Máximo Fernández Alvarado

Máximo Fernández Alvarado was a Costa Rican politician and lawyer, born in Desamparados (Costa Rica) on November 18, 1858 He was the son of José Francisco Fernández Quezada and Juana Alvarado Madrigal. He graduated as a Bachelor in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Santo Tomás at the age of fourteen (a title similar to the current high school diploma) and lawyer in the same institution in 1881 with the Medal of Honor to Merit. He published the first poetry anthology printed in Costa Rica, called Costa Rican Lira, in which he collected numerous lyrical productions of national literati. He was Secretary of the Interior, Police and Development from August 3, 1888 to April 30, 1889, during the government of Don Bernardo Soto Alfaro. In 1893 he was pre-candidate to the presidency of the Republic. He was several times deputy for the province of San José and presided over the Constitutional Congress from 1913 to 1914 and from 1916 to 1917. He was one of the main leaders of the Republican Party, with an ideology that combined liberal doctrines in the political and certain diffuse populism . He was candidate to the presidency of the Republic in the Costa Rican elections of 1901, 1905 and 1913. He died in San José (Costa Rica), 10 of February of 1933.