Sáenz Peña, Luis (1822–1907)

Luis Sáenz Peña (b. 2 April 1822; d. 4 December 1907), Argentine politician. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Sáenz Peña received his law degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1845. He entered politics in 1860 as a deputy to the Constitutional Convention, thereafter serving in both Buenos Aires provincial assemblies and the national assembly. He also held posts in the provincial Supreme Court, the Provincial Bank, and the General Council on Education. In the wake of the 1890 uprising of the Civic Union and the stock market crash, Sáenz Peña became the compromise candidate for president in 1892. In that post he served the interests of the National Autonomist Party of Julio A. Roca and Carlos Pellegrini, but he never succeeded in emerging from their shadows. Afflicted by ill health and an indecisive temper, Sáenz Peña served a two-year term marred by strong opposition in Congress, an uprising by the new Radical Civic Union led by Leandro Alem and future president Hipólito Irigoyen, and a worsening economic situation after the Baring Brothers crisis. He submitted his resignation in January 1895 and was replaced by the equally ill-fated José Evaristo Uriburu. Argentine politics did not settle down until Roca reassumed the presidency in 1898. Sáenz Peña's son, Roque, followed in his father's footsteps. Elected in 1910, he was best known for the electoral reform law of 1912.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Natalio Botana, El orden conservador: La política argentina entre 1880 y 1916 (1985).

Ezequiel Gallo, "Argentina: Society and Politics, 1880–1916," translated by Richard Southern, in The Cambridge History of Latin America, edited by Leslie Bethell, vol. 5 (1986), pp. 359-391.

Paula Alonso, "Politics and Elections in Buenos Aires, 1890–1898: The Performance of the Radical Party," in Journal of Latin American Studies 25 (October 1993): 465-487.

Additional Bibliography

Rock, David. State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860–1916. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002.

Zimmermann, Eduardo A. Los liberales reformistas: La cuestión social en la Argentina, 1890–1916. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana: Universidad de San Andrés, 1995.

                                       Jeremy Adelman