Arciniegas, Germán

Related Category: Historians, Miscellaneous: Biographies

(hĕrmän´ ärsēnyā´gäs), 1900–1999, Colombian historian and diplomat. A leading Latin American intellectual, he gained prominence as a journalist and publisher. A critic of the military and of dictators, he lived in exile in the United States (1942–60) and taught at Columbia and several other universities. He was appointed Colombian ambassador to Italy in 1960 and later became ambassador to the Vatican and Venezuela. Among his more than 70 books are The Knight of El Dorado: The Tale of Don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (tr. 1942), The State of Latin America (tr. 1952), Latin America: A Cultural History (tr. 1967), and America in Europe (1986). He also edited The Green Continent (1944), an interpretation of Latin America by its leading writers.