Unknown（佚名） · Public domain
1829–1839
Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana
Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana · 玻利维亚
19th-century Andean soldier-politician, president of Bolivia (1829–1839) and Supreme Protector of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation (1836–1839).
Born in 1792 in Huarina, in the La Paz region of today's Bolivia (near Lake Titicaca), his father was a Spanish colonial official and his mother a descendant of an Aymara chief; he served early in the Spanish army, switched to the independence forces around 1820, fought under San Martín and Bolívar, and took part in the Battle of Pichincha and others; in 1825 he became administrator of Sucre (Chuquisaca), capital of the newborn Bolivia, and from 1829 served as president of Bolivia, restoring order and finances; in 1836 he founded the Peru-Bolivian Confederation and served as its Supreme Protector, falling in 1839 under Chilean intervention; he died on 25 September 1865 in France (the exact place is not consistent across this batch's sources, uncertain).
People & stories
Places in their life
Birthplace Huarina (La Paz region); places of activity Sucre, La Paz, Lima, and Cusco.
People
Cultural significance
He is the representative figure of Andean "unionism" — advocating that Peru and Bolivia remain politically united; the failure of his confederation experiment deeply influenced the two countries' subsequent borders and national narratives; his mixed heritage (Spanish father and Aymara mother) is also often used as a discussion case for Andean identity.
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