Rodrigo Pachano Lalama (Ambato, August 7, 1910 – June 20, 1984) was an Ecuadorian lawyer, writer, poet, journalist, historian, researcher, and teacher. He was elected mayor of Ambato in 1955 for a period of 2 years. He authored Tungurahua’s Hymn, several poetry books, and essays, including one about Juan Montalvo. Throughout his life, he received numerous decorations and distinctions. In one of his books, the Spanish writer and Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela recalls meeting the “poet Rodrigo Pachano” during a visit to Ambato in 1954. He founded the Tungurahua chapter of the House of Ecuadorian Culture with other Ambato intellectuals such as Edmundo Martínez, Jorge Isaac Robayo, Rodrigo Vela, Blanca Martínez de Tinajero, and Gerardo Nicola. He was the organization’s president for several years.
Background
He was born in Ambato on August 7, 1910. He was the last of his 10 siblings. He was the son of Abel Pachano Baca, a lawyer who served as Minister Judge of the Superior Court of Quito during Eloy Alfaro’s second presidential term, and Amelia Lalama Pachano. He attended the Bolivar School and then the Central University of Quito, where he earned a law degree. Throughout his life, he held various positions.
Marriage
He was married to Judith Holguin and they had three children together.
Education
He earned a law degree in 1933 at the Central University of Quito.
Teaching career
In 1935, he began teaching Philosophy, Logic, and Ethics at the Bolívar School, where he would later become Rector. He devoted 30 years of his life to his teaching career.
Soccer
He was an enthusiastic sports promoter who was passionate about soccer; in his youth, he wore the América S.C. jersey, a team he would later manage.
Poetry Competition Jury member
For several years, he was invited by the newspaper El Universo to serve on the Qualifying Jury of the “Ismael Pérez Pazmiño” National Poetry Contest alongside other distinguished writers from Ecuador.
Pachano Lalama Cultural Center
The Municipality of Ambato through the Heritage Unit, concerned with the restoration and rehabilitation of places that have had cultural history at a national and international level, has recovered in recent years different heritage public spaces of the canton, in this way it intervened in the house of the Pachano Lalama family to convert it into the Pachano Lalama Cultural Center.
The center will house bibliographic material related to doctors Rodrigo Pachano Lalama and Luis Pachano Carrión. Abelardo Pachano Lalama, an engineer, also donated botanical and agronomic literature. Furthermore, the people of Ambato will have access to the winning works of the various editions of the Salón de Noviembre.
The building is part of the cultural heritage that has a colonial model with a central patio and Republican era perimeter rooms. $205,688 dollars were invested in the restoration work, which includes 460 square meters of intervention. The attraction will be complemented by the museum assembly with works by the master Francisco Urquizo Cuesta, an Ambateño who donated 24 paintings of his own. Visitors can also admire the religious art and sculptures temporarily loaned by the Izamba and Quisapincha churches.
The Hymn of Tungurahua
CORO Con la voz de Agoyán -voz del agua- elevemos un himno de hermanos, que en Ambato con el Tungurahua cielo y tierra se estrechan las manos. I Nuestra tierra avalancha de oro, se prodiga a los cuatro horizontes, con la audacia bravía del coro de sus valles, sus ríos, sus montes. Es crisol y también es cisterna en su seno la idea se escancia; voluntad de su fuerza; constancia, su virtud palpitante y eterna. II Con el fuego de nuestros volcanes encendieron las flamas de aureola de este noble solar de los Juanes, que es una india con alma española. Y su pecho es un bronce sonoro en que vibra este lema sagrado: libertad e hidalguía, tesoro de la palma y también del arado.
Video
Selected works
- Eufonia (1938)
- La Incontenible Ruta (1941)
- Puntos suspensivos (1946)
- El pintor de la soledad: la obra pictórica de Luis A. Martínez (1948)
- Veinte y tantas seguidillas (1952)
- J. Trajano Mera, estudio antológico de su obra (1956)
- Siete cartas: un ignorado amor de Montalvo (1969)
- Reseña del amor contradictoria (sonetario) (1966)
- Obras escogidas (1994)
- El pintor de la soledad (1997)