LUIS CORDERO CRESPO: BIOGRAPHY, PRESIDENCY AND WORKS - BIOLOGY - 2025

Luis Cordero Crespo (1833-1912) was an Ecuadorian lawyer, politician, poet, diplomat, industrialist and botanist, who reached the presidency of his country twice at the end of the 19th century.

He was born and raised in a rural environment with many economic deficiencies, in the town of Surampalti, Cañar province, in Ecuador. He received his primary education at home, under the care of his own father, until he managed to enter the Colegio Seminario de Cuenca, when he was 14 years old. He graduated from law school and began a very prolific political and literary career.

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He became president twice, the last through popular election. He dedicated a large part of his life to poetry and teaching. He was married and widowed twice, and had fourteen children.

He was also a lover of nature and a careful observer of the flora of his country. Likewise, he managed to develop an important import company, which provided him with a very comfortable life in his maturity.

He died at the age of 78 while being Rector of the University of Cuenca.

Biography

Luis Cordero Crespo was born on April 6, 1833, in a rural town in the Cañal province, Ecuador.

Being the oldest of 14 siblings, he grew up in a very poor environment but with great family values. He learned the Quechua language since childhood.

His formal education began with his admission to the Colegio Seminario de Cuenca. He was under the tutelage of several eminent teachers of the time, who saw his dedication to study and his remarkable intelligence.

He worked at the same Seminary College as a professor of philosophy, mathematics and Latin. He continued his studies at the Central University of Quito, where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Law in 1862.

Family life

During that period, he became a father twice. A girl from Juana Paredes and a boy from Nila Lloré.

After finishing his degree, he returned to Cuenca, where he married on July 15, 1867, with Jesús Dávila and Heredia, just 14 years old, and with whom he had ten children. His wife died of natural causes in 1891.

His public life

In 1858 he was appointed General Police Commissioner in the Province of Azuay.

In 1863 he founded the "Society of Hope", becoming the first literary center in Cuenca. In 1865 he was appointed president of the illustrious Cantonal Council of Cuenca. During that time he wrote articles for various newspapers: “La Situación”, “El Constitucional” and “Porvenir”.

He was elected deputy in 1867, holding that position for several years.

In 1869 he traveled to Peru, where he lived in exile until the end of the García Moreno government period. He returned to Cuenca and was appointed Political Chief between 1875 and 1876. He founded the Cuenca National Park, for which he donated all his income as a public official for those two years.

Around 1880, he organized the National Exposition of Guayaquil, with an important collection of cereals, minerals and plants, collected in previous years in several of his explorations.

After participating in the plot to overthrow the dictator Veintimilla in 1882, he was appointed the following year as a member of the Provisional Government Board.

Presidency

In 1883, he was appointed President for the first time, on February 14, a position he held until July 8 of that same year (5 months)

He continued to alternate his political and teaching career, occupying positions as Councilor of Cuenca and being appointed member of the Academy of the Language in Ecuador.

In 1892, he won the presidential elections, beginning his term of government on July 1, 1892.

Achievements of his government

During his government he was awarded several important achievements:

• He founded many schools and colleges for poor children.
• He strengthened education at all levels, from primary to university, in different provinces.
• He was in charge of solving fiscal problems inherited from previous governments.
• He reestablished the National Defense and Military School.
• It signed important border and economic agreements with Peru.
• He decentralized university education, encouraged and supported the creation of Universities in Guayaquil and Cuenca.
• He promoted Ecuador's participation in the Chicago International Fair, which served to disseminate the country throughout the world.

End of his presidential term

In 1894, he starred in a famous controversy, with the sale of the Chilean ship "Esperanza" to Japan.

This scandal cost him the presidency, when in 1895, riots began to overthrow him for treason. Cordero Crespo decided to resign from the presidency, to avoid more popular confrontations, on April 16, 1896.

A posteriori, Cordero Crespo was brought to trial in the Supreme Court, for that case, under crimes of embezzlement, treason and abuse of power, of which he was acquitted in 1898.

His last years

Upon leaving the Presidency, he returned to Cuenca, where he married Josefina Espinoza Astorga, 32, with whom he had 2 children.

Josefina died at the age of 36, just before she was married for 4 years, in 1900. In 1901 she founded the “Revista Cuencana”, which ran until 1910. In 1904 she wrote the lyrics of the Cuenca hymn.

He traveled to Chile as ambassador in 1910, where he stayed for 1 year, strengthening relations with that country. Upon his return, he was appointed Rector of the University of Cuenca on January 10, 1911, a position he held until his death on January 30, 1912.

After a very extensive political, educational and literary career, he died on January 30, 1912 at 78 years of age, in the city of Cuenca.

Published literary works

A good part of his extensive written work was published during his life, among them we can mention:

• An excursion to Gualaquiza in 1875.
• The goodbye of the Indi in 1875.
• Two songs to the Latin race in 1883.
• Correct the one who does not err and Patriotic Memories, in 1883.
• Dismissed in 1883.
• Rinimi, Llacta: Quichua composition in which an Azuay Indian laments his misadventures, in 1884.
• Goodbye in 1891, dedicated to his first wife.
• Quichua-Spanish and Spanish-Quichua dictionary, with which he won an award at the Madrid International Exposition in 1892.
• Ecuador in Chicago in 1894.
• Serious Poetry, 1895.
• Joking poems, 1895.
• To my fellow citizens. Circumstantial exposition of what happened in the odious affair of the Esmeralda cruise ship, 1896.
• Josefina Espinoza de Cordero: book of his orphans, in 1900, dedicated to his second wife.
• American linguistics study.
• Rocafuerte: Patriot and benefactor, in 1902.
• Our question of limits, in 1903

Other writings, mostly poems, were published in the 20th century, after his death. Among them:

• Prayer vocatives (1928)
• My Gospel (1943)
• Catholic action in one's environment (1944)
• Defend the Language (1944)
• Definition of your memory (1948)
• Botanical enumeration of the first plants (1950)
• Bolívar (poems from his visa and work) (1951)
• Iridescence of the Public Path (1957)
• Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (1957)
• Sacramental and Florida Easter (1964)
• Presence of Cuenca poetry (1969)
• Cuenca, semblance of a town (1971)
• Footprints of a walker (1973)
• Coastal landscapes (1975)
• From the furrow to the top (1979)
• The fullness of the ears (1982)
• Lyrical Breviary (2000)
• Love poems (2007)

References

1. Cárdenas Reyes, María Cristina. (2010). President Luis Cordero on the first centenary of the independence of Chile. THE Newsletter. No. 5: 1-6.
2. Cárdenas Reyes, María Cristina, Region and National State. The Azuayo Progressivism of the XIX Century (1840-1895). National Academy of History, Ecuador / Pablo de Olavide University, Quito, 2006.
3. LR, History of the Republic of Ecuador, T. III (1876-1900). Clergy Printing Office, Quito, 1938.
4. Wikipedia contributors. (2018, October 10). Luis Cordero Crespo. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:52, October 22, 2018.
5. Gallo Almeida, Luis. (1921). Summary of Ecuadorian literature. Catholic Press. Ecuador.