Domingo Esguerra Plata

Domingo Esguerra Plata
3rd Colombia Ambassador to United Kingdom
In office 28 June 1948 – 7 June 1950
President	Mariano Ospina Pérez
Preceded by	Darío Echandía Olaya
Succeeded by	Rafael Sánchez Amaya
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia
In office 5 May 1947 – 21 March 1948
President	Mariano Ospina Pérez
Preceded by	Luis López de Mesa Gómez
Succeeded by	Laureano Gómez Castro
1st Colombia Ambassador to Brazil
In office 27 December 1938 – 16 January 1940
President	Eduardo Santos Montejo
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Carlos Lozano y Lozano
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia to Brazil
In office 8 December 1936 – 27 December 1938
President	Alfonso López Pumarejo
Succeeded by	Office abolished
1st Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia to Japan
In office 28 April 1934 – 4 September 1936
President	Enrique Olaya Herrera
Succeeded by	Alfredo Michelsen Mantilla
9th Minister of Finance and Treasury of Colombia
In office 26 May 1909 – 10 June 1909
President	Rafael Reyes Prieto
Preceded by	Nemesio Camacho Macías
Succeeded by	Fidel Cano Gutiérrez
Personal details
Born	28 March 1875 Santana de las Lajas, Tolima, United States of Colombia
Died	1965 Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Paulina Rueda Vargas (1908-1946) Susana Flórez Mariño (1948-1965)
Alma mater	Universidad Repúblicana (JD, 1896)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic

Domingo Esguerra Plata (28 March 1875 – 1965) was a Colombian lawyer who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Ambassador of Colombia to Brazil, and Ambassador of Colombia to the United Kingdom.

Career

Graduated Juris Doctor from Universidad Repúblicana in Bogotá (now the Free University of Colombia) on 26 June 1896,^[1] his graduate thesis La Doctrina Monroe was a comprehensive account of the Monroe Doctrine and was held in high regard by his contemporaries.

On 4 September 1906, Esguerra was named First Secretary of the Colombian Legation in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland working under Ignacio Gutiérrez Ponce, the Colombian Envoy to His Britanic Majesty's Government.^[2] On 8 October 1908, he was promoted to the rank of Counselor ad honorem, but was instead transferred a few days later on 13 October to the legation in the German Empire still maintaining the same rank, this was at the behest of his friend Gutiérrez who now served as Envoy to His Germanic Imperial and Royal Majesty's Government.^[3]

He returned to Colombia in the early months of 1909, and was named Colombian Minister of Finance and Treasury by President Rafael Reyes Prieto in replacement of Nemesio Camacho Macías for a very short period, the appointed was intended to fulfill protocol as President Reyes's term ended a few weeks later. The next year, Esguerra was named Financial Agent of the diplomatic missions in Europe at London. With the inauguration of the League of Nations in Geneva, Esguerra was named Counselor of the Colombian Legation to the First Conference of the League of Nations on 16 January 1920.^[4][5] In 1922, he returns to London this time as Consul General.

For his exemplary conduct and diplomatic labour in the name of Colombia, Esguerra was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Government of Japan, the Order of the Southern Cross by the Government of Brazil, the Order of the Liberator by the Government of Venezuela, the Order of Merit by the Government of Ecuador, and the Order of Boyacá by his own, the Government of Colombia.^[6] He was also a member and 3 times President of the Sociedad Bolivariana de Colombia, and an Honorary Member of the Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación of Madrid.^[6]

In October 1933 he was appointed as the 1st Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia to Japan by President Enrique Olaya Herrera with the mission of establishing direct diplomatic ties with The Land of the Rising Sun. He travelled from London to Washington, D.C. to meet his colleague Fabio Lozano Torrijos, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia to the United States and afterwards travelled to Montreal where he travelled by train to Vancouver and sailed off to Japan by way of Honolulu. He arrived to the port of Yokohama, Japan on 20 April 1934 and travelled from there to Tokyo, where on 28 April 1934 he presented his Letters of Credence to Emperor Hirohito.^[7]

Personal life

Born 28 March 1975 in the town of Santana de las Lajas (now Falán) then part of the State of Tolima, United States of Colombia. His parents were Domingo Esguerra Ortiz and Dolores Plata Bernal, but was raised in the home of his paternal uncle Nicolás following the murder of his father in 1897, and remained there after his mother died in 1901. He married on 8 March 1905 to Paulina Rueda Vargas, who died in 1946, and remarried in June 1948 to Susana Flórez Marino who survived him when he died on in Bogotá, D.C., he had no succession from either marriage.^[8][9]

Selected works

• Esguerra Plata, Domingo (1896). La Doctrina Monroe (Thesis) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Casa Editorial de J. & L. Pérez. ISBN 9781103804641. OCLC 447664714.

References

1. Sociedad Bolivariana de Colombia (1963). "Doctor Domingo Esguerra". Revista Bolivariana (in Spanish). Bogotá: Ministry of National Education (71): 50. OCLC 4910951. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
2. Tamayo, Carlos, ed. (October 1907). "Sección Diplomática: Agentes Diplomáticos de Colombia". Boletin del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (in Spanish). Bogotá: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1 (2): 48. OCLC 6574047. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
3. Tamayo, Carlos, ed. (November 1908). "Nombramiento de Consejeros de Legación". Boletin del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (in Spanish). Bogotá: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2 (3): 129. OCLC 6574047. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
4. Rizzuto, Francisco Antonio; Rizzuto Jr., Francisco Antonio, eds. (1947). "La Hidalguía Colombiana Está Representada con Justeza en su Canciller Doctor Esguerra". Veritas argentina (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Veritas Editorial. 17 (204): 1819. ISSN 0042-3955. OCLC 1508610. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
5. Koebel, William Henry (1922). Anglo-South American Handbook. New York City: The Macmillan Company. p. 257. ISSN 0309-4529. OCLC 1766070. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
6. Martin, Percy Alvin; Soares Cardozo, Manoel da Silverira, eds. (1946) [1935]. Who's who in Latin America: a biographical dictionary of notable living men and women of Latin America. 3 (3rd rev. ed.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 21. OCLC 562723266. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
7. Esguerra Plata, Domingo (1945). Arciniegas, Germán, ed. "Recuerdos del Japón". Revista de América (in Spanish). El Tiempo (9-12): 251–254. OCLC 1714202. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
8. Restrepo Sáenz, José María; Rivas, Raimundo; Restrepo Posada, José (1993). Genealogías de Santa Fe de Bogotá (in Spanish). Bogotá: Editorial Presencia. pp. 162–163. OCLC 28546996. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
9. López de Mesa Gómez, Luis (1942). Historia de la cancillería de San Carlos (in Spanish). 2. Bogotá: Imprenta del Estado Mayor General. p. 83. OCLC 11113042. Retrieved 2011-05-18.