Tomás Carrasquilla

Tomás Carrasquilla Naranjo (1858 – 1940) was a Colombian writer who lived in the Antioquia region. He dedicated himself to very simple jobs: tailor, secretary of a judge, storekeeper in a mine, and worker at the Ministry of Public Works. He was an avid reader, and one of the most original Colombian literary writers, greatly influencing the younger generation of his time and later generations. Carrasquilla was little known in his time, according to Federico de Onís, a scholar of Carrasquilla's works. It was only after 1936, when he was already 78 years old, when he was awarded with the National Prize of Literature, that Carrasquilla got a national recognition. Tomás Carrasquilla Library Park is named in his honor.

17 January 1858

Born on the same birth day (17 January): Alexander Taneyev • Antonio Maria Valsalva • Calvin Harris • Clyde Walcott • David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty • Donald Cammell • François-Joseph Gossec • Gaspard Bauhin • Genndy Tartakovsky • Joshua Malina • Leonhart Fuchs • Marie Zdeňka Baborová-Čiháková • May Gibbs • Peter Frelinghuysen Jr. • René Préval • Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet • Trevor Bauer • Vidal Sassoon • William Backhouse

Born in the same month (January 1858): Beatrice Webb • Constance Naden • Edgeworth David • Giovanni Segantini • Harry Gordon Selfridge • Heinrich Rauchinger • Heinrich Zille • Henry Ward Ranger • Kokichi Mikimoto • Neel Doff • Oskar Minkowski