The Chaco Air War 1932-35

A compelling account of a neglected but intense air campaign of the interwar period.

Antonio Luis Sapienza Fracchia was born in Asunción, Paraguay on 14 May 1960. He graduated from the Catholic University of Asunción, where he got a BA in Clinical Psychology. He also took specialized English courses at the Tulane University of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and the San Diego State University in California, USA. He is, at present, an English teacher and one of the academic coordinators at the Centro Cultural Paraguayo-Americano (CCPA), which is a bi-national institute in Asunción. Married with two children, he resides in the capital and is an aviation historian, as well as a founding member of the Instituto Paraguayo de Historia Aeronáutica 'Silvio Pettirossi'. He is also a corresponding member of similar institutes and academies in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Spain, the United States and Uruguay. Antonio has written more than 500 articles for specialized magazines and webpages on Paraguayan aviation history and has given numerous lectures in schools, universities, institutes, military and civil institutions in Paraguay and abroad. Since 2010, he has been an aviation history professor in the Paraguayan Air Force (FAP). To date, he has had nine books published: Aircraft of the Chaco War, 1928-1935, with Daniel P. Hagedorn in the US (1996); Potez 25, with several aviation historians in France (1996); Pioneros de la Aviación Iberoamericana, with several aviation historians in Spain (1999); La Historia de Líneas Aéreas Paraguayas (LAP) in Paraguay (2004); La Contribución Italiana en la Aviación Paraguaya in Paraguay (2007); Silvio Pettirossi. El Rey del Aire in Paraguay (2011); El Pájaro Verde. Cien años del primer vuelo en Paraguay, with Luis Verón in Paraguay (2012); Fuerza Aérea Paraguaya, Historia Ilustrada, 1913-2013 in Paraguay (2013); and Agustín Pasmor. Un gran héroe aeronáutico del Paraguay in Paraguay (2016). Antonio has received a total of five decorations for his academic merits: The Orden al Mérito Newberiano, given by the Instituto Argentino de Historia Aeronáutica in 1995; The Cruz Newberiana Académica by the Instituto Nacional Newberiano of Argentina in 1998; The Orden al Mérito Santos Dumont by the Força Aérea Brasileira in 2003; The Medalla de la Aeronáutica by the Fuerza Aérea Paraguaya in 2003; and The Medal Dinac Honor al Mérito by the Dirección Nacional de Aeronáutica Civil in 2010.