Pueyrredón, Carlos Alberto (1887–1962)

Politician, historian and financier Carlos Alberto Pueyrredón was born in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1887, into a prominent Argentine family. Nephew of Radical Party politician Honorio Pueyrredón, he accompanied Marcelo T. de Alvear as delegate to the League of Nations in 1920. Pueyrredón nonetheless supported the September 1930 military ouster of Radical President Hipólito Yrigoyen. In 1932 Pueyrredón was elected national deputy for the province of Buenos Aires as a member of the conservative Partido Demócrata Nacional. Later that year he introduced legislation designating the colonial-era cabildo building a national historical monument, thus protecting the Buenos Aires landmark from destruction. In December 1940 President Ramón Castillo appointed Pueyrredón intendente (mayor) of Buenos Aires, a position he held until displaced by the military shortly after the June 1943 coup. His brief tenure as intendente put the conservative Pueyrredón at odds with a city council largely controlled by the opposition Radical and Socialist Parties.

In addition to his political activity, Pueyrredón served on the boards of directors of the Banco Popular Argentino and several agricultural insurance and financial organizations. Pueyrredón was a member of the Academia Nacional de Historia, and author of several works focusing primarily on the process of independence. He died on June 16, 1962.

See alsoAlvear, Carlos María de; Argentina, Political Parties: Radical Party (UCR); Buenos Aires; Castilla, Ramón; Irigoyen, Hipólito; Pueyrredón, Honorio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pueyrredón, Carlos Alberto. En tiempos de los virreyes: Miranda y la gestación de nuestra independencia. Buenos Aires: Rosso Editor, 1932.

Pueyrredón, Carlos Alberto. La campaña de los Andes. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, 1944.

Pueyrredón, Carlos Alberto. 1810: La Revolución de Mayo según amplia documentación de la época. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Peuser, 1953.

Walter, Richard J. Politics and Urban Growth in Buenos Aires, 1910–1942. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

                                          James Cane