José Ignacio García Hamilton

José Ignacio García Hamilton (b. 1 November 1943, San Miguel de Tucumán) is an Argentine writer, noted historian, lawyer and politician. He was elected to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies for the Radical Civic Union representing Tucumán Province.

García Hamilton studied at the National University of Tucumán, graduating in 1969. He received his PhD in Legal and Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires where he later was a Professor of history and law. He worked as a columnist and Secretary General of "La Gaceta" newspaper in Tucumán - which was owned by his family and edited by his father ["ETC Magazine" Yr 1, No. 9: [http://www.etcmagazine.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=36'José Ignacio García Hamilton'] , 6 August 2004.] - and was the founder of the "El Pueblo" newspaper in 1972 and director of the Association of Provincial Newspapers. In the mid-1970s, in the final months of the Presidency of Isabel Martínez de Perón, he was imprisoned by the government."Clarín": [http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/02/21/sociedad/s-03701.htm Cuba deportó al historiador José Ignacio García Hamilton] , 21 February 2006.] He is a columnist for newspapers and magazines in Argentina, Uruguay and the United States. [http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/awards/mendes/sm/jose-ignacio-garcia-hamilton.1037.htm Profile] by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Accessed 1 May 2008.]

García Hamilton is the author of numerous books, including "Hispano-American authoritarianism and unproductiveness" (1990), and biographies of Juan Bautista Alberdi, "Life of an absentee" (1993); Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, "Rowdy Cuyano" (1997), and José de San Martín, "Don José" (2000). "Don José" sold over 60,000 copies in Argentina. He won the Merit Diploma from the Konex Foundation for "Life of an Absentee". [ [http://www.garciahamilton.com.ar/ Official website] . Accessed 1 May 2008.] He has presented several television programmes on Argentine history.

In 2006, he was deported from Cuba without explanation. García Hamilton suggested that his ongoing interest in the subject of authoritarianism in Latin American politics might have been responsible.

In 1991 García Hamilton ran as a candidate for vice-governor of Tucumán Province. In 2007 he was elected a national deputy for the province in support of the presidential bid of Roberto Lavagna. ["El Siglo": [http://www.elsigloweb.com/portal_ediciones/230/portal_notas/9511-garca-hamilton-encabeza-la-nueva-oposicin-poltica García Hamilton encabeza la nueva oposición política] , 29 October 2007.] He later spoke out against Lavagna's return to the Kirchnerist fold. ["La Gaceta": [http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/nota/256959/Politica/Garcia_Hamilton_afirmo_Lavagna_cometio_un_grave_error_politico.html García Hamilton afirmó que Lavagna cometió "un grave error político"] , 9 February 2008.]

He is vice-president of the interfaith NGO Casa Argentina en Jerusalem. He is married and has six children.

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