Raúl Porras Barrenechea


Raúl Porras Barrenechea was a Peruvian diplomat, historian and politician. He was born in Pisco, Peru on March 23, 1897 and died in Lima, Peru on September 27, 1960. He was a teacher at the Anglo-Peruvian School. As a student during the 1950s Mario Vargas Llosa worked with Porras for four and a half years and learned a great deal from him. Porras ran unsuccessfully for the rectorate of his alma mater, the National University of San Marcos, losing to Aurelio Miro Quesada. Later he was elected senator representing Lima, and was selected first vice president of the Senate. In that capacity, he became the President of the Senate when José Gálvez Barrenechea died in February 1957. After that, during his second presidency of Peru, Manuel Prado Ugarteche appointed Porras foreign minister. Luis Alberto Sanchez wrote the prologue to Porras's posthumous book on Pizarro which was assembled by a number of Porras's followers. Since 1991, when the nuevo sol became the official currency of Peru, his portrait is on the S/. 20 banknote.

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