Nicolas Zafra
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Zafra was Filipino historian and educator. He was professor emeritus of history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 at the University of the Philippines
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...

. He died on January 7, 1979. He was the president of the Philippine Historical Association
Philippine Historical Association
The Philippine Historical Association is a professional association of historians in the Philippines. It was founded on September 18, 1955 by a group of prominent historians at Carbungco Restaurant located at Lepanto St., Manila...

 in 1962 and was a recipient of the Cultural Heritage Award of the Philippines in 1969.

Early life and education

Zafra was born on December 21, 1892 in San Fernando
San Fernando
-Argentina:*San Fernando, Buenos Aires, city of Greater Buenos Aires*San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, capital of Catamarca province-Mexico:*San Fernando, Chiapas*San Fernando, Coahuila*San Fernando, Durango*San Fernando, Tamaulipas...

, La Union
La Unión
La Union or La Unión may refer to:-Colombia:*La Unión, Antioquia*La Unión, Nariño*La Unión, Sucre*La Unión, Valle del Cauca-Peru:*La Unión Province, Peru...

. His parents were Pia Alviar and Eugenio Zafra. He had one sister and two brothers. The Zafra family was quite active in local politics. He obtained his elementary and part of his secondary education in San Fernando. He studied at Manila High School, where he graduated in 1912.

In the University of the Philippines
University of the Philippines
The ' is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No...

, he acquired three degrees:
  • Bachelor of Arts in 1916
  • Bachelor of Education in 1918
  • Master of Arts, major in history, in 1920.


From 1939 to 1940, he pursued graduate studies in history at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

.

Career

Zafra began his career in 1917, as assistant instructor in the department of history of the U.P.

He became full professor and head of the history department in 1948, serving as such for a full ten years. Still head of the history department, he was appointed member of the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) upon its organization under its chairman Dean Tomas Fonacier of the U.P. College of Liberal Arts.

From 1952 to 1953, he was a Fullbright research grantee. In 1955, he was invited by the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco as its visiting professor.

He was a member of the Philippine Historical Association
Philippine Historical Association
The Philippine Historical Association is a professional association of historians in the Philippines. It was founded on September 18, 1955 by a group of prominent historians at Carbungco Restaurant located at Lepanto St., Manila...

, Philippine National
Historical Society, National Research Council of the Philippines, and the International Association Historians of Asia. He was the president of the Philippine Historical Association
Philippine Historical Association
The Philippine Historical Association is a professional association of historians in the Philippines. It was founded on September 18, 1955 by a group of prominent historians at Carbungco Restaurant located at Lepanto St., Manila...

 in 1962.

He also undertook investigations and researches into Philippine historical landmarks and personalities, both prominent and obscure, as well as prepared and wrote historical biographies, particularly of the members of the Malolos
Congress, and the text of various historical markers.
In 1963, the University of the Philippines conferred on him the rare title of professor emeritus of history.

He also received the Cultural Heritage Award, which the Philippine government presented to him in 1969.

Zafra was married to a fellow academician, Professor Luz Alzona. He had
daughters: Sister Lourdes, a nun, and Felicidad.

Main works

  • Historicity of Rizal’s Retraction (Bookmark,1961). In this book, he defended the retraction, and called it "a plain, unadorned fact of history, having all the marks and indications of historical certainty and reality."
  • A Short History of the Philippines (1966)
  • Philippine History Through Selected Sources (1967)
  • Oriental History (co-authored with Ganzon).
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