José Hipólito Unanue y Pavón (August 13, 1755–July 15, 1833) was a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

cosmographer The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...

, the first Minister of Finance of Peru, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Protomédico (equivalent to Minister of health combining with head of "Escuela de Medicina del Peru"), university

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

, founder of the San Fernando Medical School (now the Medicine faculty of

San Marcos University The National University of San Marcos (, UNMSM) is a public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established ( privilege by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and the oldest continu ...

), representative of Arequipa in the

Cortes of Cádiz The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional ''Cortes Generales, cortes'' (Spanish parliament), which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous o ...

, President of the Junta de Gobierno (highest executive power in the Peruvian government at that time), Protector of the province of Arequipa (during the Spanish Empire), independence precursor and a

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian politician, active in politics in the early years after independence. He served as the President of the Congress from 1822 to 1823.

Early life

Hipólito Unanue was born in

Arica Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the ca ...

on August 13, 1755, as the son of Antonio Unánue de Montalivert and Manuela Pavón y Salgado, both from creole families. He studied philosophy and law in a seminary in

Arequipa Arequipa (; Aymara language, Aymara and ), also known by its nicknames of ''Ciudad Blanca'' (Spanish for "White City") and ''León del Sur'' (Spanish for "South's Lion"), is a city in Peru and the capital of the eponymous Arequipa (province), ...

. In 1777, Unanue moved to

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

to study natural sciences. He studied in Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos where he received his bachelor's degree in 1783, graduated in 1786 and became a professor at the same university, establishing his name as an eminent

. He was one of the founders of Sociedad Académica de Amantes del País in 1790. Unanue was Minister of Finance of Peru three times: 1821-1823, 1823-1824 and 1824-1825. His contributions to Peruvian science were "largely forgotten," during the turbulent period of Peruvian independence.Mark A. Burkholder, "Hipólito Unanue" in ''Encyclopedia of Latin America History and Culture'' vol. 5, p. 292. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unanue Hipolito 1755 births 1833 deaths Presidents of Peru Presidents of the Congress of the Republic of Peru Peruvian people of Spanish descent Ministers of economy and finance of Peru 19th-century Peruvian physicians National University of San Marcos alumni People from Arica 18th-century Peruvian physicians Viceroyalty of Peru people

Early life

See also

References