Barbero, Andrés (1877–1949)

Andrés Barbero (b. 28 July 1877; d. 14 February 1949), Paraguayan physician, scientist, and philanthropist. Born into a very wealthy Asunción family, Barbero decided at an early age to pursue a career in the sciences, despite the backwardness of his country's scientific establishment. Accordingly, he studied medicine, graduating in 1904. His practice lasted only a short time, however, and he soon abandoned it to dedicate himself to teaching and scientific research.

In 1921 Barbero founded the Sociedad Científica del Paraguay together with naturalists Guillermo Tell Bertoni and Emilio Hassler. He also established a journal, the Revista Científica del Paraguay, which he edited for many years and which he filled with his own erudite pieces on Paraguayan flora and fauna.

Barbero's greatest contribution came in the field of philanthropy. He almost single-handedly created and maintained the Paraguayan Red Cross, the School for Rural Obstetrics, the National Cancer Institute, and a dozen other institutions emphasizing public health. After his death in 1949, his family donated still more funds for a new foundation, La Piedad, which supported efforts in many fields, from investigations into the indigenous languages of the Chaco to the care of retirees in the capital city, to the maintenance of various museums.

See alsoParaguay: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

William Belmont Parker, ed., Paraguayans of To-Day (repr. 1967), pp. 115-118.

Carlos Zubizarreta, Cien vidas paraguayas, 2d ed. (1985), pp. 239-241.

Additional Bibliography

Soler, Carlos Alberto. Andrés Barbero: Su vida y su obra. Asunción: Fundación La Piedad, 1977.

                                      Thomas L. Whigham