María Lara Martínez
Dr. María Lara Martínez is a Spanish historian and writer. María Lara is a native of Guadalajara (Spain). She earned her doctorate from the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha with academic honors. Associate and Fellow at RCC Harvard University, María Lara has worked at the Widener Library and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Previously, she was a research instructor at L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, CNRS, in Paris. María is a specialist in Modern History. She has been a High School Teacher in Salamanca. Subsequently, she passed the position of Assistant Professor of History of Spain for Army and Civil Guard officers at the University Center of Defense in Zaragoza. Currently María is a Professor at the International University of La Rioja and at "Alfonso X el Sabio" University. Among other subjects, Dr. Lara teaches the subjects of History of Nursing, History of Veterinary Medicine and History of Music (Classicism). Her teaching and research focus on the 18th century, the period in which she specialized at Harvard.
History, Literature and Communication are her three great passions, and Dr. María Lara has investigated several historical and literary topics within broad international contexts. She has travelled around the world as a researcher and teacher (Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Argentina…).
The veil of promise, María Lara’s debut novel, won the “Ciudad de Valeria” historical novel prize in 2011. Other novels written by María Lara are Helen’s Memoirs and Without the stigma of Eva.
She has also written historical essays as Witches, Wizards, and Unbelievers in the Spanish Golden Age, and Witch passport. Flying on a broomstick, from Spain to America, in the time of Cervantes. These books are the result of her research in the archives of the Inquisition. Dr. María Lara explains the most fascinating chapters of Modern History through a scientist’s balance between reality and fantasy. In addition, the writer analyses the validity of the political prophecies in the Spanish Empire, and she details the role of the amulets in the Habsburg monarchy. María Lara traces, in narrative form, American phenomena, such as the “witches of Salem”.
Without justifying the unjustifiable, María Lara denies certain arguments of the Black Legend. In contrast, the Historian states that Spain was the only nation that was able to stop the witch-hunt during the XVIIth century. And the Hispanic World did it through the application of reason and the covenant of silence.
Her book History of the Wars of Religion. Jews, Christians and Freethinkers in Europe, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment was written during her stays as RCC Associate and Fellow at Harvard University. In the book the author explains the clandestine currents of the Baroque, which prepared the ground for the Enlightenment.
In 2023 María Lara published the best-seller Juana I, the sane queen. In this book María Lara denies (through historical and psychological research) that the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs was crazy.
María Lara has a twin sister, Dr. Laura Lara Martínez. She is also a writer, historian and communicator of History on radio and television. Laura and María were awarded with a National GPA for History as they finished their degree with thirty-eight distinctions. Laura and María are Tenured Professors (ANECA), they worked as Professors at the International University of La Rioja. They are also Professors at Nebrija University, teaching the subjects of Educational Policy in the Master's program for Secondary School Teacher Training. María is also a Professor of Design of Didactic Proposals in Social Sciences, Geography and History. In addition Laura is a Tutor Professor at UNED (Campus Madrid Sur, Aranjuez and Fuenlabrada), where she teaches Medieval History, Medieval History of Spain I (8th-13th centuries), and Medieval History of Spain II (14th-15th centuries). María is a Tutor Professor at UNED (Campus Madrid Sur), where she is a tutor for the Master's Thesis subject of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training for Secondary Education.
María Lara and Laura Lara (las Hermanas Lara) won the Algaba Award (2015) with their book, Ignatius and the Society: From the Castle to the Mission, where they explain, in narrative form, the annals of the Jesuits: from Loyola, their founder, to Pope Francis. The Lara Sisters combines scientific research on History with the diffusion of the Humanities through their own spaces on radio and television. They have written Breviary of History of Spain, Princesses in Jeans. History, meaning and validity of the monarchy, The Yellow Horses. Diseases no one saw coming, Lies of the History of Spain and Isabel Zendal, among other historical books.
Laura and María Lara are Ambassadors of the Spanish Army and Historians of the Spanish Air and Space Force. The government of Castilla-La Mancha approved, unanimously, the appointment of Laura and María Lara as Castilla-La Mancha Favorite Daughters.