Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

440 results found

Santa Ana, city, El Salvador

(Encyclopedia)Santa Ana sänˌtä äˈnä [key], city (1993 pop. 129,873), W El Salvador. It is the second largest city in the country and the commercial and processing center for a sugarcane, coffee, and cattle re...

Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine

(Encyclopedia)Ben Ali, Zine el-Abidine zēˈnĕl abĭdēn bĕn älēˈ [key], 1936–2019, president of Tunisia (1987–2011). Educated in France and the United States, he entered the army and became ambassador to ...

Grau, Jacinto

(Encyclopedia)Grau, Jacinto häthēnˈtō grou [key], 1877–1958, Spanish dramatist, b. Barcelona. Participating in Spain's early-20th-century literary renaissance, Grau slowly gained recognition for his strikingl...

d'Aubission, Roberto

(Encyclopedia)d'Aubission, Roberto rōbĕrˈtō dōˌbēsyōnˈ [key], 1944–92, El Savadorean public figure. A former El Salvadorean army major, he founded (1980) the right-wing National Republican Alliance (AREN...

Pitol, Sergio

(Encyclopedia)Pitol, Sergio (Sergio Pitol Deméneghi), 1933–2018, Mexican author, essayist, and translator, b. Puebla. He studied law and literature at the National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico (1950–55), then jo...

El Dorado, legendary country of South America

(Encyclopedia)El Dorado ĕlˈdəräˈdō, –rāˈ– [key] [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the C...

Moreto y Cabaña, Agustín

(Encyclopedia)Moreto y Cabaña, Agustín ägo͞ostēnˈ mōrāˈtō ē käbäˈnyä [key], 1618–69, dramatic poet of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Madrid. Moreto borrowed and often improved upon the plots of others,...

Gracián, Baltasar

(Encyclopedia)Gracián, Baltasar bältäsärˈ gräthyänˈ [key], 1601–58, Spanish Jesuit philosopher and writer. A scholar, satirist, and epigrammatist, Gracián frequently ran afoul of Jesuit authority. El hé...

Tirso de Molina

(Encyclopedia)Tirso de Molina gäbrēĕlˈ tĕlˈyĕth [key], 1584?–1648, outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Madrid. His fame rests on El burlador de Sevilla (1630; tr. The Love Rogue, 1924), the...

Browse by Subject