Aurelio Pérez Giralda was born in 1946 in Tenerife, Canary Islands. He defines himself as an amateur historian and violinist, a professional diplomat and vocational jurist. He studied music and law at the university of his native town, La Laguna, and in Santiago de Compostela, and completed his doctorate in Roman Law in Bologna (Italy). After joining Spain’s Foreign Service in 1972 he served in several embassies and consulates including Prague, Washington D.C., Zurich, Munich and Istanbul. He was Ambassdor of Spain to the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and to the U.N. in Vienna. During his years of service in Madrid, Pérez Giralda worked in political and juridical posts; he was appointed chief legal adviser of the Foreign Ministry and wrote extensively about his experiences as a professional diplomat and international lawyer. These writings were published in a book he titled “Legal Prudence and External Power” (Madrid, 2010). More on his life and times, as well as on his love for Spanish history and the arts, can be read in and between the lines of his “microessays” written under the pseudonym of E. Volterra.
Aurelio Pérez Giralda
