He served with distinction in the Triple Alliance War, and afterwards held a wide variety of positions in the Paraguayan governmental structure, including that of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[1] After studying in a provincial school during his youth, he moved to Asunción, where he was a pupil of foreign teachers such as the Spaniard Ildefonso Bermejo and the Frenchman Pedro Dupuy; he also joined the philosophy seminar, which was headed by then president Carlos Antonio López.

With the rising tensions between Brazil and Paraguay, he was summoned back in 1863; the Triple Alliance War broke out in the following year.

Initially, back in Paraguay, he served as secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translator, positions he held throughout the war; simultaneously, he directed a school where he taught geography and languages,[3] and wrote for the government military organ El Cabichuí.

[7] He commanded a battalion of riflemen in the Battle of Cerro Corá and was wounded there in the mouth, losing a considerable part of his teeth and tongue to a bullet.