He died of disease while serving in the Paraguayan War, which he covered extensively.
[1] During the 1850s, he became a member of the "Aurora" movement (often described as a group or school), a collection of young Paraguayan philosophers and authors.
While serving in the army, he wrote reports of the war that came to be read by both sides of the conflict.
[2] However, while encamped with the army near Humaitá, Talavera contracted cholera and his health went into decline.
[2] Talavera's work is considered part of the Latin American romanticist movement, and he is noted in some sources as the main poet of Paraguayan Romanticism.