Jorge Salvador Lara

Jorge Salvador Lara (Quito, September 4, 1926 – Quito, February 8, 2012) was an Ecuadorian politician, diplomat, columnist, writer, and historian. Lara held the position of Ecuador’s Foreign Minister twice. In 1966, he was appointed Foreign Minister in the administration of interim President Clemente Yerovi. From 1976 to 1977, Lara served as Foreign Minister under Vice Admiral Alfredo Poveda’s military regime.

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Federico González Suárez

Federico González Suárez (Quito, April 12, 1844 – Quito, December 1, 1917) was an Ecuadorian priest, historian and politician who served as the Archbishop of Quito for twelve years. Prior to becoming the Archbishop of Quito, he served as a senator in the Ecuadorian government in 1894 and then as the Bishop of Ibarra from 1895 to 1905. He wrote several books about the history of Ecuador, among them the book Historia General de la República del Ecuador, which is considered a masterpiece for its objectivity, painstaking research and erudition. He was not shy about criticizing the Church in Ecuador for abuses during the colonial period. The publication of the fourth volume of his history in 1894 was particularly scandalous since it uncovered the sexual liaisons of seventeenth-century Dominican friars in Quito. Although this work drew criticism from his superiors, he was ultimately vindicated, with the Vatican acknowledging the veracity of his analysis.

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Gabriel Cevallos García

Gabriel Cevallos García (Cuenca, Ecuador, January 6, 1913 – Tampa, Florida, March 16, 2004) was an Ecuadorian writer, historian, professor, and philosopher. He was the rector of the University of Cuenca from 1964 to 1968 and founder, professor, and dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the university. He taught for some years at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, where he settled in 1969 to work as a teacher. He was a member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Language and the National Academy of History. He was awarded the Eugenio Espejo Award in 1988 by the President of Ecuador.

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