José C. Paz

Who was José C. Paz?

José Clemente Paz was an Argentine statesman, diplomat and journalist, founder of the La Prensa newspaper.

Paz was born in Buenos Aires and started his education in that city but was forced to move to Rosario due to the civil war fought in Argentina. In July 1859 the Buenos Aires squadron of Admiral Murature was attempting to pass Rosario on the river. Paz, just 16 years old, approached the Rosario positions and shouted, "¡Viva Buenos Aires!" at which point the soldiers began to fire on him. Paz saved himself by jumping into the Paraná River and swimming to the Buenos Aires ships, thus returning to the city of his birth.

In Buenos Aires Paz enlisted in the Buenos Aires forces commanded by Bartolomé Mitre and in 1860 he distinguished himself at his young age at the Battle of Pavón. At the end of the war he decided to enter politics, and worked for the party of Adolfo Alsina and began studies in law. In 1865, during the War of the Triple Alliance, he founded the Society for the Protection of Invalids, a corps of nurses to treat the injured that arrived at the Port of Buenos Aires and move them to the Hospice for Invalids, also founded by Paz.