ANTONIO FLORES JIJÓN: BIOGRAPHY, PRESIDENCY AND WORKS - HISTORY - 2024

Antonio Flores Jijón (1833–1915) was a Quito politician and lawyer, a member of the Progressive Party. He was the 13th president of Ecuador, he shared the ideas of Catholic Liberalism. He was the son of General Juan José Flores, who also served as the first Ecuadorian president.

He graduated as a Doctor of Jurisprudence and, in addition to the exercise of his profession, he dedicated himself to collaborating in the media of the time with opinion articles and analysis.

Unknown author, via Wikimedia Commons

During the government of García Moreno, Antonio Flores Jijón served as Minister Plenipotentiary and since then he has dedicated himself to a diplomatic career.

He opposed the dictatorship of General Ignacio de Veintemilla and played a decisive role in its overthrow. With the beginning of progressivism, Flores Jijón returned to diplomacy, then he was selected by congress for the position of president in 1888.

The government of Antonio Flores Jijón was conciliatory, respected the freedom of the press, tried to improve communications by telegraph, the infrastructure of the nation, as well as education and the dissemination of books.

Relations between Venezuela and Ecuador improved after the exchange of diplomats. Also, during the Flores Jijón government, the nation's mineral wealth was discovered, being of great importance the gold abundance in the Santiago River.

In 1890, during the mandate of Flores Jijón, the Herrera-García Treaty was signed, in which Ecuador and Peru delimited their borders.

Biography

Early years

Antonio Flores Jijón was born on October 23, 1833 in Quito, Ecuador. His father, General Juan José Flores y Aramburú, held the presidency of Ecuador at that time, that is why Antonio came to the world in the Government Palace.

He was one of the 12 children of the first Constitutional President of the Republic of Ecuador and of Mrs. Mercedes Jijón Vivanco y Chiriboga, who came from an important family of the Quito aristocracy.

It is said that Flores Jijón's mother, Mercedes, was fundamental to her husband, General Flores, to whom she provided advice in social situations and whose unconditional support in any circumstance served as support.

Antonio Flores Jijón studied at the presidential residence during the first years of his life. About his beginnings in formal education, two sources differ, as some state that he was enrolled in the Simón Rodríguez School, Ayo del Libertador, and others that he attended the Vicente León School, both institutions in Latacunga.

At age 11 he was sent to Paris, France. There he stayed for a time and attended the Colegio Enrique IV also known as the Liceo de Napoleón. Antonio Flores Jijón was in Europe during the Marcista revolution that overthrew his father's government in 1845.

Youth

In 1851, Antonio Flores Jijón was in Ecuador and received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Quito.

His literary forays began in Santiago de Chile in 1854, when he published Cándida Rosa, a 15-page novel, and his participation in the Chilean newspaper El Ferrocarril de Santiago.

The following year, Antonio Flores Jijón was a student at the Faculty of Law at the University of San Marcos and lived in Lima, Peru. In that house of studies the Ecuadorian obtained his title as Doctor of Jurisprudence.

Also at this time he began his collaborations with La Prensa, where he published his famous "Analysis of the Peruvian Constitution." In 1858 El Talión appeared in El Mercurio, this was a work well received by critics. Likewise, during those years he made translations.

In 1859 his signature appeared in the Lima Magazine accompanying several of his poems published by this Peruvian medium. During these years, Antonio Flores Jijón got a position as a professor of History and Political Science at the San Carlos School in Lima.

Because of his work as a professor, Flores Jijón felt the need to write a text entitled Ancient History. It is said that this text was praised by Andrés Bello, who recommended it as one of the books that should be used at the University of Chile.

Public life

In 1860, when Antonio Flores Jijón was 27 years old, he took up arms and participated in the Taking of Guayaquil, an expedition that was commanded by his father along with General García Moreno.

After obtaining the victory in that campaign and placing García Moreno as president of Ecuador, Flores Jijón was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary in the court of Napoleon III of France. This was how his diplomatic career began, to which missions in England and the United States were soon added.

He stood out in all the assignments that were made to him and for this reason he became one of the most important men for the government.

Although he was kept in his diplomatic positions, the Ministry of Finance was also offered to Flores Jijón in 1863, a position he did not accept due to the differences between García Moreno and his father.

In 1863 he entered the Ecuadorian Academy of the Language and a year later he was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to Bogotá, Colombia, after the wars between the two nations.

Politics

Antonio Flores Jijón served as Minister of Finance in 1865, then he left for Rome on a diplomatic mission. Between 1867 and 1871 he was dedicated to his post as a Congressman and to the literary work he did in his spare time.

In 1873, while Flores Jijón was on a diplomatic mission in the United States, entrusted by García Moreno, he married Leonor Ruiz de Apodaca in Washington.

The girl came from an aristocratic Cuban family. She died three years after their wedding and left two girls in the care of her husband.

When Ignacio de Veintemilla decided to declare himself as dictator, Antonio Flores Jijón was one of those who opposed his claims. He returned from the United States and joined the restorative army. With the government of José María Placido Caamaño, Flores Jijón returned to his post as diplomatic envoy.

Flores Jijón's candidacy for the presidency of the Republic of Ecuador was promoted by Caamaño, leader of the progressives, while the former was in Europe on one of his missions.

government

Antonio Flores Jijón took office as president on August 17, 1888. At first he was reluctant to return from Europe and take office.

Once in Ecuador, he submitted his resignation to Congress a month after his arrival, as he considered that the country had extremely complicated conflicts.

However, Flores Jijón's resignation did not proceed and it was then that he posed for himself the opportunity to create a government of inclusion and tolerance. He did so until the end of his term in 1892. One of the peaceful times in Ecuador's hectic political life.

Last years

At the end of his presidential term, Antonio Flores Jijón was appointed by his successor, Luis Cordero, as Minister Plenipotentiary in England, France and the United States of America. He held this position until General Eloy Alfaro seized power in 1895 thanks to the Liberal Revolution.

It was then that Flores Jijón decided to go permanently to Europe and settled in France with his two daughters. He established his residence in Nice, although he spent the summer in Lausanne and in the spring he moved to Versailles.

Death

Antonio Flores Jijón died on August 30, 1915 at the age of 82 in Geneva, while he was staying at the Beau Séjour hotel.

The archives of Juan José Flores y Aramburú and his son Antonio Flores Jijón were sent to Ecuador in 1971.

Presidency

His government was dominated by a conciliatory will. It began with the release of political prisoners and amnesties for exiles. Antonio Flores Jijón gave priority in his mandate to fundamental freedoms.

He was the founder of the Progressive Party in 1888, in this he had the hope of uniting the interests of mountain people and coastal people.

It invested in improving telegraphic communications and public roads and infrastructure. During his tenure, important highways and roads were created to facilitate transit throughout the Ecuadorian territory.

Also, during the Flores Jijón government, investigations were carried out on the mineral wealth of Ecuador and the Herrera García Treaty was signed with Peru.

Attention was also paid to the educational needs of the nation and the publication of books on various subjects was promoted.

Literary works

- Cándida Rosa, novel (1854).

- The Mormons, booklet (1854).

- El Talión, novel (1858).

- The Banking Law (1867).

- The Kingdom of Quito, according to the relations of the viceroys of the New Kingdom of Granada (1870).

- "On the death of my wife", brochure In memory of Mrs. Leonor Ruiz de Flores, poetry (1877).

- Naturalization in the United States (1881).

- The Great Marshal of Ayacucho (1883).

- Isidorito, an angel in heaven and the last one on earth of an illustrious offspring (1883).

- Append au projet de loi (1888).

- Finance Issues (1889).

- Tithes and censuses in politics, income and history (1889).

- The conversion of the Anglo-Ecuadorian debt (1890).

- Credit and Public Law (1890).

- For the history of Ecuador (1891).

- "Documented rebuttal of the charges made to the Government", in the pamphlet Oksza's contract before the Council of State (1892).

References

1. Pérez Pimentel, R. (2018). ANTONIO FLORES JIJON. Biographical Dictionary of Ecuador. Available atdictionarybiograficoecuador.com.
2. Avilés Pino, E. (2018). Flores Jijón Dr. Antonio - Historical Characters - Encyclopedia Del Ecuador. Encyclopedia Of Ecuador. Available at encyclopediadelecuador.com.
3. Torres Caicedo, J. (1868). Biographical and literary criticism essays on the main Hispanic-American poets and writers. Paris, pp. 209-227.
4. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Antonio Flores Jijón. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
5. Garcia-Pelayo and Gross, R. (1983). Little Larousse illustrated. Paris: Larousse, pp. 1299.