Resumen

FOGHIN-PILLIN, Sergio. A country under paludism threat: Following Virgilio Tosta steps. Tiempo y Espacio [online]. 2010, vol.20, n.54, pp.77-96. ISSN 1315-9496.

This paper discusses the book El paludismo jugaba garrote en El Baúl, written and published in 2004 by Professor Virgilio Tosta Izquiel, born November 27, 1922 in Guadarrama, Barinas State and died in Caracas on 5 September 2009. Virgilio Tosta, doctor of Political Science, was a researcher in the fields of Sociology and History; author of numerous books and Venezuelan newspapers columnist. In 1963, he was elected Member of the National Academy of History. For more than five decades he was teaching in the Department of Geography and History of the Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas. Along the 231 pages of his book, Tosta describes the environment and customs of the first 16 years of his life, in the towns of Guadarrama (Barinas State) and El Baúl (Portuguesa State). In his work, kind of autobiography, full of anecdotes and humor, Tosta brings valuable historical, social and economic data about life in the Llanos of Barinas and Portuguesa states, during the second and third decades of the 20th century.

Palabras clave : El Baúl; Guadarrama; Local History; Venezuela; Virgilio Tosta.