Teja Zabre, Alfonso

Born Dec. 23, 1888, in San Luis de la Paz; died Feb. 28, 1962, in Mexico City. Mexican scholar; a jurist by training.

Teja Zabre became a lawyer in 1909; later he worked for the National Museum of Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. He served in the Chamber of Deputies in 1913 and 1914. From 1922 to 1924 he was publisher of the newspapers Democracia and El Universal. In 1925 he became a professor of criminal law and history at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 1928 to 1934 he served on the Supreme Court, and from 1934 to 1940 as director general of the Department of Information at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also a member of the Academy of History, Language, and Literature, the Mexican Academy of Criminal Law, and the Colombian Academy of History.

Teja Zabre was the author of a number of historical works. Guide to the History of Mexico (1951), which gives an objective picture of the country’s social development, is his most important work; in its final chapter, “The New Ideology,” Teja Zabre expounds his anti-imperialist views.