Franz Tamayo

Franz Tamayo was born on February 28, 1879, in La Paz, to a Bolivian diplomat and an Aymara mother. Educated in Bolivia, France, and Great Britain, Tamayo mastered classical Greek, Latin, German, French, and Aymara. In 1910, he published his masterwork, Creación de la pedagogía nacional, fiercely arguing that the true vital force and moral resilience of Bolivia resided in the Indigenous Aymara and Quechua peoples.

Beyond his philosophical treatises and Parnassian poetry collections such as Odas and La Prometheida, Tamayo served as President of the Chamber of Deputies, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and was elected President of Bolivia in 1934 (though a military coup prevented him from taking office).