Alberto Masferrer

Who was Alberto Masferrer?

Vicente Alberto Masferrer Mónico, known as Alberto Masferrer, was a Salvadoran essayist, fiction writer, and journalist, best known for the development of the philosophy of vitalismo. He was born in Alegría, Usulután on 24 July 1868. He did not receive a formal education, instead claiming to have been educated by "the university of life," but he did travel widely, having lived in several Central American countries, as well as in Chile, New York, and several European nations. During his public career, he served as an ambassador of El Salvador in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Belgium, and served as a professor in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Chile, and Argentina. Having served in the government of Arturo Araujo, he was sent into exile in Honduras by the dictatorship of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez following the uprising of 1932 known as the Matanza, dying that same year on 8 September in the city of Tegucigalpa. He was well respected during his life, having earned the praise of such major Salvadoran figures as Arturo Ambrogi, Miguel Ángel Espino, Claudia Lars, and Salarrué.