Irisarri y Solano

The Guatemalan Antonio José de Irisarri is known in Ecuador for having edited La Balanza, a periodical in the service of General Flores and Vicente Rocafuerte, and for the resulting polemics with Fray Vicente Solano, a Franciscan of Cuenca and one of the outstanding figures of that period of Ecuador’s history. Thus, the title of the book is promising. But there is hardly a reference to Irisarri, the main preoccupation of author Mata being to discredit Solano. With much reason he criticizes the friar’s vulgar and uncivil way of disputing. Unhappily, Mata is not completely free of the same vice. The book strangely ends with a crude assault on the late Gregorio Marañón.