Juan Montalvo
Juan Montalvo Fiallos (born April 13, 1832 in Ambato , † January 17, 1889 in Paris ) was an Ecuadorian writer , essayist and journalist.
Life
Montalvo is one of the most important Ecuadorian writers of the 19th century. It was politically liberal and anti - clerical . His work shows a pronounced hatred of the two presidents Gabriel García Moreno and Ignacio de Veintemilla, whom he classified as dictators .
Montalvo was an ardent supporter of democracy and is passed down as having an alert and inquisitive intellect and a strong, semi- romantic disposition. His style is characterized by the revival of old traditions of the "pure" Spanish language , which he used with great freedom. Among other things, he dealt intensively with the language of Miguel de Cervantes '. Montalvo also wrote a witty sequel to Cervantes' " Don Quixote ", which he called "Capítulos que se le Olvidaron a Cervantes" (on English chapter that Cervantes forgot ).
Montalvo studied law at the Universidad Central del Ecuador in Quito without completing his degree. In 1858 he was sent to Paris by President José María Urbina as envoy. When he returned in 1860 , the clerical-conservative Gabriel García Moreno had won the civil war of 1859/60. Montalvo developed into one of the most prominent opponents of García Moreno and criticized him harshly in his publication " El Cosmopolita " (in English: The Cosmopolitan ). He was then exiled to Colombia and soon returned to Europe. He lived mainly in France, later again in Colombia and for a time in Panama.
After the assassination of García Moreno, which he had called for from exile, Montalvo returned to Ecuador in 1875 . With the words "Mi pluma lo mató" (Eng. My pen killed him ) he declared himself to be the intellectual author of what he regarded as tyrannicide . A little later he turned his back on Ecuador and the General Veintemilla regime.
His 1880 published book "Catilinarias" (Engl. Catilinarien ) made him in intellectual circles in Europe , the United States and throughout Latin America known. In addition to his books, Montalvo was known as an accomplished essayist in the footsteps of Michel de Montaigne . His essay collections "Siete Tratados" (1882, on the German seven tracts ) and "Geometría Moral" (published posthumously in 1902 , on the German moral geometry ) enjoyed a high reputation in Ecuador.
Juan Montalvo lived the last years of his life in Paris, where he died of tuberculosis in 1889 . His mummified body is now in a mausoleum in Ambato .
In 2005, Juan Montalvo took third place as "best Ecuadorian" behind Eloy Alfaro and Jefferson Pérez in a TV show based on the model of " Our Best " or " 100 Greatest Britons ", which was broadcast by the Ecuadorian television station Ecuavisa .
Web links
- Rudolfo Pérez Pimentel, Juan Montalvo Fiallos , in: Diccionario Biográfico del Ecuador , Guayaquil 1987-, Volume 8 (Spanish)
- Literature by and about Juan Montalvo in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin
- Literature by and about Juan Montalvo in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Montalvo, Juan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Montalvo Fiallos, Juan (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ecuadorian writer, essayist and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1832 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ambato |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 17, 1889 |
| Place of death | Paris |