Gonzalo Menéndez-Pidal

Gonzalo Menéndez-Pidal (April 12, 1911– December 11, 2008) was a Spanish historian, cartographer, cinematographer, photographer, and archivist. He was the youngest historian to ever be admitted to the Spanish Royal Academy of History. He was the son of Ramon Menendez Pidal and Maria Goyri de Menendez Pidal, who was the first woman to officially graduate from a Spanish university, the Universidad de Madrid.

Gonzalo Menéndez Pidal records Lorca and other members of La Barraca in Calle Capitán Galán (Calle Príncipe) in Vigo in August 1932

Gonzalo Menendez-Pidal combined his family's fascination with the history of the Iberian Peninsula with an interest in the latest technologies. Gonzalo Menendez-Pidal studied cinematography at the Film und Bildamt der Stadt Berlin. He filmed his experiences as he traveled through Spain in the time leading up to the Spanish Civil War. Most of his films were anthropological documentaries; one set chronicles such as “La Barraca”, which he created with Federico García Lorca and others.

Gonzalo Menendez-Pidal excelled in photography. He catalogued Spanish tools and hardware, among other objects.

He lived in the mountains outside of Madrid, and maintained a photographic archive of the history of Spain that showed how the country was built.

His archives are a tribute to the ingenuity of the Spaniards. His unabashed enthusiasm and scientific approach are evident in his many books about Spain.