[citation needed] In 1945, he was recognized as a member of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española (Royal Spanish Academy).

He became a part of Stanford University faculty in 1946, the same year his father retired.

[3] With the help of folklorist Julio Camarena Laucirica, at the end of the 1980s, he was able to edit the stories he collected in Castilla and Leon before the Civil War.

[citation needed] In 1995, he was recognized in the El Centro Chicano y Latino's Hall of Fame, the year it was established.

[2] Espinosa did not only publish the folk stories he collected, but he also co-wrote Spanish textbooks that were widely used in college classrooms.