Santiago Pérez Triana (1858-1916): Columbian Man of Letters and Crusader for Hemispheric Unity

The son of radical Colombian president Santiago Pérez Manosalbas, Pérez Triana was forced into exile after a scandal involving his business ventures, fleeing over the Andes and down three rivers to the Atlantic and a new life in the United States, London, and Madrid. His marriage to the daughter of a millionaire associate of John D. Rockefeller freed him from financial worries and permitted him to focus on journalistic endeavors, including the founding of the influential journal Hispania. Pérez Triana seized on the movement for hemispheric unity with his support for the anti-interventionist Drago Doctrine at the 1907 Hague Convention and his spellbinding orations at the Pan-American Financial Conference in 1915. Before his death, he became a forceful advocate for the Allied cause in the First World War, cementing his status as one of Latin America’s most powerful voices on the world stage. Jane Rausch, University of Massachusetts is author of numerous books including Colombia and World War I: The Experience of a Neutral Latin American Nation during the Great War and Its Aftermath, 1914-1921 , Territorial Rule in Columbia and the Transformation of the Llanos Orientales From Frontier Town to Metropolis: A History of Villavicencio, Colombia, since 1842 ,Colombia: Territorial Rule and the Llanos Frontier The Llanos Frontier in Colombian History, 1830-1930 andCo-Editor, People and Issues in Latin American History Co-Editor, Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History (Scholarly Resources, 1994)