José Manuel Blecua, former RAE director, dies at 86

José Manuel Blecua, former director of the Real Academia Española (RAE), has died at 86 in Madrid. Born in Zaragoza on June 21, 1939, he was elected a full academician on June 19, 2003, and took office on June 25, 2006, with a speech titled Principios del Diccionario de Autoridades. He served as secretary of the RAE from 2007 to 2009 and was elected director in December 2010, holding the post from 2011 to late 2014. Blecua was the son of José Manuel Blecua Teijeiro (1913-2003), a professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Barcelona and honorary academician of the RAE, and brother of philologist Alberto Blecua (1941-2020).