Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce
Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce was an Argentine Hispanist.
Bautista Avalle-Arce was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family originally from Navarre attempting to escape the Spanish Civil War. He was educated in a Scottish boarding school. Bautista Avalle-Arce met Amado Alonso upon returning to Argentina, and later followed him to Harvard University, obtaining a doctorate in 1955. Though Bautista Avalle-Arce sought to return to his parents' homeland, the Francoist government refused to acknowledge doctorates earned abroad. As such, Bautista Avalle-Arce began teaching in the United States. Despite spending five decades in the United States, he never sought US citizenship. Over the course of his career, Bautista Avalle-Arce taught at Smith College, Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was Jose Miguel Barandiaran Professor of Basque Studies. While at Santa Barbara in 1960, Bautista Avalle-Arce was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. After retiring in 2003, he moved to Eneriz. Bautista Avalle-Arce died on December 25, 2009, at the University Hospital of Navarre.
