Sunday, July 16, 2006

José Manuel Estrada


He was born in Buenos Aires on 13th July, 1842. He was a historian, a journalist as well as a publicist. He was one of the most intellectual people in the second half of the XIX century.
When he was young, his parents died, and his grandmother Carmen de Liniers got in charge of his education. His formal education took place in San Francisco school, where he learned philosophy, theology, religion and humanities. In 1815, when he finished primary school, he received an award in a history contest in the Liceo Literario as he had done a very good work related to the discovery of America. It was at this time that he started his career as a journalist. In 1865, Estrada presented his first purely historic work. A year later, he initiated in the teaching profession in the "Escuela Normal". By this time, Sarmiento, who was in power, named Estrada Secretary of Foreign Affairs and he appointed him to teach Civic Instruction in the National School, where he had already taught philosophy.
In 1869, Estrada was named Chief of the General Department of Schools. Two years later, he initiated his career as a politician. Some time later, he was elected representative for Buenos Aires.
In 1874, he was in charge of the Direction of Escuelas Normales and Decanato of the Philosophy and Literature School of the University of Buenos Aires.
In 1880, when Julio A. Roca was in power for the first time, there were strong anti-Catholic ideas. Estrada, being a devoted Catholic started an advertising fight in favour of Catholicism. There were topics being greatly discussed, such as the exclusion of Catholic education from schools, the inclusion of civil marriage and other things related to religious matters.
In 1890, while he was in a lecture in Buenos Aires, he suffered a decompensation that obliged him to retire from public life.
On September 17th, 1894, his illness defeated him and he died in the capital city of Paraguay.

Text provided by Ana Paula Farias

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