Garay, Blas (1873–1899)

Blas Garay (b. 1873; d. 19 December 1899), Paraguayan historian. Born in Asunción, Garay was something of a prodigy, publishing scholarly articles in local newspapers while still a teenager. He was one of the first Paraguayan historians to make systematic use of archives and primary documents of all kinds. He was sent to Spain in 1897 to visit Seville's Archive of the Indies in order to fulfill a government commission to substantiate Paraguay's legal claim to the Chaco Boreal region. While in Europe, Garay held several minor diplomatic posts.

As a member of the governing Partido Colorado, there was little way that Garay could avoid the passionate politics of his day. His newspaper pieces in La Prensa, which he founded, freely attacked his opponents, one of whom challenged Garay to a duel at Villa Hayes on 19 December 1899. Garay was shot, dying at the age of twenty-six.

Among his works, all of which are still read today, are Compendio elemental de historia del Paraguay (1896), El comunismo de las misiones (1897), and La revolución de la independencia del Paraguay (1897).

See alsoParaguay: The Nineteenth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Carlos Zubizarreta, Cien vidas paraguayas, 2d ed. (1985), pp. 222-224.

Additional Bibliography

Carrón, Juan María. El régimen liberal, 1870–1930: sociedad, economía. Asunción: Arandurã Editorial, 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