The Chaco Air War 1932-35

Antonio Luis Sapienza Fracchia was born in Asuncion, Paraguay on 14 May 1960. He graduated from the Catholic University of Asuncion, 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 Asuncion. 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 Aeronautica '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 Aviacion Iberoamericana, with several aviation historians in Spain (1999); La Historia de Lineas Aereas Paraguayas (LAP) in Paraguay (2004); La Contribucion Italiana en la Aviacion Paraguaya in Paraguay (2007); Silvio Pettirossi. El Rey del Aire in Paraguay (2011); El Pajaro Verde. Cien anos del primer vuelo en Paraguay, with Luis Veron in Paraguay (2012); Fuerza Aerea Paraguaya, Historia Ilustrada, 1913-2013 in Paraguay (2013); and Agustin Pasmor. Un gran heroe aeronautico del Paraguay in Paraguay (2016). Antonio has received a total of five decorations for his academic merits: The Orden al Merito Newberiano, given by the Instituto Argentino de Historia Aeronautica in 1995; The Cruz Newberiana Academica by the Instituto Nacional Newberiano of Argentina in 1998; The Orden al Merito Santos Dumont by the Forca Aerea Brasileira in 2003; The Medalla de la Aeronautica by the Fuerza Aerea Paraguaya in 2003; and The Medal Dinac Honor al Merito by the Direccion Nacional de Aeronautica Civil in 2010.