Candamo, Manuel (1842?–1904)

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Candamo, Manuel (1842?–1904)

Manuel Candamo Iriate (ca. 1842–7 May 1904) was the son of one of the wealthiest merchants of mid-nineteenth-century Peru, whose fortune rested on shipping (especially the trade in indentured Asians), guano, and railroad construction. The family was typical of that group of merchants and entrepreneurs who replaced the aristocracy as the ruling elite of the country. Because political parties gave power to the masses, the aristocracy had banned them as tasteless and dangerous. But Candamo was active in the Civilista Party and in 1902 he gained public attention as an activist president of the Lima Chamber of Commerce. He became a candidate for president of Peru in 1903 as a moderate conciliator between two intransigent factions of the Democratic and Civilista parties.

Candamo's political views were established in his Política peruana: Discurso-programa del nuevo presidente de Perú (1903), an important document from the period. The Civilista Party disappeared briefly when leading members joined former Democrats in the Liberal Party. This action prompted another faction of Civilistas to form a surprise alliance with the Constitutionalist Party, the party of the military. Candamo remained the single Civilista trusted by and popular with all factions, although he was censured by Manuel González Prada. Inaugurated as president in November 1903 after he won the election, he fell ill and died the following May. Thereafter, mutual distrust sowed discord once again among party factions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Basadre, Jorge. Historia de la República del Perú, 1822–1933, 7th edition. Lima: Editorial Universitaria, 1983.

Candamo, Manuel. Política peruana: Discurso-programa del nuevo presidente de Perú. Asunción: Talleres Nacionales de H. Kraus, 1903.

González Prada, Manuel. "Los partidos y la Unión Nacional." In Horas de Lucha, pp. 201-220. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho 1976.

González Prada, Manuel. "Manuel Candamo." In Textos inéditos de Manuel González Prada, pp. 71-75. Lima: Biblioteca Nacional, 2001.

Kristal, Efraín. The Andes Viewed from the City: Literary and Political Discourse on the Indian in Peru, 1848–1930. New York: Peter Lang, 1987.

Mc Evoy, Carmen. La utopía republicana: Ideales y realidades en la formación de la cultura política peruana, 1871–1919. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial, 1997.

Pike, Fredrick B. The Modern History of Peru. New York: Praeger, 1967. See especially pp. 190-191.

Werlich, David P. Peru: A Short History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978. See pp. 131-132.

Vincent Peloso

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture