Montalvo, Juan (writer)

Born in the family of a small trader and landowner. He studied law at the law faculty of the University of Quito (1846-1854).

He was a political observer with liberal views. Thanks to the ties of two older brothers in the highest echelons of power, Juan Montalvo received a post in diplomatic missions and lived in Rome and Paris . Upon returning to their homeland, conservatives came to power, and he lost the opportunities he had.

After the reactionary coup of 1869, he ideologically led the liberal opposition , as a result of open opposition to the dictatorship of Garcia Moreno was forced to emigrate ( Colombia , Peru , France ). He returned to his homeland in the spring of 1876. In the 1880s he moved to Europe.

He died on January 17, 1889 in Paris from tuberculosis . The mummified body of H. Montalvo now rests in a mausoleum in his homeland Ambato .

He entered the history of Ecuadorian literature as the creator of tyrannical political prose and a brilliant stylist .

Juan Montalvo published his works in anti-government leaflet newspapers, which he himself published: Cosmopolitan ( El Cosmopolita , 1866-1869) and others, scourging them for despotism and corruption , the dictatorship of the military, the crimes of the church and the ruling classes.

In 1866, he published the first of a series (called "Cosmopolitan" - Spanish "El Cosmopolita") of critical pamphlets against conservative leader Gabriel Garcia Moreno , who enjoyed considerable support from the Church. Upon Moreno's return to power in 1869, H. Montalvo was forced to leave the country. There he published anti-government works and leaflets for several years.

Upon learning of Moreno’s nomination for the next presidential term, the writer wrote the pamphlet “The Eternal Dictatorship” (Spanish: “La dictadura perpetua”), published in Panama in 1874. His supporters managed to deliver the work to Ecuador, where one of the former Colombian soldiers read it - mercenaries, who, having both his own motives and personal hostility towards Gabriel Garcia Moreno, on August 6, 1875, hacked the president to a machete . The phrase that Juan Montalvo allegedly said when he learned about the death of the dictator became known: "This pen killed him . "

A significant role in the development of social thought in Latin America was played by his essays "Seven Tractates" ("Siete Tratados", 1882), "Moral Geometry" ("Geometría Moral", ed. 1902), marked by a combination of combative journalism and romantic individualism.

The author of the witty sequel to “ Don Quixote ” of Cervantes is “The Chapters Forgotten by Cervantes” (Spanish: “Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes”), the drama “The Leper”, “Hara”, “Dictator” (published in 1935).

One of the first in Ecuador came out in defense of the Indians .

In 2005, in the Ecuadorian version of the 100 Greats program, it was recognized as the 3rd outstanding after political leader Eloy Alfaro and athlete Jefferson Perez .

• Las catilinarias (1880)
• Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes (1868)
• Libro de las pasiones (ed. 1935)
• Siete Tratados (1882)
• Geometría Moral (ed. 1902)
• Judas (1872)

• La Razón (1848)
• El Veterano (1849)
• La Moral evangélica (1854)
• El Espectador (1855)
• El Cosmopolita (1865)
• El Regenerador (1872).

• In 2000, a coin in denomination of 5 centavos was put into circulation in the Republic of Ecuador. ^[five]

• Lascano, Mario: Juan Montalvo y su época (Spanish)