As part of the bicentennial celebration of the official newspaper El Peruano, a photographic and documentary exhibition opened featuring newspaper articles and even legal documents that featured the renowned historian and diplomat Raúl Porras Barrenechea.
The exhibition is on display at the Raúl Porras Barrenechea Institute (IRPB) of the National University of San Marcos, in the Miraflores district of Lima, and will be open to the public until December 31.
Among the documents on display is the legal decree of August 11, 1948, awarding the Order of the Sun in the Grand Cross grade to Barnechea who was also Peru´s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Similarly, a two-page special published in El Peruano to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Porras Barrenechea's birth in 2017 is noteworthy.
Félix Paz, director of media at Editora Peru, stated that this joint project with the IRPB aims to honor Porras and highlight important moments in his life, as seen through the pages of the Official Gazette, as part of the various activities being held to celebrate the bicentennial of the official newspaper.
He also indicated that this is possible thanks to the digitization of half a million pages of El Peruano, covering the period between 1826 and 1965.
“We have searched through all these pages for significant moments in Porras's life and linked them to the history of El Peruano, such as his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs; historical episodes related to his life as a politician; and also other articles we have published in El Peruano, disseminating his ideas, such as feature articles,” he noted.
For his part, the executive director of the IRPB, Ambassador Luis Mendívil Canales, highlighted that the historian Porras Barrenechea, born in Pisco, Peru, conducted a valuable study entitled “Journalism in Peru,” published on July 28, 1921, which had a great impact on the readers of Revista Mundial, where this journalistic article was published.
Medívil also highlighted Porras Barrenechea's career as a historical chronicler throughout his fruitful life, noting his publications in widely circulated newspapers of his time.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Juan Alvarez Vita, a member of the IRPB Advisory Council, emphasized that El Peruano “is, for those who study history, a primary source” and mentioned that Porras Barrenechea himself dedicated many pages of his work to documenting the role played by El Peruano, the oldest newspaper in the Americas, which is being published till now.
(END) MCA / JCR / MDV
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Publicado: 31/10/2025