García Ortiz, Laureano (1865–1945)

A writer and Colombian diplomat, García Ortiz was born in Rionegro, Antioquia Department, in 1865. In secondary school he was influenced by two German teachers, who introduced him to a new pedagogy, didactic elements, discipline, and values. He concluded his baccalaureate in Colegio Martínez Hernán, at Medellín City, where he had the benefit of instruction from intellectually recognized Antioquian teachers. He traveled to Bogota, where he received a degree in Ciencias Naturales y Agronomía of the Universidad National de Colombia and studied political and social sciences. Among his best friends were the poet José Asunción Silva and the essayist Baldomero Sanín Cano.

García Ortiz was elected to the Colombian senate. His diplomatic work was fruitful, helping to resolve, in a way favorable for Colombia, the issue of United States compensation for the loss of Panama and Colombia's border disputes with Peru and Brazil. He was a professor at the Universidad Nacional, belonged to several scientific and cultural associations, and was concurrently a member of the Consejo Nacional de Economía and the board of directors of the Banco de la Republica de Colombia during the period 1938–1940. He had a substantial library of classical and modern authors that included works on Colombian subjects and international diplomacy and relations. He published a good number of historical texts, chronicles, and literary works. Outstanding among his books is Estudios históricos y Fisonomías colombianas (1938). He bequeathed his library to the Banco de la República, which became part of the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango.

See alsoSilva, José Asunción .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Works by García Ortiz

Estudios históricos y fisonomías colombianas. Bogota: Editorial ABC, 1938.

"Santander, padre de la republica." Vida: Revista de Arte y Literatura 3, no. 31 (June 1940).

Las ciudades confederadas del valle del cauca en 1811. Bogota: Editorial Librería Voluntad, 1943.

Algunos estudios sobre el general Santander. Bogota: Imprenta nacional, 1946.

Antioquia, Rionegro y Córdova. Bogota: Kelly, 1979.

"Apuntamientos de un viaje a Bogota en 1880." Estudios Sociales nos. 8-9 (1995): 135-144.

Other Works

Mejía Robledo, Alfonso. Vidas y empresas de Antioquia. Medellín, Colombia: Imprenta Departamental de Antioquia, 1951. See p. 75.

Sánchez López, Luís Maria. Diccionario de escritores colombianos. Bogota: Plaza & Janes, 1985. See p. 291.

                           Rodrigo de J. GarcÍa Estrada