Gómez, Indalecio (1851–1920)

Indalecio Gómez (b. 1851; d. 18 August 1920), Argentine statesman and author. Born in Salta and trained as a lawyer at the University of Buenos Aires, Gómez began his political career as a national deputy representing Salta Province. He gained national prominence as director of the National Bank of Argentina during the administration of Carlos Pellegrini (1890–1892). He remained active in national politics, serving as Argentina's ambassador to Germany under President Manuel Quintana (1904–1906) and as the interior minister under President Roque Sáenz Peña (1910–1913). As interior minister, he orchestrated the passage of the Sáenz Peña Law (1911), which granted universal male suffrage and established a secret ballot for elections. Gómez supervised its implementation in the national congressional elections of April 1912. In numerous books and articles, including El episco-pado y lapaz (1895), he established his reputation as a political and social traditionalist who defended the elite values of Argentina's Generation of 1880 during an era of turmoil and reform.

See alsoQuintana, Manuel; Sáenz Peña, Roque.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Natalio R. Botana, "La reforma política del 1912," in El régimen oligárquico: Materiales para el estudio de la realidad argentina (hasta 1930), edited by G. Giménez Zapiola (1975), pp. 232-245; and El orden conservador: La política argentina entre 1880 y 1916, 2d ed. (1985), esp. pp. 217-291.

Additional Bibliography

Bertoni, Lilia Ana. Patriotas, cosmopólitas y nacionalistas: La construcción de la nacionalidad argentina a fines del siglo XIX. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica de la Argentina, 2001.

                                            Daniel Lewis