Exequiel Bustillo (1893–1973) was an Argentine lawyer and politician. He was president of the Argentine National Park Service. As director of the National Park Service he enjoyed great autonomy and set out to develop the national parks according to his vision. Several activities contrary to his vision were targeted. He over sighted the eviction of settlers living of husbandry many of whom were Chileans. Under his leadership logging activity was suppressed. In the position he commissioned his brother

Alejandro Bustillo Alejandro Bustillo (18 March 1889 – 3 November 1982) was an Argentine painter and architect who left his mark in various tourist destinations in Argentina, especially in the Andean region of the Patagonia. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, son ...

among others to design build-up the city of

Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro Province, Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel ...

as a centre for tourism. In his development plans Bustillo was inspired in

Hubert Lyautey Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey (17 November 1854 – 27 July 1934) was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in ...

's administration of

French Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prote ...

. Especially through his autobiographical writing El despertar de Bariloche (first edition from 1968), which Bustillo had written on the basis of his private archive, and which is now in the Archivo General de la Nación, Exequiel Bustillo successfully made a name for himself as the actual creator of the national parks. Bustillo, who was deeply rooted in the aristocratic oligarchy of Buenos Aires, presented the earlier park initiatives of

Francisco Pascasio Moreno Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic in Argentina, where he is usually referred to as ''Perito'' Moreno (''perito'' means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as on ...

Carlos Thays Carlos Thays (August 20, 1849 – January 31, 1934)Biog ...

and

Bailey Willis Bailey Willis (March 31, 1857 in Idle Wild-on-Hudson, New York, United States – February 19, 1949 in Palo Alto, California) was a geological engineer who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and lectured at two prominent Amer ...

- while concealing the works of

Carl Curt Hosseus Carl Curt Hosseus (1878–1950) was a German botanist born in Stromberg im Thale, Rhineland. He gained his doctorate in 1903 from Leipzig University, and sailed Genoa in 1904 for Thailand where he found '' Viola hossei'', which was named for him. ...

and Lucíen Hauman. With regard to the Nahuel Huapi National Park, Bustillo - consciously or unconsciously - ignores the work already done on site in the National Park of the South, which had existed since 1922. Bustillo certainly referred to the outstanding qualities of his collaborator

Emilio Frey Emilio Enrique Frey (February 2, 1872 – May 29, 1964) was an Argentine geographer of Swiss descent. Life Frey was born in Baradero, Argentina, as the oldest of nine children. His father was a Swiss immigrant and farmer of the Swiss colony at ...

. But despite this eulogy on Frey, Bustillo conceals that Frey was not only an official of the Dirección de Tierras at that time, but in this function the official director of the National Park del Sud, established in 1922 and that in this capacity he had carried out various works to set up the park and improve its infrastructure. Recent works - regional historical works - have right-ly pointed out that the Bustillo myth of the park's foundation must be deconstructed and regionally-historically corrected.

References

1893 births 1973 deaths 20th-century Argentine lawyers Argentine politicians {{Argentina-law-bio-stub