Julio César Chaves

Born in the city of Asunción, Chaves was one of the core historians of Paraguay and a transcendental figure of the culture of that country. The work he did gave a major boost to the national historiography.

He belonged to the so-called "Generation 1925", along with other eminent personalities like Efraím Cardozo, Hipolito Sanchez Quell and R. Antonio Ramos. His studies on Doctor José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia eventually became the book The Supreme Dictator, today regarded as the most comprehensive, objective and serious work on the subject. He was also a professor, diplomat and politician. During the Chaco War he played a major role in promoting information and media.

He pursued primary and secondary education in San José and at the National College and earned his doctorate in 1929, after defending his thesis on the Monroe Doctrine.

Chaves' uncle was Mr. Federico Chaves, who was president between the years 1949 and 1954. His brothers were prominent personalities of national policy, Hugo, Herman and Juan Ramon Chaves. The latter was president of the Colorado Party for many years. Julio César had membership in the Colorado Party until 1973, when he joined the Liberal Party.

During the Chaco War, Chaves worked at the "Department II", first under the command of Tomás Romero Pereira and then as chief until the end of the war.

In 1934, in mid-July, at the express request of President Eusebio Ayala and General José Félix Estigarribia, Chaves organized (as head of Department II) the Directorate Press and Propaganda (popularly known as Radio Press), which was presented in the form of daily bulletins. This work had a great impact nationally and internationally and served to raise troop morale.

It was also after the war, the civil fiscal year 1936, and deputy national, 1938. At that time he was an active military in the Liberal Youth Club, along with young people such as Efraím Cardozo, Carlos Pastore, Horacio Fernandez, Juan G. Peroni, Villagra Maffiodo Salvador, Francisco Sapena, Emilio Saguier Aceval, Pedro R. Espínola, Paul Max Ynsfrán, Alejandro Marin Churches, Artemio Mereles, Juan B. Wasmosy, among others. This was the group that launched and supported the presidential candidacy of General José Félix Estigarribia in 1939, imposed on the criterion of liberal old guard who wanted a civilian president.

In 1939, Chaves was sent as minister to Bolivia and then to Peru as an ambassador in 1940. With the assumption of General Higinio Morínigo as president of the republic after the death of Estigarribia, who took exile in Buenos Aires from the year 1941.

He was perhaps among the more profitable exiles of the country because Chaves began to develop part of his historiography work there.

Chaves was also president of the Academy of Paraguayan History from 1956 to 1973 and again from 1984 to 1986, and the Academia de la Lengua Española from 1975 until his death. He was also president of the PEN Club and the Paraguayan Institute of Hispanic Culture, as well as a member of academies and institutes from various countries, the American Institute of History of Madrid and the Royal Academy of Arts of the Spanish capital. He was a lecturer in various Latin American capitals and major cultural centers of Europe.

In 1936 Chaves wrote El Chaco in adjustments for peace (unpublished), and in 1937 edited History of relations between Buenos Aires and Paraguay.

His other works include:

• El supremo dictador (The supreme dictator).
• Castelli, El adalid de mayo (Castelli, the May Champion).
• San Martín y Bolívar en Guayaquil (San Martín and Bolívar in Guayaquil).
• El presidente López (President López).
• Vida y obra de Don Carlos (Life and work of Don Carlos).
• El General Díaz (General Diaz).
• Biografía del vencedor de Curupayty (Biography of the Curupayty conqueror).
• Compendio de historia paraguaya (Compendium of Paraguayan history).
• Compendio de historia americana (Compendium of American history).
• Unamuno y América (Unamuno and America).
• Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Río de la Plata y el Paraguay (History of the discovery and conquest of the Rio de la Plata and Paraguay).
• Itinerario de Antonio Machado (Antonio Machado Journey).
• Túpac Amaru.
• La causa de la independencia americana (The cause of Latin American independence).

Dr. Julio Cesar Chaves is the creator of an unpublished monograph, which deals with the important actions that he took in the Chaco War. This is a valuable document on the work that he accomplished in the Department II, his management of Prensa y Propaganda that depended directly on the Commander in Chief of Army Operations.

Department II was organized by the then mayor Tomás Romero Pereira, supported by Chaves, and its task included military intelligence. Prensa y Propaganda depended directly on Chaves by express order of president Eusebio Ayala, who mandated him to carry out daily bulletins to counter Bolivian propaganda. According to Chaves himself, these bulletins were captured by the main radiotelegraph stations in the country and the following American countries: Bolivia Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru.

President Ayala wrote the first three materials as a model. The first alluded to the Chilean mercenaries in the Bolivian army, the second to the superiority of the Paraguayan soldiers' morale over the Bolivian, and the third to the resources expended by Bolivia during the Chaco struggles. Bolivian prisoners were very valuable as sources of information for these bulletins, which led to a deterioration in the minds of the enemy combatants’ side, as acknowledged after the war by Colonel David Toro, a prominent Bolivian leader.

Chaves died in Asunción on February 20, 1989, a few months after his 81st birthday.

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