Palacios, Alfredo L. (1880–1965)
Palacios, Alfredo L. (1880–1965)
Alfredo L. Palacios (b. 10 August 1880; d. 1965) Argentine Socialist congressman and senator. Born in the city of Buenos Aires, Palacios received his law degree from the local university in 1900. Soon thereafter he joined the Socialist Party, with which he had a long and frequently difficult relationship. Running on the party ticket in the federal capital in 1904, he became the first socialist in the Americas to be elected to a national congress. He served two terms in the Chamber of Deputies (1904–1908 and 1912–1916), during the second of which he was ousted from his party for dueling. He rejoined the party in 1930 and was twice elected to the national senate (1932–1935 and 1935–1944) from the federal capital, at a time when conservatives controlled the national administration. A vigorous opponent of the regime of Juan Perón (1946–1955), he was named ambassador to Uruguay for the two years following Perón's overthrow. After an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1958, he won a stunning election to the national Senate from the city of Buenos Aires in 1961 after campaigning as a champion of the Cuban revolution of Fidel Castro.
A charismatic orator and effective legislator, Palacios was a consistent proponent of social justice, especially for women and children, and a vociferous opponent of what he considered the undue influence of foreign investors in the country. He was the author of numerous essays and books, such as La justicia social (1954), many of which were collections of his parliamentary speeches.
See alsoArgentina, Political Parties: Socialist Party .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Víctor O. García Costa, Alfredo L. Palacios: Un Socialismo argentino y para la Argentina (1986).
Additional Bibliography
García Costa, Víctor O. Alfredo Palacios: Entre el clavel y la espada: Una biografía. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1997.
González, Liliana C. Repensando el Dogma socialista de Esteban Echeverría. Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato DiTella, 1994.
Richard J. Walter