Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo
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Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo was an 18th-century Latin American writer, physician, and lawyer. Born to an Indigenous father and a Spanish mother, he authored satirical novels, medical and religious treatises, and legal documents.1
His novel El nuevo Luciano de Quito (1779) and its sequel La ciencia blancardina (1780) satirized the educational methods of the time. Espejo proposed cultural reforms influenced by Enlightenment thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, and Adam Smith. He was also instrumental in founding Quito's first newspaper, Primicias de la cultura de Quito, in 1792. Though his satires circulated widely in manuscript, they were not published until the 20th century.1
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