Carlos Páez Rodríguez


Carlos "Carlitos" Miguel Páez Rodríguez known as “the man of the iron spirit” is one of the 16 survivors who spent 72 days in the Andes following a plane crash, during which time he resorted to cannibalism in order to stay alive. He was 18 years old at the time of the crash and turned 19 while waiting to be rescued.

Biography

He is the son of Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró. The crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 occurred on October 13, 1972. He was portrayed by Bruce Ramsay and John Malkovich in the 1993 feature film Alive. He was a rugby player for the Old Christians Club.
He became an agricultural technician graduated from Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay, developing this activity for 10 years. In 1992 he started his career in advertising as a member of Nivel-Publicis creative team. He founded his own agency, Rating Publicidad and was director of Bates Uruguay Publicidad. Present day, apart from his activities as a lecturer, he manages his company of Communication Consultancy and Public Relations. He has two children, Maria Elena de los Andes “Gochi” and Carlos Diego; and three granddaughters, Mía, Justina and Violeta. In 2003, Páez published the book After the tenth day which became a great success and has gone through 14 printings.