He belonged to a family of wealthy landowners, allowing him to travel abroad in his youth and study at the then prestigious University of San Francisco Xavier.

[2][3] He began his political career in 1857, when he officially joined the linarista movement of the civilian caudillo José María Linares.

[1] Despite his leading role in the overthrow of Linares, Terrazas was prohibited from returning to the public sphere, although he was able to become Chancellor at the Higher University of San Simón.

Achá was particularly unpopular among the scholarly elite, a fact which was reflected when most of the country's foremost educators, including Terrazas, rose in rebellion against the President in 1864.

[5][6][7] On January 27, 1873, Frías appointed Terrazas as Minister of Government and Foreign Affairs, a position he held until May 9, 1873, when Adolfo Ballivián was elected president.

[8] Terrazas continued his political and diplomatic career, serving as the Bolivian ambassador to Peru during the War of the Pacific, where he engaged in talks with the Peruvians about a possible federal union between the two Andean states.