Lleras, Lorenzo María (1811–1868)

Lorenzo María Lleras (b. 7 September 1811; d. 3 June 1868), Colombian politician. As an educator, publicist, and politician, Lleras voiced a moderate liberalism that characterized an important current in early national Colombian politics. Born in Bogotá, Lleras received his education in his native city. His activity as a lawyer facilitated his political activity with General Francisco de Paula Santander and Florentino González in the 1830s, especially as editor of La Bandera Nacional. Lleras was rector of the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora de Rosario (1842–1846) before establishing the Colegio Mayor de Espíritu Santo, where he trained numerous influential Liberals. His El Neo-Granadino promulgated Draconiano Liberalism in the 1850s, an ideology he championed in the congress and in the cabinet of President José María Obando.

Lleras's association with members of the Democratic Society of Artisans led to his brief incarceration after the 1854 coup of José María Melo. He backed anti-Conservative forces in the 1859–1862 civil war and was a delegate to the Rionegro Convention (1863). Lleras and Clotilde Triana, his second wife, parented fifteen children, establishing a lineage that included Liberal presidents Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970) and Alberto Lleras Camargo (1958–1962).

See alsoColumbia, Organizations: Democratic Society of Artisans .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert H. Davis, "Acosta, Caro, and Lleras: Three Essayists and Their Views on New Granada's National Problems," (Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1969).

Andres Soriano Lleras, Lorenzo María Lleras (1958).

Additional Bibliography

Sowell, David. "'La teoria i la realidad': The Democratic Society of Artisans of Bogota, 1847–1854." The Hispanic American Historical Review 67:4 (November 1987): 611-630.

Sowell, David. The Early Colombian Labor Movement: Artisans and Politics in Bogotá, 1832–1919. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

                                           David Sowell