Eugenio Espejo

. EUGENIO ESPEJO

(Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, Quito, 1747 - 1795) Ecuadorean patriot and writer. Considered one of the greatest exponents of American illustration, EugenioEspejo's life was marked by miscegenation. Born in Quito in 1747, son of Louis Chuzig, an indigenous native of Cajamarca, and Mary Catherine Aldás, mulatto woman born of a freed slave who had ancestorsNavarrese. His very name seems to betray the movement of his mestizo identity: Mirror's name was adopted by his late father, and Santa Cruz comes from the Christian devotion. Some argue, as LeopoldoBenites Vinueza, that his real last name is a mysteryOf humble origin, the Mirror child and adolescent grew up in the atmosphere of Mercy Hospital of Quito. Prevailed then a mixture of empiricism andmedical scholasticism, and there were many impromptu and incompetent doctors. By 1762, the mestizo Quito graduated from high school and teacher of philosophy at the Jesuit college of San Gregorio. Hisautobiography contains a confession of that period which marks the fate of his future life: "I long to be known for beautiful spirit." In 1767 obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of St.Thomas, and in 1770 earned a degree in civil and canon law.
The latter study period was decisive in him the best of his old sarcastic spirit, vibrant and virulent. The formation of Mirror ran from theinfluence of "probabilism" Jesuit, Hippocratic books and Jansenism. It was a regular reader of The provincial, Blaise Pascal, the universal critical Theatre, Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijoo; of modernlogic and Andres Piquer Hippocratic books, and the method of studying the famous Luís António Verney, better known as " the Barbadiño "

In 1772 Espejo began to practice medicine in Quito, and began hissatire and criticism of those responsible for the evils prevailing in the city. Years later, in 1785, the Cabildo of Quito requested the drafting of a method of preventing smallpox. In the report...