Ynsfrán, Pablo Max (1894–1972)

Pablo Max Ynsfrán (b. 30 June 1894; d. 2 May 1972), Paraguayan educator and historian. Born in Asunción, Ynsfrán received formal training as a diplomat during the 1920s and 1930s, but early on expressed as much interest in the study of history as in the practical application of politics. From 1923 to 1928 he taught philosophy and Roman history at the Colegio Nacional de la Capital (Asunción) at the same time as he served as a congressional deputy.

The Chaco War of 1932–1935 found Ynsfrán in Washington, D.C., as Paraguay's chargé d'affaires. There he participated in the 1938 Chaco peace conference and was subsequently chosen to be public works minister by President José Félix Estigarribia.

With the start of the Higínio Morínigo dictatorship in 1940, Ynsfrán went into exile in the United States. He became a professor of Latin American history at the University of Texas at Austin, where he remained until his death.

Ynsfrán wrote two finely detailed studies, The Epic of the Chaco: Marshal Estigarribia's Memoirs of the Chaco War, 1932–1935 (1950), and La expedición norteamericana contra el Paraguay, 1858–1859 (1954), as well as many articles and polemical pieces.

See alsoChaco War; Estigarribia, José Félix.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles J. Kolinski, Historical Dictionary of Paraguay (1973), pp. 266-267.

Jack Ray Thomas, Biographical Dictionary of Latin American Historians and Historiography (1984), pp. 353-354.

                        Marta FernÁndez Whigham