Paredes was born in Brownsville, Texas on 3 September 1915 at a time of great border tension and violence resulting from the 1910 Mexican Revolution. His father, Justo Paredes, came from a ranching family that had settled on both sides of the lower Rio Grande valley in the mid-1700s after nearly two centuries as part of a Sephardic colony in Nuevo León. His mother's family had come from Spain around 1850; Clotilde Manzano-Vidal named their son Américo after the great 16th century Italian geographer and explorer because of a promise made to an aunt who was married to an Italian sailor.
One of eight children, Paredes received his early education in the public schools of his native Brownsville, Texas. After school hours he worked at various jobs to help support the family. In the evenings during summer vacations he often listened to corridos, folk tales, and oral traditions recounted by border "Mexicanos" around the campfire. In high school he later recalled first encountering anti-Mexican discrimination and racism. Among the more traumatic incidents was the racist presumption of his high school counselor that he would not go on to college. It almost deterred him. However, encouraged by a more sympathetic teacher and by winning first prize in a statewide poetry contest, he enrolled in Brownsville Junior College upon graduation from high school in 1934. While attending college he began working for the Brownsville Herald as a proofreader, translator and staff writer. Here he also met with discrimination, an ongoing experience that led to his lifelong energetic fight against ethnic bias and discrimination.
An ethnic activist since his youthful days in Brownsville, Paredes persistently pursued his goal of validating Mexican American studies in the university. In spite of opposition, he continued his crusade, challenging the entrenched "old boy" network of his Anglo colleagues. Finally in 1970, with help from other Chicano faculty and graduate students, he succeeded in convincing the administration to authorize creation of a center for Mexican American studies. He was named its first director. His struggle for "la raza" (Hispanics) did not end there; he continued to fight against the historically and institutionally ingrained discrimination against "Mexicanos" widely prevalent in Texas. Twice in the early 1970s he tendered his resignation when he felt his suggestions were ignored or not given serious consideration by university administrators.
An outstanding teacher, Américo Paredes was a gentle, soft-spoken man who usually kept his intense feelings about discrimination and ethnic bias under wraps. His dignified, courtly demeanor masked a deep-seated indignation and at times anger over discrimination. At UT Austin he trained an entire generation of borderland folklorists and imbued them with his strong sense of the unfairness of ethnic discrimination.
Paredes's seminal importance was recognized in 1989 when he became the first Mexican American to receive the prestigious Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a lifetime devoted to a deeper understanding of the humanities. In the following year he was awarded the Order of the Aguila Azteca by the Mexican government for his work in preserving border culture and for his lifelong defense of human rights. In 1991 he was again honored by Mexico, with the Order of José de Escandón. Two years later The University of Texas dedicated to him a two-day symposium titled "Regional Identity and Cultural Tradition: The Tejano Contribution." It quite properly included a folkloric concert in his honor.
Subsequent to his retirement from teaching Paredes actively continued to research, write, and publish. In 1990 he came out with George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel, followed in the next year by a book of his poems, Between Two Worlds. In 1993 he had two publications: Uncle Remus con chile, a compilation of Mexicano border humor, and a scholarly collection of articles, Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border. In 1994 his The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories was published and four years later his final work of fiction, The Shadow came out. On Cinco de Mayo 1999 Américo Paredes died after a lengthy illness.
Info taken from: www.lib.utexas.edu