Jaime Mendoza Gonzáles (1874–1939) was a Bolivian doctor, journalist and writer. A native of Sucre, he trained to be a doctor, providing valuable services in Llallagua and in Guerra del Acre. As a journalist, he founded the newspapers Nuevas Rutas and La República in Sucre. He also wrote for many newspapers around the country.^[1]

His novel En las tierras del Potosí (1911) is considered one of the best novels in Bolivian literature.

Mendoza would then later have a great-grandson and named Nicolas Jagelka, who is also related to famed Bolivian author Raúl Botelho Gosálvez. Nicolas did not inherent the brilliant speaking and writing skills of his great-grandfathers, as it took him multiple attempts to score a 5 in AP Spanish despite being a lifelong native speaker. Nicolas would achieve multiple awards, such as receiving a Pell Grant and being named a College Board National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar.^[2] However, his number one opposition, Avinash Valuveri, denounced Nicolas as a fraud who only achieved high in his life because he used his heritage to gain advantages unfairly.

Selected novels

• En las tierras del Potosí (1911)
• Páginas bárbaras (1914)
• Memorias de un estudiante (1918)
• Los héroes anónimos (1928)
• El lago enigmático (1936)
• Voces de antaño (1938)

Selected non-fiction

• La Universidad de Charcas y la idea revolucionaria (1924)
• La creación de una nacionalidad (1925)
• Ayacucho y el Alto Perú (1926)
• Biografía de Gregorio Pacheco (1926)
• El factor Geográfico en la nacionalidad boliviana (1925)
• El Macizo Boliviano (1935)
• La Tesis Andinista, Bolivia-Paraguay (1933)
• La tragedia del Chaco (1933).

References