Augusto Céspedes Explained

Augusto Céspedes
Office1:Secretary-General of the Junta
President1:Gualberto Villarroel
Term Start1:20 December 1943
Term End1:11 February 1944
Predecessor1:Office established
Successor1:Wálter Guevara
Office2:Deputy of the National Convention
Term Start2:23 May 1938
Term End2:24 April 1939
Constituency2:Cochabamba
Birth Name:Augusto Céspedes Patzi
Birth Date:1903 2, df=yes
Birth Place:Cochabamba, Bolivia
Death Place:La Paz, Bolivia
Parents:Pablo Céspedes
Adriana Patzi Iturri
Spouse:Matilde Garvía
Party:Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
Alma Mater:Higher University of San Andrés

Augusto Céspedes Patzi (6 February 1904, Cochabamba – 9 May 1997, La Paz) was a Bolivian writer, politician, diplomat, and journalist. He was the brother-in-law of writer Carlos Montenegro.

Career

Céspedes studied law and received his degree in La Paz.

In 1927, he was a founder of the Nationalist Party. He was a leader in the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR).

He worked as a journalist on the front in the Chaco War, writing for the newspaper El Universal. He made use of his experiences on the front lines to write the stories in his 1936 collection, Sangre de Mestizos, which included his frequently anthologized short story, El Bozo. His non-fiction reports were compiled and published in the book Crónicas heroicas de una guerra estúpida, published in 1975. He also founded the MNR daily La Calle, directed the newspaper La Nación in La Paz and had an important role in Bolivian literature; he wrote various biographies of presidents such as Daniel Salamanca, Germán Busch Becerra, and Gualberto Villarroel. Among his many other stories and novels, Metal del Diablo, a fictionalized portrait of the tin tycoon, Simón I. Patiño has probably been the most successful.

He was a noted politician, serving as a deputy in Bolivian legislatures (three times: 1938, 1944, and 1956), and in diplomatic offices. He served as Bolivia's Ambassador to Paraguay in 1945, and to Italy in 1953, and distinguished himself as Ambassador to UNESCO.

Selected Works

Awards

External links