Ambato, the host city of the Festival of Fruit and Flowers, is also part of the Cultural Heritage of Ecuador. However, one of its greatest curiosities about the city is that it saw the birth of the three most representative Juanes in the country: Juan Montalvo, Juan Benigno Vela and Juan León Mera.
The three characters, who were born in the 19th century, played a significant role in Ecuadorian arts and culture. From Ambato you transcend the works and talent of Montalvo, Vela and Mera, coming to make up the trilogy of the Juanes.
Who was Juan Montalvo?
“Let’s make revolutions, but let’s make them worthy of freedom and morality”, was one of the acclaimed phrases of the writer and essayist born on April 13, 1832 in Ambato.
Juan Montalvo was marked and inspired by the political events of his time from a young ageJ, like the case of his brother Francisco, who was imprisoned and exiled for confronting the dictatorship of the Venezuelan Juan José Flores.
Most of his works take place in the liberal political journalism, directed especially to the conservative authorities of Ecuador. Among his most important writings are: the cosmopolitan (1866), a series of pamphlets against the regime of Gabriel García Moreno, Lessons to the People, seven treatises (1882), moral geometry (1917), ecclesiastical mercurial (1884), among others.
Montalvo died of tuberculosis on January 17, 1889 in Paris, where decades before he had served as secretary of the Ecuadorian delegation in the French capital.
Who was Juan Benigno Vela?
Juan Benigno Vela was born on July 10, 1843, in Ambato. From his childhood he demonstrated an ability for letters and in his youth he entered the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the University of Quito, where he obtained his title as Lawyer of the Republic.
Vela served in various public positions, such as Inspector of Schools of the province of Tungurahua, Civil and Military Chief of the city of Ambato, during the first government of General Eloy Alfaro and Governor of the province of Tungurahua and Senator and Deputy.
Too he developed his journalistic instinct and talent with letters to fight political power from the newspapers “The Spectator”, “The Glove” and “El Combate”. He especially faced the government of García Moreno and General Ignacio de Veintimilla.
“I command that, with part of my small resources, four statues be erected in the hall where the Constituent Congress met, representing: Wisdom, Justice, Modesty and Liberty, goddesses who were outraged and trampled on by the vile who They betrayed the will of the Ecuadorians”he stated in a political testament published in El Espectador.
Vela died at the age of 77, deprived of sight, hearing and speech, in his hometown.
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Who was Juan Leon Mera?
Juan León Mera, the Ambateño known for writing the lyrics of the Ecuadorian National Anthem, was born in 1832. He always had an inclination for the visual arts and writing, which is why he came to be considered the founder of literary criticism in his country.
He also founded the Ecuadorian Academy and promoted Creole literary awareness, which is also reflected in his book Historical-critical look at Ecuadorian poetry (1868). Despite his overtures to liberal politics in his youth, Mera became a firm member of the Conservative Party and a faithful friend of García Moreno. This fact distanced him from his old friend, Juan Montalvo.
As a poet he published, in addition to a volume of poems (1858), the poem The Virgin of the Sun (1861), an indigenous legend that is a true novel in verse and an indubitable precedent of cumanda. his novel Cumandá or a drama among savages (1879) secured him a solid prestige in literary circles.
He worked as Secretary of the Senate Chamber, when in 1865 Dr. Nicolás Espinoza Rivadeneira, President of the same, asked him to write the lyrics of the national anthem. Mera was also a member of the Royal Sevillian Academy of Good Letters, Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language, founder and Honorary Member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language and President of the Ateneo de Quito.
The poet died on December 13, 1894. (YO)
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Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
