Nicolás de Piérola
President of Peru (1839–1913)
José Nicolás Baltasar Fernández de Piérola y Villena (known as "El Califa", "The Caliph"; January 5, 1839 – June 23, 1913) was a Peruvian politician and Minister of Finance who served twice as President of the Republic of Peru, from 1879 to 1881 and from 1895 to 1899.
He founded the Democratic Party in 1889. In 1895, he overthrew the Andrés Avelino Cáceres government. As president, he implemented various political and economic reforms.
Early years
Nicolás de Piérola was born and educated in the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa. He was the son of an "aristocratic, but impoverished, ultra-Catholic family." He moved to Lima to study theology at the Seminario de Santo Toribio, and later obtained his law degree from the Faculty of Law. His parents died in 1857.
He married Doña Jesusa de Iturbide, believed to be the illegitimate daughter of Agustín Jerónimo de Iturbide y Huarte, the son of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of Mexico. She died in 1914, one year after Piérola's death, in the house in the jirón Áncash he had purchased in 1869.
Political life
Minister of Economy
From 1868 to 1871, he became Minister of Finance under President José Balta.
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