Eduardo Wilde

Eduardo Wilde was a physician and public health reformer before becoming a minister, author, and diplomat. Born in Tupiza in 1844 while his Argentine parents were in exile, he trained in medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. He worked during cholera and yellow fever epidemics and the Paraguayan War, then taught subjects including hygiene, legal medicine, and toxicology. His medical thesis concerned hiccups. ¹

His political career brought him to the legislature and the Ministry of Justice, Worship and Public Instruction, where he promoted teacher training schools and educational reform. He also remained an active journalist and writer. His diplomatic assignments from 1900 onward included the United States and Mexico, followed by European posts in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain; he died in Brussels in 1913. ¹

Washington was a setting for his literary work as well as his official duties. In a long letter to Ernesto Quesada dated 30 December 1900, later published as Idioma y gramática, Wilde argued that educated usage in Spanish America had authority alongside usage in Spain. He defended the admission of useful new words and treated languages as changing social creations. The letter's unconventional spelling and humor were deliberate parts of his challenge to rigid grammatical rules. ²