Eugenio Espejo

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Eugenio Espejo
Born	February 21, 1747 Quito
Died	December 28, 1795 Quito
Occupation	Writer, lawyer, physician

Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (born Luis Chuzhig)^[1] (Royal Audience of Quito, 1747-1795) was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a precursor and polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. During most of his lifetime, he wrote many satirical works, which mainly dealt with the way education was being handled in the Presidency of Quito, against the establishment of his time. Because of this works he was persecuted and finally imprisoned shortly before his death.

Even though Espejo did not have original ideas, he is regarded as one of the most important figures in colonial Ecuador. He was Quito's first journalist and hygienist. As a journalist he spread libertarian ideas in the Royal Audience, and as a hygienist he composed an important treatise about sanitarian conditions in colonial Ecuador, that included interesting remarks about microorganisms and the spreading of disease.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Activities in the Royal Audience 1.2.1 Work as a polemicist 1.2.2 Short Exile 1.3 Final Years 2 Character 3 Thought 3.1 Views on Education 3.2 Views on Theology 3.3 Views on Economics 3.4 Work as a lawyer 3.5 Scientific work 4 Legacy 5 Works 6 Notes 7 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

He was baptized Francisco Javier Eugenio of Santa Cruz and Espejo in El Sagrario parish, on February 21. His father was Luis de la Cruz Chuzhig, a Quichua Indian from Cajamarca, who arrived in Quito as an assistant to the priest and physician José del Rosario. His mother was Maria Catalina Aldas, a mulatta born in the city. Espejo had two younger siblings, Juan Pablo and Maria Manuela. Despite the fact that his family's economic situation was somewhat unstable, he had access to a good education. He instructed himself in medicine by working alongside his father at the Hospital de la Misericordia. According to Espejo, he learned "by experience, which cannot be known without studying with pen in hand."^[2]

Overcoming racial discrimination, he graduated from medical school on July 10, 1767, and shortly after in jurisprudence and canon law (in order to practice as a lawyer, he studied under the direction of Dr. Ramón Yépez from 1780 to 1793). On November 28, 1772, he was authorized to practice medicine in Quito. He became a prominent scientific investigator, philosopher, journalist, and writer.

[edit] Activities in the Royal Audience

[edit] Work as a polemicist

Between 1772 and 1779 Espejo provoked the wariness of the colonial authorities, who regarded him as responsible for several posters known for their satirical and mocking content. These posters were attached to the doors of churches and other important buildings, and their anonymous author had a tendency to attack the colonial authorities, the clergy or any other subject he deemed convenient. Although no surviving posters have been found, there is evidence that he wrote them, including the remarks Espejo made about them in his works.^[3]

In 1779 a reproachful and satirical manuscript entered into circulation, by the name of El nuevo Luciano de Quito o Despertador de los ingenios quiteños en nueve conversaciones eruditas para el estímulo de la literatura, signed by "don Javier de Cía, Apéstegui y Perochena", a pseudonym Espejo used for writing it. This work imitated the satire employed by Lucian, and was especially unsympathetic to the Jesuits. It also proved the extensive culture of its author, who lived in the isolated and intellectually delayed city of Quito.

The employment of a pseudonym, a common practice in Europe and the Americas during the Age of Enlightenment, was of significant importance for Espejo. Not only did it provide him anonymity, but it also showed his efforts to remove any vestige of his crossbreeding, in a culture in which being white granted any person importance and prestige. By means of the pseudonym he wanted to establish that he had white or European relatives by his mother’s lineage.^[4]

Beginning in 1779, Espejo continued writing satires against the government of the Royal Audience, stirred by the condition of society of his time. In June, 1780, Espejo wrote Marco Porcio Catón o Memorias para la impugnación del nuevo Luciano de Quito, with the intention of “condemning” his own work Nuevo Luciano. Once again, Espejo used a pseudonym, “Moisés Blancardo”. In this work, giving censorship as a pretext and using street jargon (with its exaggerations and pointlessness), he scorned the notions and ideas of the censors of Nuevo Luciano. In 1781 he wrote La ciencia blancardina, which he referred to as the second part of Nuevo Luciano, as an answer to the criticism of a Mercedarian priest from Quito.^[5]

Due to this behaviour, by 1783 he was labelled as "restive and subversive",^[6] and was later designated head physician for the scientific expedition that Francisco de Requena was about to begin headed for the Pará and Marañon rivers to set the limits of the Royal Audience.

Espejo tried to avoid the trip, but after failing, he tried to flee, also without success. His arrest order had one of the few physical descriptions we have of him.^[7] Captured, he was sent back as a "criminal of serious offense", but this first incarceration didn't give way to a procedure, and as a result it didn't bear consequences.

[edit] Short Exile

In 1785 he was appointed by the Town council to write a manuscript that dealt with worst problem the audience was facing, smallpox. Espejo made use of this chance and created his most complete and better written work, Reflexiones acerca de un método para preservar a los pueblos de las viruelas, denouncing the way sanitation was being handled in the Audience. This work was a valuable contribution to the field of scientific literature about the hygienic and sanitary conditions of colonial America.

Reflexiones was sent to Madrid where it was added as an appendix to the second edition of the medical treatise Disertación médica (1786) by Francisco Gil, member of the Real Academia Médica Matritense.^[8] Instead of recognition, Espejo gained more enemies, and was forced to leave Quito.

On his way to Lima, he stopped in Riobamba, where a group of priests asked him to write a reply to a report written by Ignacio Barreto, chief tax collector. The report accused the priests of Riobamba of various abuses against the Indians in order to take away their money. Espejo gladly accepted the task because he had to settle accounts with Barreto and other citizens of Riobamba, among them José Miguel Vallejo, who in 1783 turned him in to the authorities when he tried to avoid the post of head physician of Requena’s expedition to the Marañón river.^[9] He wrote then his work Defensa de los curas de Riobamba, a detailed study of the way of life of the Indians from Riobamba, and at the same time a baneful attack to Barreto’s report.

On March 1787, he sustained on his attack against his enemies from Riobamba writing a series of eight satirical letters which he called Cartas riobambenses. In response, the alluded citizens denounced Espejo before the President of the Royal Audience, Juan José De Villalengua. On August 24, 1787, Villalengua requested him either to depart to Lima, or to return to Quito to occupy a post in the government.^[10] However the same year he had to arrest him because Espejo was accused of writing El retrato de Golilla, a satire against King Charles III and Marquis de la Sonora, colonial minister of the Indies.

He was taken to Quito, and from confinement he sent three documents to the Madrilean Court, which decreed, on Charles III behalf, the case to be taken to the Viceroy of Bogotá. President Villalengua feigned ignorance of the matter and sent Espejo to Bogotá to defend his own cause. There he met Antonio Nariño and Francisco Antonio Zea, and started to work out his libertarian thought. In 1789 one of his disciples, Juan Pio Montufar, arrived in Bogotá, and both got the approval of various important members of the government for the creation of the Escuela de la Concordia, called later the Sociedad Patriótica de Amigos del País de Quito.

Espejo successfully defended himself of the charges against him, and on October 2, 1789, his cause was superseded. On December 2 he was notified he could return to Quito.

[edit] Final Years

In 1790 Espejo returned to Quito to promote the "Sociedad Patriótica" (Society), and on November 30, 1791, it was established in the Colegio de los Jesuitas; he elected his directive, and formed four commissions. The same year, he became director of the first public library, the National Library, originally composed with the forty thousand volumes left by the Jesuits after their expulsion from Ecuador.^[11]

The main duty of the Society was to help with any means at its disposition to improve the city of Quito. Its 24 members came together weekly to discuss agricultural, educative, political and social problems, and they promoted as well the development of physical and natural sciences. From the Society emerged Quito's first newspaper, Primicias de la Cultura de Quito, published by Espejo and whose first number circulated on January 5, 1792. Through this newspaper liberal ideas, that were somewhat already known in other parts of Hispanic America, were spread among the people of Quito.

By royal certificate dated on November 11, 1793, Charles IV deauthorized the society, and suspended it. Not much later his newspaper disappeared as well. Espejo had no choice but to work as a librarian in the National Library.

Because of his ideas,^[12] he was imprisoned on January 30, 1795, being allowed to leave his cell temporarily only to treat his patients as a doctor, and on December 23, waning, to die in his home place. Eugenio Espejo died on December 28. His death certificate was registered in the book for Indians, mestizos, blacks and mulattoes.

[edit] Character

Espejo was an autodidact, and he often claimed with pride that he never had left any book that he had in his hands unread, and if he did, he would made up for it by his observation of nature. However, his desire to read everything without discrimination and criteria sometimes led him to irreflexive and precipitate judgments, which appear in his manuscripts.^[13]

By the interpretation of his manuscripts, it can be inferred that Eugenio Espejo considered education as the main way for popular development. He also understood that reading was basic in the formation of the self. Espejo had a denunciatory conscience, based on observation and in the application of the law of his time.

He considered that knowledge was necessary to begin a social, political and economical struggle in defense of the interests of criollos, who were aspiring to achieve political power by combating the monarchy (in the long term, that struggle gave place to sovereign republics). By his writings, Espejo wanted to educate the people and to awake a rebellious spirit in them. His body of principles considered the equality between Indians and criollos (an ideal that was ignored during the future processes of independence),^[14] and an undeveloped approach to women's rights.^[15]

Amazing is in fact his understanding of science. Considering the circumstances in which he lived, and that he never visited Europe, he already understood about microbiology, and the relation between microorganisms and the spreading of disease.^[16][17]

When he was arrested, people rumored that his detention was caused because of his support of the "impieties" of the French Revolution. However, Espejo was one of the few persons that, in those times, distinguished between the actual deeds of the French Revolution and the irreligious spirit connected to it, while his contemporaries in Spain and the colonies identified erroneously the emancipation of the Indies with the loss of the catholic faith. The accusation of impiety was calculated to incite popular hatred against him. It must be noted that Espejo was during his lifetime a Catholic believer. He condemned the decadence of the clergy, but he never criticized the Church itself.^[18]

Eugenio Espejo had a restless need of knowledge, and a hurry to reform a state of things that in every order seemed to be barbarian to him, as he was influenced by the Enlightenment Movement.

[edit] Thought

Eugenio Espejo could be regarded as a polymath, as he was a notable scientist, journalist, satirist and theologian. His work -and personality- can be best understood by analyzing his views on this matters separately.

[edit] Views on Education

Espejo’s first three works goal was the intellectual improvement of Quito. El Nuevo Luciano de Quito ridiculed the outdated educational system kept up by the clergy. Marco Porcio Catón exposed the profound ignorance of the pseudointellectuals of Quito. La ciencia blancardina, work in which he claimed to be the author of the first two, condemned the results of the educational system of the clergy: ignorance and affectation.

By means of this three works Espejo reiterated the ideas of European and American scholars such as Feijoo, and the Jesuits Verney and Guevara, among others. As a result, diverse religious orders modified their study programs.

Espejo especially criticized the Jesuits, along with other things, for teaching ethics not as a science, but as a guide of good manners to its students, and their adoption of Probabilism as a moral.^[19] Regarding the formation of the priests of Quito, he complained about the lack of exigency of their educational system, which assisted slothful students on their way to priesthood. As a result, clerics were people with a minor comprehension of their duties towards society and God, and with slight or none inclination to proceed on their studies.

In El Nuevo Luciano de Quito he lamented the ascending number of quacks that pretended to be doctors. In La ciencia blancardina he continued his attack on them while he also attacked the members of the clergy that worked as physicians without an adequate instruction.

[edit] Views on Theology

In 1780, as his first attempt to treat a purely religious matter, Espejo wrote a theological letter, Carta al Padre la Graña sobre indulgencias.^[20] In that work he studied the history and purpose of Indulgences in the Catholic Church. Clearly written and well conceived, the letter showed the profound knowledge that his author had about theology and dogmas. It analyzes the historical beginnings of the Indulgence and its development through a succession of popes. It also mentions that, to contain the abuses that emerged because of them, the Church promulgated several decrees and bulls, which were cited by Espejo.^[21] In this work Espejo supported the authority of the Pope.

On July 19, 1792, Espejo wrote his second letter, Segunda carta teológica sobre la Inmaculada Concepción de María, under the request of the inspector of the Holy Office.^[22] The work dealt with Blessed Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception. Once again, this work proved its author's deep knowledge of this religious subject and its situation in the 18th century, as well as his capability to deal with such a complicated matter.

Espejo also wrote a range of sermons, which were different of the ones of his contemporaries because of their simplicity. Ecuadorian historian and cleric Federico González Suárez considered those sermons as worthy of study, even though he mentioned that they lacked of "evangelic spirit".^[23] Nevertheless, Espejo can be considered a deeply religious man.

[edit] Views on Economics

Since 1785, Espejo began to take interest in the welfare of his community and the prosperity of Quito. His works between that year and 1792 clearly show theories taken from Enlightenment philosophers adapted to local reality. As many thinkers began to see Economy as a powerful social force, Espejo, influenced by Feijoo, and Adam Smith, among others, revealed his concern for the implementation of commercial and agricultural reforms, specially the conservation and good use of the land. Because of this motives he promoted the foundation of the Society (Escuela de la Concordia).

His works Voto de un ministro togado de la Audiencia de Quito and Memorias sobre el corte de quinas reject the proposed monopoly of quinine by the Crown, intended to prevent the destruction of the cinchona tree and to expand the Royal Treasury’s income. Memorias was entrusted to Espejo by the functionary Fernando Cuadrado, who opposed to the monopoly.

Espejo divided his study into four sections. In the first one, he argued that the monopoly would leave workers without a job, and that it would also mean the loss of the capital invested in the use of the cinchona tree. In the second part he made suggestions, such as the assignation of the land to certain “natural” products of a region with the aim of exporting them. For instance, in Chile the production of wines could be prioritized, in Argentina the production of leather, etc. In the third part he mentioned that many workers benefited from the industry of quinine, that without it there would be unemployment and agitation, and the best the Crown could do was to designate functionaries to regulate the correct cultivation of the cinchona tree, taking into account reforestation. Finally, in the fourth part he made observations and recommendations, such as the need to repress indigenous hostility in the cinchona tree region.

[edit] Work as a lawyer

His work Defensa de los curas de Riobamba was written as a response to a report published by Ignacio Barreto, that accused the clergy in Riobamba of various unethical practices. The report specifically mentioned that:

• The great amount of religious celebrations in Riobamba were prejudicial to Catholic faith.
• Priests demanded money to the Indians in order to enter into churches and to make certain prayers.
• Priests in Riobamba were indecent.
• Masses were celebrated with sermons that were incomprehensible to the Indians.
• The great amount of religious celebrations were prejudicial to agriculture, industry and the interests of the Crown.

Espejo’s defense, well prepared and documented, attacked Barreto’s report from three different viewpoints:

• Barreto, supposed author of the report, was not capable of writing it.
• The alleged charges were exaggerated, semi truths or rotund lies.
• The solution to the economical problems of the Presidency of Quito could not be accomplished by the exploitation of its human resources (the Indians) but by planning and taking advantage of the natural resources of the region.

Espejo realized that the charges against the clergy were so grave that he had to focus in destroying Barreto’s credibility. Therefore, through evidence, he implied that Barreto’s moral conduct was outrageous, because of his excesses in the collection of taxes, and the misspend of public finances with licentious women. Additionally, he declared that the true author of the report was José Miguel Vallejo, whom he too referred as an immoral person, and as a man that despised the clergy. Consequently, because of these motives Espejo claimed the report did not deserve any credit.

It seems it was more important to Espejo to attack his personal enemies in this work rather than to analyze the case and defend the clergy of Riobamba. Still, his talent as a lawyer can be noticed in his Representaciones (Representations), which allowed him to be freed after being arrested in 1787 accused of writing El Retrato de Golilla.

In those documents, he defended his loyalty to the Crown, while he commented how unfair was his captivity (by mentioning the indignation that many distinguished men felt by his arrest) and exposed the intention he had when writing his works. This served him as a prelude to his main subject: denying being the author of El retrato de Golilla.

[edit] Scientific work

The Spanish Crown was deeply concerned with public health. Diseases often troubled the government of the colonies since its early beginnings. Town councils were accustomed to employ money to bring physicians or sanitary equipment from other places of the Americas. Presentation of reports about the sanitary and hygienic conditions of various neighborhoods of the cities were a common practice among doctors.

As a man of science, Eugenio Espejo demonstrated that he knew about the latest scientific advances in Europe and the Americas. The majority of the arguments and recommendations he made in his medical works can be found in several contemporary sources, such as the Mémoires of the French Academy of Sciences.

The Presidency of Quito was intensely concerned with the prevention of smallpox. Villalengua, the president of the Royal Audience, reunited all of Quito’s physicians to discuss the possibility of the application of the methods suggested by the Spanish scientist Francisco Gil, and therefore Espejo was authorized to write his work Reflexiones acerca de un método para preservar a los pueblos de las viruelas".^[24].

Reflexiones, completed on November 11, 1785, was divided in two parts: the first dealt with the prevention of smallpox in Quito, while the second dealt with the obstacles on the way to its eradication. The knowledge of its author about inoculations and isolation of the victims of smallpox and other contagious diseases was advanced and unique in that period".^[25]

Reflexiones recommended the implementation of proved methods supported by Spanish –and foreign- doctors. It also refuted the common belief that the separation and destruction of contaminated clothes was unpractical, and promoted personal hygiene among the people of Quito.

Espejo tried to convice people of how dangerous was smallpox. He understood many medical theories about contagious diseases that where dominant in Europe. He warned about the incorrect belief that smallpox was not transmitted by physical contact, but by polluted air: air was no the immediate cause of the contagion but an intermediary factor for some organism. Citing English doctor Thomas Sydenham, he suggested the construction of an isolated country house in order to use it as a hospital.

Dealing with sanitation, Espejo observed that the Hospital (Hospital de la Misericordia) of the city, monasteries and places of worship were deposits of grime and that some of those place would surely contribute to create future epidemics. He disapproved of the custom of burying the dead inside churches, and thus he suggested to bury the dead outside the limits of the city, in a graveyard chosen by the Church and owned by the Town Council.

Finally, he condemned the way the Hospital was managed by the Bethlehemites. He said it was outdated and that provided deficient services. This remarks generated an bad reaction of the employees of the hospital and provoked the loss of the friendship Espejo had with his mentor, José del Rosario.

[edit] Legacy

Espejo, in secrecy, projected emancipation not only for the Presidency of Quito but for all of Hispanic America. Once free of the Spanish tutelage, regions would become independent nations under a republican and democratic government. In order to achieve that goal, he proposed that every viceroyalty and presidency, under close union and mutual help, rise simultaneously against the Crown.

Only people born in America (criollos) would participate in the new government. Concerning foreigners, he did not support their expulsion, but encouraged the idea of let them return to Spain if they wanted. However, they couldn’t be part of the government. Regarding religion, he believed that religious reform was essential, but sustained that it had to be done by the highest ecclesiastical authorities by request of the civil government. He also mentioned that clerics should serve only in their place of origin; in other words, there shouldn’t be foreign priests in the local ecclesiastical system.

Espejo died in 1795, but his ideas had a powerful influence in three close friends of his: Juan Pío Montúfar, Juan de Dios Morales and Juan de Salinas. They, along with Manuel Rodriguez Quiroga, promoted the revolutionary movement of August 10 in Quito.

[edit] Works

• Nuevo Luciano de Quito (1779)
• Marco Porcio Catón o Memorias para la impugnación del nuevo Luciano de Quito (1780)
• Carta al Padre la Graña sobre indulgencias (1780)
• Sermón de San Pedro (1780)
• La Ciencia Blancardina (1781)
• El Retrato de Golilla (Attributed, 1781)
• Reflexiones acerca de un método para preservar a los pueblos de las viruelas (1785) Online version (Spanish)
• Defensa de los curas de Riobamba (1787)
• Cartas riobambenses (1787)
• Discurso sobre la necesidad de establecer una sociedad patriótica con el nombre de "Escuela de la Concordia" (1789)
• Segunda carta teológica sobre la Inmaculada Concepción de María (1792)
• Memorias sobre el corte de quinas (1792)
• Voto de un ministro togado de la Audiencia de Quito (1792) Online version (Spanish)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Astuto, Philip L. (2003). Eugenio Espejo (1747 - 1795). Reformador ecuatoriano de la Ilustración. Campaña Nacional Eugenio Espejo por el Libro y la Lectura. ISBN 9978-92-241-5. 
• Various (2002). Enciclopedia del Ecuador. Océano. ISBN 84-494-1448-2. 
• Garcés, Enrique (1996). Eugenio Espejo: Médico y duende. Octavio Peláez Editores. ISBN 9978-95-008-7. 
• Herrera, Pablo (1960). Ensayo sobre la historia de la literatura ecuatoriana. Imprenta del Gobierno. 
• Biblioteca de Autores Ecuatorianos de Clásicos Ariel,n.d., #56, Tome I
• Eugenio Espejo, Bacteriólogo. PDF document (In Spanish)
• Bárbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment by David J. Weber

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