Alvarado, Lisandro (1858–1929)

Lisandro Alvarado (b. 19 September 1858; d. 10 April 1929), Venezuelan ethnologist, linguist, naturalist, and historian. At the age of twenty, Alvarado traveled to Caracas to study medicine at the University of Caracas; where he came in contact with the positivist and evolutionist ideas that were in vogue in Latin America in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The tenets of these schools of thought would serve as a guide to his diverse intellectual activities. Alvarado conducted investigations in the areas of ethnography, linguistics, and history and studied ancient and modern cultures, traveling throughout the country as part of his research. He was proficient in several languages and was one of the first Venezuelans to study the indigenous customs and languages of the country's aboriginal groups. Alvarado was a regular member of the academies of medicine, language, and history. His major works include: Sobre las guerras civiles del país (1894) and Glosario de voces indígenas de Venezuela (1921).

See alsoPositivism .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pascual Venegas Filardo, Lisandro Alvarado (1858–1929) (1973).

Pedro Grases, Obras completas, 7 vols. (Caracas, 1953–1958), La obra lexicográfica de Lisandro Alvarado (Caracas, 1981).

Cesia Ziona Hirshbein, Historia y literatura en Lisandro Alvarado (Caracas, 1981).

Additional Bibliography

Pérez Hernández, Francisco Javier. "Testimonios de lexicógrafos: un texto inédito del padre Barnola sobre los glosarios de Lisandro Alvarado." Montalbán 32 (1999): 357-372.

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