José Gálvez Egúsquiza

José Gabriel Gálvez Egúsquiza (Cajamarca, March 17, 1819 - Callao, May 2, 1866) was a Peruvian lawyer, professor and liberal politician. During the presidential government of Mariano Ignacio Prado he was Secretary—i.e. Minister—of War and Navy. He was killed in action during the Battle of Callao, where he died fighting the Spanish squadron, thus becoming a symbol of the independence of America.

Chilean historian Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, who met him in person, described him as "a man of modest figure, small of body, dark, pale, with a carefully combed head, careful in his suit and extremely soft and attractive manners. But under that cold and sweet appearance he hid a big heart and a vast and developed intelligence."

Biography His parents were Colonel José Manuel Gálvez Paz from Lima and María Micaela Egúsquiza y Aristizábal. He was the eldest of his brothers, who included Pedro Gálvez Egúsquiza and Manuel María Gálvez Egúsquiza. His first studies were made at the Cajamarca Central College of Sciences and Arts, run by the Presbyter Juan Pío Burga. After completing his studies, he helped his parents for some time in the work of their Catudén Hacienda.

In 1842 he moved to Lima, enrolling in the San Carlos convictorio, whose rector was clergyman . He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sacred Canons in 1843 and graduated as a lawyer in 1845. For five years he practiced his profession in the area of Cerro de Pasco and Tarma, in the central sierra of Peru.

Later he was elected deputy for the province of Pasco, becoming a member of the , summoned to give a new Constitution, replacing the one of 1839. When said Convention was installed on July 13, 1855, Gálvez was elected as Secretary, being re-elected in the successive elections of September 1, October 1 and November 1, holding office until the 30th of this month. On February 1, 1856, he was elected President, a position he held until the 28th of the aforementioned month, being reelected up to two more times. After arduous debates, the conventional ones gave the Liberal Constitution of 1856. Gálvez was also part of the Penal Code Coding Commission in 1857.

In 1857 Castilla dissolved the National Convention, an attitude that turned Gálvez into a staunch opponent, collaborating in the newspaper El Constitucional (April 3 to August 1, 1858). Castilla convened an ordinary Congress and had a new Constitution discussed in it, which was the moderate one of 1860. To prevent this new political charter from prevailing, Gálvez was part, together with Ricardo Palma and other liberals and officers, of a conspiracy to, according to the official version, victimize—i.e. kill—Castilla, storming his house on the Calle de las Divorciadas (November 23, 1860). The attempt failed, he had to take refuge in the Chilean legation in Lima and go into exile, heading to Europe.

Family On September 7, 1846, he married Ángela Moreno y Maíz in Tarma, daughter of sergeant major José Moreno y Mantilla and María del Carmen Maíz, who belonged to a wealthy family dedicated to mining businesses in the Iglesia del Milagro Church in Lima. Among their seven children were: María Gálvez Moreno, who married Peruvian Army Colonel Samuel Palacios Mendiburu in 1882. Angélica Gálvez Moreno, who married Manuel Bernardo Sayán Palacios on August 4, 1892. Justiniano Aurelio Gálvez Moreno, who married Amalia Barrenechea de la Fuente, daughter of the jurist and diplomat , who were parents of the politician José Gálvez Barrenechea. José Gálvez Moreno, politician, sailor and Peruvian war hero of the War of the Pacific. He married Enriqueta Evens y Evens. Luis Augusto Gálvez Moreno Gerardo Wencelao Gálvez Moreno Carlos Enrique Gabriel Gálvez Moreno