Pérez Acosta, Juan Francisco (1873–1967)

Juan Francisco Pérez Acosta (b. 1873; d. 1967), Paraguayan historian. Although his early career was limited to writings published in such opposition newspapers as La Democracia and El Independiente, Pérez Acosta was eventually recognized as the "dean of contemporary Paraguayan letters." He owed his success to his thorough and painstaking research in primary materials, especially the document collections in Paraguay's national archives. The results, as exemplified in his masterpiece, Carlos Antonio López: Obrero máximo (1948), placed him in the first rank of modern scholarship in Paraguay.

After the Liberal Party came to power in 1904, Pérez Acosta accepted various official posts: chief of police, director of the central bank, diplomat, jurist, and educator. He also edited several Asunción newspapers, including El Diario and El Liberal. With the defeat of the Liberals and the consolidation of Colorado Party rule in the late 1940s, Pérez Acosta retired to private life. Though he continued to write articles, his scholarly work slowly tapered off. He died in Asunción.

See alsoJournalism; Paraguay, Political Parties: Colorado Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos R. Centurión, Historia de la cultura paraguaya, 2 vols. (1961).

Harris Gaylord Warren, Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic: The First Colorado Era, 1878–1904 (1985), p. 294.

Additional Bibliography

Carrón, Juan María. El régimen liberal, 1870–1930: Sociedad, economía. Asunción: Arandurã Editoria, 2004.

Lewis, Paul H. Political Parties and Generations in Paraguay's Liberal Era, 1869–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

                                   Thomas L. Whigham