Abelardo Moncayo started his career by entering the Society of Jesus. Later he changed his mind, and took up conspiring instead. He convinced his concubine to offer her “professional services” in the noble cause of obtaining the cooperation of a colonel. Moncayo was one of the comedians in the tragicomedy of García Moreno’s assassination. A year later he married a sister of fellow “comedian” Roberto Andrade, and went off to spend twenty years of comfortable exile on his father-in-law’s estate in northern Ecuador. There he wrote some awfully bad verse. When the Liberals came into power in 1895, Moncayo came to occupy a number of important positions, among them that of chief of the police, and for a short time that of “encargado del poder ejecutivo.” His name is associated with some of the worst excesses of the first Alfaro administration.
Not even an admirer is able to transform this Nouveau Abélard into a hero. But, anyway, he was an interesting chap, whose life is worth knowing. It is a pity we learn so little about him in this book. Dr. Villegas, the author, advertizes himself as “Profesor de Enseñanza Secundaria, graduado en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad Central, en la Especialización de Historia y Geografía.” It is but too clear, however, that his real vocation is not history, but extremist political agitation.
