Tag: Ecuador

On A Consular Appointment

Tom was tired of art. He’d been an artist most of his professional life. In fact he’d made decent money at it. But he wanted a change. Call it a late-age crisis (if you consider 62 to be late-aged), but Tom knew he had more in him than simply art. So, having been interested in politics from an early age, Tom applied with the United States State Department for a position as a consul, preferably, he said, to Europe. Now, this was 1902, during a time when the US Civil Service was still being standardized and the best practices were still being established. Tom had no real qualifications to be a US consul except he had some friends in some powerful places, so he pulled some strings and made some inquiries and was able to get an appointment as a consul. Granted, it was not in Europe like he had preferred, but it was still a posting at a consulate. Besides, he had heard great things about the beauty of Guayaquil, Ecuador. So, Tom accepted the position and sailed for Ecuador in July.

Now, Guayaquil is a beautiful city on the coast of Ecuador and was, at the time, one of the major ports on South America’s western coast. Being so important to trade, the United States was extremely interested in maintaining a political presence there in the form of its consulate (the US Embassy was in the capital city of Quito, located high in the Andes in the interior). So, while the posting for Tom wasn’t particularly glamorous, it was an important appointment. And, despite not having any real public administration experience, Tom soon found that he really enjoyed the work. After all, the real paperwork and administration were done by those permanent officers in the consulate; most of what Tom did was assist Americans who made their way through the area on business or pleasure and who needed help with visas or passports or what have you. He was also wined and dined by the local dignitaries and the consular officers of other nations. Schmoozing? Tom could do that.

As the summer of 1902 turned into the fall (Ecuador really has no seasons other than rainy and not-rainy), people in the city began coming down with Yellow Fever. Remember that this was in the days before a viable vaccine for the disease, and the work of Dr. William Gorgas in eradicating the breeding of the disease-carrying mosquitos was still a couple of years away. People started dying in droves. It was discussed that the consulate in Guayaquil should be evacuated, and orders were approved in Washington to allow those able to travel to leave the city and go to a place where the Yellow Fever had yet to come or even, possibly, return home. But Tom did an incredibly selfless thing. He decided to stay. “People will need me now more than ever,” he said to an aide. Tom knew that his signature on travel documents would allow American families to leave the stricken area quicker. So, he stayed on and helped many Americans to escape the clutches of the disease. Of course, you can guess what happened. In December, Tom got Yellow Fever. He died on December 7th. His body was brought back to the US, and he was buried in the Bronx, New York.

But we don’t remember Tom for his courageous and selfless work as the US representative in Ecuador that deadly autumn. No, we remember him for his art, actually. You’re quite familiar with his work. When you think of the two American political parties, you might think of the animals associated with them–the elephant for the GOP and the donkey for the Democrats. Tom did that. And, every December, you imagine Santa Claus looking like, well, like Santa Claus. Tom did that, too. And, today, every year, a prize is given in his name to the best political cartoon of the year.

In fact, Thomas Nast was the foremost political cartoonist of his day.

On The Liberator

Ok, there’s no catch here and no surprise ending–this post is about Simon Bolivar, the South American liberator and “founding father” of much of that continent. To dismiss or pigeon-hole him as South America’s version of George Washington doesn’t do the man justice. He is largely responsible for the freeing of most of Spain’s colonies in that continent from Madrid’s control. And that almost-constant war against Spanish colonialism framed most of the man’s 47 years on earth. He won victory after victory against the Spanish, and paved the way for the eventual independence of many modern nations.

How many people can say that they were the president of not only one, not only two, but three different nations? Yes, at one time, Bolivar was the chief executive of Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia.

At the same time.

Bolivar was a disciple of the humanist Enlightenment philosophers who believed in the essential rights of men. While his ideas met strong resistance in most quarters, it seems that he was for the removal of the system of slavery in all of South America. His detractors said that this position wasn’t without a selfish reason; Bolivar needed soldiers to fight the Spanish, and he was happy to take newly liberated slaves into his ranks. To be fair, for his time, Bolivar was remarkably progressive in his treatment of other races, a trait that was lacking in the leadership of many other democratic republics of that time (looking at you, America).

He also recognized the United States’ version of federalism as the optimal model for a united Latin American nation one day, but he was also practical enough to realize that Spanish colonial influence and the political and social organization system that combined large landowners and the power of the Catholic Church made such unification almost impossible. Before he died of tuberculosis, he felt a failure for not uniting the disparate countries and cultures.

And it’s not fair to say that Bolivar accomplished all he did on his own. A confluence of several factors beyond his control certainly made his successes in getting the various Spanish colonies their independence. Among these factors were the weakening of Spain’s power in the Americas due to the ongoing Napoleonic Wars as well as Britain’s threats of retaliation if Spain made too much of an effort to re-assert its dominance over the South American continent (The Monroe Doctrine said the same thing, but the infant American republic lacked the military teeth to make this stick). Besides, other important military leaders in the various areas of the continent aided him in his liberation activities including Jose de San Martin from what is now Argentina.

But it’s also not an understatement to say that Bolivar was the right man at the right time. History is often made by these confluences of person and period, timing and personality.

I’ll leave you with one more factoid. Besides the nation of Bolivia bearing his name, did you know that one other nation in South America is named after him? Yes, it’s true.

The official name of Venezuela is the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela.