I met him 52 years ago, he gave us a lecture on physics at a professional guidance seminar. Didactically, I still remember verbatim phrases from his conference. Twelve years later, I interviewed him for a television channel about vegetarian cuisine, a topic that at that time was taken extremely seriously and was little known. And, at the end of the nineties, I interviewed for Diners magazine, when I was rector of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. I like to recount those first meetings, because they lead us to the question “was he a physicist, a gourmet or an academic?” All three and more. Of course, all take seriously in successful projects. I remember him as an instructive, combative and witty columnist, who expressed his hilarious honesty on newspaper pages. It was a fountain from which dozens of sources of inspiration flowed.

His magnum opus was that university. He started it in a house on Avenida 12 de Octubre in Quito, around the corner from where I worked. A very humble beginning. The Marxist-like intellectualism that dominated almost all universities opposed this, Gangotena did not stop arguing with parrots and continued on. The institution grew rapidly in every aspect, until it became the best university in Ecuador. Such a resounding statement can be made because there are entities dedicated to conducting very serious studies that assign it this privileged place. I think the key to his inventiveness and success was his heterodoxy, that desire to do unique things, a university with music schools built around a pagoda? The rector was seen everywhere putting a spoon in everything, which in the case of the School of Gastronomy was literal. Here, it is common for best friends to fight over little things, an example being his effective and loyal collaboration with Carlos Montúfara. The great artist of life, close to an unexpected disappearance, marries the beautiful and talented Macarena Valarezo. You gave yourself the freedom to be who you are, which explains his creativity, but also the liberal faith to which he agreed and of which he is one of the most important forerunners in Ecuador, because liberalism is not an ideology limited to political action, it is an “Attitude towards life”.

The tragic death of Santiago, which occurred when, at 78, he was younger than ever and could have contributed so much to this country, contains painful symbolic elements. It was a clash of two ‘Ecuadors’, an element of ‘public transport’, one of the lousy services we tolerate, chaos ruled by mafias where no one dares to bring order, wild races, ‘just like that’ ” reviews., bribery, everyday the news that “the driver ran away”, all this represents the state that is and should not be; and on the other hand, a generator of growth, development, science and virtues, who tried to make fellow citizens understand how important it is to “be a good people”, who represents a country that still isn’t, but should be. Brutally run over from the future. But the only immortal people are those who survive in their legacy and that will be the case with this radical and unique humanist. (OR)