Viriato Díaz Pérez

Viriato Díaz Pérez (July 6,1877 – August 25, 1958) was a Spanish-born writer and intellectual who migrated to Asunción, Paraguay. He was interested in theosophy and Eastern religions, His most influential work was a historiography of Paraguay, “Las comunidades peninsulares en su relación con los levantamientos comuneros americanos y en especial con la Revolución Comunera del Paraguay”.

Family In 1906, Viritao, encouraged by the Paraguayan politician and writer Hérib Campos Cervera, who visited him in Spain, decided to travel to Paraguay. He stayed in the country and decided to settle down. He married Leticia Godoi Rivarola, daughter of the renowned politician and benefactor Juan Silvano Godoi. They had four sons, Fernán, Rodrigo, Juan Silvano and Hermán, and a daughter, Helena.

The museum and library that carry the name of Juan Silvano Godoi became the favorite refuge of Viriato, always devoted to his studies.

Career in Paraguay Participation in culture

In 1907, he organized the literary circle “La Colmena” that gathered together an entire group of first-class intellectuals, such as Rafael Barret, Juan E. O'Leary, Manuel Domínguez, Arsenio López Decoud, Modesto Guggiari, Juan Silvano Godoi, Carlos R. Centurión, Fulgencio R. Moreno, Ricardo Brugada (son), Juan Casabianca, Ignacio A. Pane, Ramón V. Caballero and others.

In 1908, he was a conspicuous collaborator at conferences in a lot of popular literary publishing at the time. Since he arrived in Paraguay, the name Viriato has never been estranged from the cultural activity in Asunción.

He participated in diverse cultural acts of international disclosure with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, United States, Spain, Italy and Germany. From that year to the second decade of the century, he had prodigious literary publications. He was renowned as an important part of Paraguayan intellectuality. As the Paraguayan delegate to the Congreso de Bibliografía e Hisoria (Congress of Bibliography and History) in 1916 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he presented his work “Polibiblión Paraguayo”, a guide of bibliographic indications about Paraguay.

Positions occupied

He dedicated his life to teaching; hundreds of Paraguayans received his influence, being a professor of the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. He was appointed Chief of the National Archive and General Director of the Library and Museum of Fine Arts; additionally, he was a member of the Limits Commission with Bolivia in 1910.

Works

He was editor-in-chief of the important .

In 1913, Viriato created the Revista Paraguaya (Paraguayan Magazine). In 1924, he wrote the official information about “La cultura y escultura en el Paraguay” (The culture and sculpture in Paraguay), presented to the League of Nations.

In 1925, Viritao collaborated with the Revista del Paraguay (Magazine of Paraguay), directed by the investigator and poet Enrique Parodi.

Viriato organized the Segundo Congreso Internacional de Historia y Geografía de América (2nd International Congress of History and Geography of America), in Asunción on October 12, 1926.

In 1930, Viriato published “La Asunción” a seminal study called “Las comunidades peninsulares en su relación con los levantamientos comuneros americanos y en especial con la Revolución Comunera del Paraguay” (The peninsular communities in their relation with the raising of the American Comuneros and especially with the Revolución in Paraguay).

In 1948, he collaborated with his monograph “La Literature en el Paraguay” (The Literature in Paraguay) to integrate the great Universal History of Literature of Prapoline, an encyclopedia of XIII volumes. Díaz Pérez was one of the most important figures in the complex time of 1900 in Paraguay.

Death

On August 25, 1958, he died in Asunción.