José Joaquin de Olmedo

José Joaquin de Olmedo

José Joaquín de Olmedo (born March 20, 1780 in Guayaquil , † February 19, 1847 ibid) was an Ecuadorian lawyer, writer and politician.

Olmedo was the son of a Spaniard and a native of Guayaquil. He attended school in Quito and then studied philosophy and law at the University of Lima . In 1805 he was able to successfully complete this course with a doctorate . Subsequently, he was entrusted with a teaching position at the Chair of Civil Law (Colegio de San Carlos).

With effect from February 1, 1808, Olmedo was admitted to the bar and appointed as such to the Real Audiencia de Quito . In 1811 he represented his homeland Guayaquil on the Cortes of Cádiz . When King Ferdinand VII took over government, he dissolved the Cortes with immediate effect and Olmedo had to return home like all the other MPs.

In 1820 Guayaquil declared itself independent as a free province and Olmedo became its first president. As such, he represented his home country in 1823 as a member of the Peruvian Congress . After the province was annexed to Greater Colombia , Olmedo represented the country at the English court of William IV at the request of Simón Bolívar from 1825 to 1828. From 1828 to 1829 he was Foreign Minister of Greater Colombia.

As a fighter for Ecuador's independence , Olmedo Simon Bolívar's last cabinet no longer joined. In 1830, after the separation of Ecuador (and Venezuela) from Greater Colombia, he joined his home province of Guayaquil to Ecuador and was briefly Ecuadorian Vice President. In the 1830s he negotiated the demarcation with the Republic of New Granada , which included the greater part of the former Greater Colombia. After the overthrow of President Juan José Flores, which he initiated, in June 1845, Olmedo was elected chairman of a provisional government in Ecuador with effect from June 18. He gave this office as head of state on December 8, 1845 to the new President Vicente Ramón Roca .

Four weeks before his 67th birthday, Olmedo died on February 19, 1847 in Guayaquil, where he found his final resting place.

The new Guayaquil airport bears his name in his honor.

Works (selection)

as an author

• Clemente Ballén (Ed.): Poesías . Garnier, Paris 1896
• Manuel N. Corpancho (Ed.): Obras inéditas de Olmedo . Nabor Chavez, Mexico 1862.
• Aurelio Espinosa Pólit (Ed.): Obras completas . Talleres graficos nacionales, Quito 1945 (Clássicos ecutorianos; 5).
• La victoria de Junín. Canto a Bolívar . 1825.
• Al general Flores. Vencedor en Miñarica . 1835

as translator

• Alexander Pope : An Essay on Man

literature

• Manuel Cañete : Escritores españoles é hispano-americanos El Duque de Rivas, el José Joaquín de Olmedo . Tello, Madrid 1884.
• Aurelio Espinosa Pólit (Ed.): José Joaquín de Olmedo, Epistolario . Editorial Cajica, Puebla 1960.
• Enrique J. Piñeyro y Barry: Biografias americanas. Simón Bolívar , El general S. Martín , José Morales Lemus , José Joaquín de Olmedo, Daniel Webster , José Francisco Heredia , Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés . Garnier, Paris 1906.
• Dieter Reichardt: Latin American authors. Literary dictionary and bibliography of German translations . Erdmann Verlag, Tübingen 1972, ISBN 3-7711-0152-2 , pp. 460-461.

Web links

• José Joaquín de Olmedo on bibliotecasvirtuales.com (Spanish)

predecessor	Office	successor
Juan José Flores	Head of State or Government of Ecuador 1845	Vicente Ramón Roca