Margit Frenk

Margit Frenk Freund (in full, Margarita Ana María Frenk y Freund), sometimes known by her married name, Margit Frenk Alatorre (b. Hamburg, 21 August 1925) is a German-Mexican philologist, folklorist and translator. She has been an Academic Numerary of the Mexican Language Academy since 1993. She is also a Doctor Honoris Causa at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Frenk's parents moved the family to Mexico in 1930. In 1946, she spent some time at Bryn Mawr College on a scholarship, studying English Literature and Spanish Theater of the 16th Century. This was followed by a few years at Berkeley, where she taught Spanish, learned Italian and studied Spanish Literature.
After obtaining her MA, she returned home to study at the College of Mexico, where she was a professor and researcher from 1950 to 1980, except for a brief stay in Paris to attend classes by Marcel Bataillon. She was a collaborator on the Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica (NRFH), which was managed by Raimundo Lida and, later, by Antonio Alatorre, whom she married. Beginning in 1958, she was the coordinator for a group of researchers who, between 1975 and 1985, produced the five volume Mexican Folk Songbook.
She has been a professor at UNAM since 1966 where, in 2000, she founded the Revista de Literaturas Populares, which she still edits, and She is a member of the scientific committee on the Spanish magazine Paremia. From 1986-1996, she was coordinator of the Center for Literary Studies at the Institute for Philological Research at UNAM, where she founded the magazine Literatura Mexicana. She is also an honorary President of the International Association of Hispanistas.
In 2000, she won the Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences (Language and Literature). In 2006, she won the Alfonso Reyes International Prize and, in 2009, the 23rd Menéndez Pelayo International Prize.

• Lírica Hispánica de Tipo Popular: Edad Media y Renacimiento, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1966)
• Estudios Sobre Lírica Antigua. Castalia (1978) ISBN 84-7039-270-0
• Entre Folklore y Literatura, El Colegio de México (1984) ISBN 968-12-0258-9
• Cancionero de Romances Viejos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1984) ISBN 968-837-217-X
• Charla de Pájaros o Las Aves en la Poesía Folklórica Mexicana, UNAM (1994) ISBN 968-36-3939-9
• Lírica Española de Tipo Popular, Cátedra (2001) ISBN 84-376-0096-0
• Poesía Popular Hispánica : 44 estudios, Fondo de Cultural Económico (2006) ISBN 968-16-7368-9
• Estudios de Lingüística, El Colegio de México (2007) ISBN 968-12-1308-4.