Rafael Barrett
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Rafael Barrett (1876–1910), a Spanish immigrant to Paraguay, was the sort of writer whose works were influential on other people who themselves became more influential. He wrote all types of things, including short stories, but his primary vessel was journalism. He wrote and published a lot, running an anarchist newspaper. One of his more famous pieces was Lo que son los yerbales, an account of the conditions on Yerba Mate farms. He was also an outspoken anarchist (very much the sort that preferred the pen to dynamite), and for this he earned contempt and was at one point exiled to Uruguay. In his essay My Anarchism (as translated by Paul Sharkey), he begins simply: “The etymology is good enough for me ‘Absence of government.’ The spirit of authority and the standing of the laws must be destroyed. That says it all.”
Tags: Dead, Journalist, Paraguyan, Spanish
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