Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro

Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Alfaro (born 21 June 1818 in Granada – 7 June 1890 in Granada) was the President of Nicaragua from 1 March 1875 to 1 March 1879 and a member of the conservative dominant oligarchy Chamorro family.

Background

He was a son of Pedro José Chamorro Argüello and wife Josefa Margarita Alfaro Monterroso and paternal grandson of Fernando Chamorro Lacayo (d. 1785) and wife Bárbara Nicolasa Argüello del Castillo. His brothers were Dionisio Chamorro Alfaro and Fernando Chamorro Alfaro. Dionisio was married to Mercedes Oreamuno ... and had two sons, Salvador Chamorro Oreamuno and Rosendo Chamorro Oreamuno, President of Nicaragua, the first of whom married Gregoria Vargas Báez and had Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, 55th and 59th President of Nicaragua. By Josefa Peréz ... his father had a natural son, born before his marriage, Fruto Chamorro Pérez, 30th and 31st President of Nicaragua.

His great-grandfather was Spanish Nobleman Diego Chamorro de Sotomayor y Murga de Villavicencio, born in Seville, who married no less than five times: to his great-grandmother Gregoria Lacayo de Briones y Pomar, Inés de Villa-Nueva y ..., Juana Fajardo y ..., Gertrudis de Pasos y ... and Rafaela Occonor y Salafranca, by whom he had a daughter Josefa Chamorro Occonor (1784 - 1843).

Career

At an early age, he left off studies to dedicate himself, together with his brother Dionisio, to the management of paternal inheritances under the guidance of their half-brother Fruto Chamorro. His first marriage was to N. Guadamuz; his second marriage was in 1854 with María de la Luz Bolaños Bendaña, born in 1828. They had three children:

In 1849 Pedro Joaquín Chamorro became mayor of Granada and in 1854, he participated in the defense of the city, besieged by Máximo Jerez. He also contributed to the struggle to expel William Walker, the American filibuster. In 1862 he dedicated himself to politics as Senator of the Department of Granada. In 1869, he became a member of the governing junta of Nicaragua. He was elected president in 1871 for four years, and again joined the ruling junta in 1885. In both his public and private life, Don Pedro was considered progressive by some and an opportunist by many others, when conservative forces would keep "campesinos" without access to education,. He represented a faction of the Granada oligarchy and maintained strong conservative principles, which in Latin America meant the preservation of a feudal economic system, with an emphasis on trade. His influence would help form Nicaragua as a nation with the limitations of keeping the country and its economic resources under the control of a few families including the Chamorro and the few other families that still control Nicaragua economically today. He remained a political force in Nicaragua until his death on 7 June 1890.

References

Political offices
Preceded by
Vicente Cuadra		 President of Nicaragua
1875-1879 		Succeeded by
Joaquín Zavala
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