Federico Hernández de León
Federico Hernández de León (March 4, 1883 – 1959) was a Guatemalan writer, historian and journalist. He graduated from the Instituto Nacional Central para Varones of Guatemala, with a high school diploma in 1900. Active politically, was arrested during the last few years of the government of president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, being held in the Central Penitentiary of Guatemala until the president was deposed on April 14, 1920. After his release, he went straight to take over the "Diario de Centro América" semi-official newspaper of Guatemala at the time. Later, he directed "Nuestro Diario" along with  Carlos Bauer Aviles. Biography. During his more than six years of imprisonment in the Central Penitentiary, Hernández de León suffered many indignities that left him on the brink of death; but his friend, the labor leader Silverio Ortiz advocated for him to the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, showing Hernández de León's bloody clothes After the fall of Estrada Cabrera in 1920, he was released and returned to journalism; he was in the legislature and in the National Congress in the 1920s and 1930s. On December 12, 1930 there was a lot of turmoil in the Guatemalan government  after general Lázaro Chacón suffered a stroke that forced him to resign from office. Hernández de León was a first hand witness as he was in Congress and he was also de Director of newspaper "Nuestro Diario". In December 1930 the following events occurred in a rapid succession: Legacy. When he was the Director of "Nuestro Diario" he hired a very young Clemente Marroquín Rojas as a columnist. Eventually Marroquín Rojas even took charge of the newspaper and wrote Hernández's column "Efemérides" while Hernández was out on commission.