The story of a shipwrecked sailor : who drifted on a life raft for ten days without food or water, was proclaimed a national hero, kissed by beauty queens, made rich through publicity, and then spurned by the government and forgotten for all time
(Book)

Translation of: Relato de un náufrago.

Originally published as a fourteen consecutive day series of installments in El Espectador newspaper in 1955 and then as a book in 1970, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor relates the story of Luis Alejandro Velasco, a shipwrecked sailor who nearly died on account of negligence by the Colombian Navy. Several of his colleagues drowned shortly before arriving at the port of Cartagena de Indias due to the existence of overweight contraband aboard the vessel. The series resulted in public controversy, as it discredited the official account of the events, which had blamed the storm for the shipwreck and glorified the surviving sailor.