Cordero Crespo, Luis (1833–1912)

Luis Cordero Crespo (b. 6 April 1833; d. 30 January 1912), president of Ecuador (1892–1895). Born into a prominent family of Azuay, Luis Cordero Crespo studied law at the University of Quito but chose to devote himself to letters and politics rather than jurisprudence. As a man of letters he was most noted for his Poesías serias (1895), Poesías jocosas (1895), and a Spanish-Quechua dictionary. He founded several newspapers, was a professor of literature at the National College in Cuenca, and helped to inaugurate the universities of Guayaquil and Cuenca. He served as rector of the University of Cuenca from 1911 to 1912.

In 1883, Cordero helped found the Republican Party. After serving in Congress as a deputy and then as a senator, he was elected president in 1892. He attempted unsuccessfully to conciliate warring Liberals and Conservatives. His declaration that church interests were superior to those of the state turned Liberals against him. Revelation of his government's secret involvement in the sale of a Chilean warship to Japan aroused public indignation and forced Cordero to resign. The fall of the government brought the Liberal general Eloy Alfaro to power, thus ending twelve years of civilian rule.

See alsoEcuador: Since 1830 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Remigio Crespo Toral, Luis Cordero (1917).

Luis Robalino Dávila, Diez años de civilismo (1968), pp. 437-701.

Frank Macdonald Spindler, Nineteenth-Century Ecuador: An Historical Introduction (1987), pp. 137-147.

Additional Bibliography

Ayala Mora, Enrique. Historia de la revolución liberal ecuatoriana. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 1994.

                                Mark J. Van Aken