Cisneros, Francisco Javier (1836–1898)

Francisco Javier Cisneros (b. 28 December 1836; d. 7 July 1898), transportation developer in Colombia. Cisneros was educated in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba and in Havana, where he received his civil engineering degree (1857). He studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, then engaged in railway construction in Cuba from 1857 to 1868. His pro-independence activities (1868–1871) forced him into exile in New York City. Cisneros attempted to work in Peru but in 1873 left for Colombia. There, the Antioquia Railroad (upon which he labored intermittently until 1885), the Cauca Railroad (1878–1883), the Barranquilla Railroad (1885–1895), plus dock construction at Puerto Colombia and the placement of steamboats on the Magdalena River (1877–1885; 1889–1898) all testify to Cisneros's developmental vision. Colombia's unsettled politics and weak economy were structural liabilities that Cisneros found insurmountable. He died in New York City.

See alsoRailroadsxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alfredo D. Bateman, Francisco Javier Cisneros (1970).

Hernán Horna, Transport Modernization and Entrepreneur-ship in Nineteenth Century Colombia (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Bateman, Alfredo D., and Alfonso Orduz Duarte, eds. Historia de los ferrocarriles de Colombia. Bogotá: Página Maestra, 2005.

Mayor Mora, Alberto. Francisco Javier Cisneros y el inicio de las comunicaciones modernas en Colombia. Bogotá: Banco de la República: El Ancora Editores, 1999.

                                     J. LeÓn Helguera