Agustín Pío Barrios (1885 to 1944) was born in southern Paraguay in the rural town of San Juan Bautista de las Misiones on May 5, 1885 into a large family of seven boys where music, literature and drama were held in high esteem. Though he completed only two years of high school, Barrios was one of those naturally gifted beings who could draw, play music and write poetry with uncommon ability. He was fortunate in that he studied guitar with a formally schooled Paraguayan guitarist who had lived in Buenos Aires, Gustavo Sosa Escalada (1877 to 1943), who taught young Barrios the Sor and Aguado guitar methods.

When he was twenty-five years old, Barrios left his native Paraguay and journeyed to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 1910 to 1930 he lived in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, earning his living as a concert guitarist. He never returned to his native Paraguay except for a few extended visits during the mid 1920s. He was constantly on the move and eventually visited eighteen Latin American countries. For this reason, he is considered a true pioneer of the concert guitar in Iberoamerica and certainly the first genuinely Pan-American concert artist. From 1930 till 1934 he changed his name and manner of presentation, becoming “Chief Nitsuga Mangoré, the Paganini of the Guitar from the jungles of Paraguay.” During the last years of his life he reconciled this stage identity with his given name, calling himself Agustín Barrios Mangoré.

– The Complete Works of Agustín Barrios Mangoré, vol. 1, ed. Richard Stover