JOSÉ LUIS TAMAYO: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2025

José Luis Tamayo (1858 - 1947) was an Ecuadorian politician, lawyer and journalist, whose highest position was the presidency of the country for four years, from 1920 to 1924. Tamayo has gone down in history as an upright president, who is said to have he left the government poorer than he entered.

He is also remembered for the violence with which various mobilizations of workers were repressed under his government. Many historians affirm that sectors related to the oligarchy and the banks manipulated the protesters and strikers, although it is also true that the economy at that time was in crisis and poverty was growing enormously.

Liberal politician, before becoming president he had stood out for supporting measures such as freedom of the press and for opposing the authoritarian decisions of Eloy Alfaro, whom he had previously helped to gain power. This opposition earned him a short foreign exile.

He also had time to participate as a soldier in the battle of Gatazo, precisely on the side of Alfaro. He tried to appoint him colonel, but Tamayo rejected the offer. Before, Tamayo had worked in various newspapers, always defending his liberal views and supporting his candidates.

Childhood and studies

The future Ecuadorian president was born on July 29, 1858 in Chanduy, in the former Province of Guayas (now Santa Elena).

Tamayo was orphaned very soon, when he was only one year old, so it was his grandmother, a teacher by profession, who took charge of his care and his first studies.

When he was 11 years old, his godfather, Monsignor Luis de Tola y Avilés, took him with him to Guayaquil to continue his education. High school was done at the San Vicente school. He was such a good student that at the age of 18 he began to work teaching Latin at the same center.

In 1878 he obtained a bachelor's degree, entered the Faculty of Jurisprudence and graduated as a lawyer.

Jobs as a journalist

Despite these studies, his first jobs were in the world of journalism, showing a great vocation and love for this profession. He began collaborating in the newspaper of notices and later in other media such as public opinion, the literary magazine and the comet.

In the latter he also began to clearly show his political tendencies, since from its pages he protested the execution of Vargas Torres. Because of these protests, he had his first confrontation with justice.

Already more involved in the Liberal Party, Tamayo published La reforma, a newspaper from which he submitted names for positions in the Senate and in Parliament.

Entry into politics

José Luis Tamayo was a totally convinced liberal, in addition to being characterized by his honesty. Despite adversity, he always tried to maintain his ideas of justice and honesty.

His first public office came in 1890, when he held a position as a trustee in the Cantonal Council of Guayaquil. Five years later he was one of the members appointed to investigate the "flag sale" scandal, which spilled over the government.

For his works and publications, he was about to be sent into exile, but finally the penalty came to nothing.

Liberal revolution

One of the fundamental moments in his public life took place when the liberal revolution broke out in 1895. Tamayo was appointed civil and military chief of Manabí.

Tamayo became so involved that he participated as a soldier in the battle of Gatazo on the side of Eloy Alfaro. He tried to thank him by appointing him colonel, but Tamayo refused the offer.

He did accept the Ministry of the Interior for Alfaro, but he did not last long in office. He was immediately disillusioned with the ruler's drift, especially because of the limitations he tried to establish on freedom of the press.

Thus, he returned to Guayaquil just to see how the "big fire" of 1896 destroyed all his property.

Confrontation with Alfaro and exile

Two years after the fire, Tamayo is elected deputy by Esmeraldas and president of the Senate. However, he did not want to accept the post of Minister of the Interior proposed by General Leónidas Plaza, preferring to stay in his land.

In 1902 he totally moved away from Alfaro's positions; so much so that, after returning to power, he retired from political activity.

In fact, during the second alfarista presidency his house was attacked and he decided to go into exile abroad. Only the intermediation of some acquaintances get him to return to the country from France, where he was.

Tamayo maintained neutrality in the events of 1911, when Alfaro lost power, and with the subsequent death of the new president, Emilio Estrada. This gave him a very good press among party members; so much so that in 1916 he was about to be named president of the nation.

Presidency

In 1920 Tamayo reached the presidency of the Republic. His first measures are aimed at trying to get all the parties to come together to deal with the growing economic crisis, but without success.

Economic crisis

There is an anecdote that historians tell to explain the character of the new president: in a meeting with businessmen who defended the high prices at which they sold rice and sugar, blaming transport costs for the increase, Tamayo told them: « But, gentlemen, do not earn so much.

However, his good intentions did not serve much purpose with an economy weighed down by falling cocoa prices and cocoa production. The currency was in free fall and poverty was increasing.

This caused the workers to join the protests that were being called. Not only were the workers' organizations leading them, but the banking oligarchy was also involved in attempts to destabilize the government.

Massacre of November 15, 1922

With this rarefied atmosphere, the general strike called for November 1922 was reached. Events were chaotic: the strikers took the city on the 13th of that month, causing great looting. The police response is bloody, with more than 1,500 dead.

Scholars point out that, apart from the legitimate claims of some workers who border on the most absolute poverty, part of the chaos generated is due on the one hand to the emergence of revolutionary and anarchist groups, and on the other hand, to the machinations of business sectors contrary to the government.

In any case, Tamayo reacts by legislating several work improvements, such as the reduction of the maximum working day, the creation of compensation for accidents and the regulation of the payment of overtime work.

Lights on your presidency

Although the November massacre marked his tenure in the negative, there were also numerous positive performances.

Tamayo laid the foundations for the modernization of Ecuador and his budget for 1924 was a great economic achievement despite the crisis.

Health and communication infrastructures greatly improved. For example, it sanitized Guayaquil and Quito, channeling their waters and making them reach more homes. Likewise, its streets were paved and a general hospital was built in the first of those cities.

In general, improvement works were developed throughout the country, including the establishment of radiocommunications and wireless services between various locations. Banks and the media multiplied, making society more plural.

Finally, he asked German experts for help to try to improve the education system, very precarious until then.

Retirement and last years

A personal misfortune, the death of his wife from cancer, marked the last days of his mandate. That and the memory of the massacre of November 15, made Tamayo not want to return to politics after leaving office in 1924.

He resigned his pension from Congress with the phrase: "I live very honorable with my poverty."

The only thing he accepted in the following years was to preside, without pay, the Cantonal Council of Guayaquil. In 1942 he was named "Best Citizen" of that city. A stroke was the cause of his death, on July 7, 1947.

References

1. Tamayo and its origin. José Luis Tamayo Teran. Obtained from tamayo.info
2. Aviles Pino, Efrén. Tamayo Dr. José Luis. Obtained from encyclopediadelecuador.com
3. Saa B., J. Lorenzo. José Luis Tamayo. Obtained from trenandino.com
4. Morejón, Katherine. Workers' massacre of 1922 was hidden by the media in Guayaquil. Obtained from elciudadano.gob.ec
5. Higgins, Liam. Workers' rights protests that led to 'Guayaquil Massacre' of 1,500 began 95 years ago. Obtained from cuencahighlife.com
6. Naranjo Navas, Cristian. Central Bank of Ecuador, 1927: among Dictatorship, Revolution and Crisis. Retrieved from revistes.ub.edu
7. Andes Info. World War I and the Ecuadorian cocoa crisis. Obtained from andes.info.ec

8. Ecuador.com. Eloy Alfaro, the Greatest Ecuadorian. Obtained from ecuador.com