The story of the life of Carlos Chagas is closely associated with the discovery of American Human Trypanosomiasis, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Indeed, he worked on this for almost all of his life. Nowadays he is considered as a national hero, but, when he was alive, he was criticised more severely in his own country than elsewhere, often unjustly and motivated by jealousy, but sometimes with good reason. Cases of Chagas disease in non-endemic countries became such a concern that public health measures have had to be taken. In this article we give a short account of the scientific journey of this man, who can be said to occupy his very own place in the history of Tropical Medicine.