain, 1985.
Commander of the Order of Palmes académiques, France, 1994.
Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France 1998.
Insignia of Aguila Azteca Mexico, 2006.
