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Escorial

(Encyclopedia)Escorial ĕskyo͝orˈēəl [key], monastery and palace, in New Castile, central Spain, near Madrid. One of the finest edifices in Europe, it was built (1563–84) as the monastery of San Lorenzo del E...

Reynolds, Debbie

(Encyclopedia) Reynolds, Debbie, 1932-2016, American actress, singer, and dancer, b. El Paso, Tx., as Mary Frances Reynolds. Reynolds’ family relocated from El Paso...

Aleixandre, Vicente

(Encyclopedia)Aleixandre, Vicente vēthĕnˈtā älāhänˈdrā [key], 1898–1984, Spanish lyric poet. He won the national prize for literature for La destrucción o el amor (1935, tr. 1976) and the Nobel Prize in...

Hernández Martínez, Maximiliano

(Encyclopedia)Hernández Martínez, Maximiliano mäkˌsēmēlyäˈnō ĕrnänˈdĕs märtēˈnĕs [key], 1882–1966, president of El Salvador (1931–44). An admirer of fascist theories, he seized power during a p...

Herrera, Fernando de

(Encyclopedia)Herrera, Fernando de fārnänˈdō ᵺā ārāˈrä [key], 1534–97, Spanish poet. One of the outstanding poets of the 16th cent. and the leader of the Seville school, he earned the name Herrera el D...

Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de

(Encyclopedia)Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de āmēˈlyä kōndāˈsä dā pärˈᵺō bäthänˈ [key], 1852–1921, Spanish novelist and critic. Her biography of St. Francis of Assisi appeared the same year as h...

Pereda, José María de

(Encyclopedia)Pereda, José María de hōsāˈ märēˈä dā pārāˈᵺä [key], 1833–1906, Spanish novelist. His stories are laid chiefly in his native Santander. An aristocrat by birth, he wrote sympathetical...

Mármol, José

(Encyclopedia)Mármol, José hōsāˈ märˈmôl [key], 1817–71, Argentine writer of the romantic school. His invectives against Juan Manuel de Rosas earned him the nickname “the poetic hangman of Rosas.” He ...

Bruce, James

(Encyclopedia)Bruce, James, 1730–94, Scottish explorer in Africa. He explored Roman ruins in N Africa (1755) from Tunis to Tripoli and visited Crete, Rhodes, and Asia Minor. In 1768 he traveled down the Red Sea a...

Benet, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Benet, Juan bənetˈ [key], 1927–93, Spanish novelist and essayist. He earned a degree in civil engineering and worked as a highway engineer before publishing (1961) his first work, Nunca llegarás ...