Juan María Montalvo (1832-1889) was an Ecuadorian writer. Perhaps the most outstanding polemicist of Hispanic literature, he had a wide appeal in Latin America for his denunciation of dictatorship.

Juan Montalvo was born on April 13, 1832, in the provincial town of Ambato. His grandfather was a Spanish retail merchant, and his father, Marcos, followed the same trade. His mother, Josefa Fiallos, owned some land. Two elder brothers of Juan moved to Quito and came to occupy high positions in education and government.

Montalvo studied in Quito (1846-1854) but dropped out of the university without earning a degree. The connections of his brothers with Gen. José María Urbina, a Liberal who dominated Ecuadorian politics in the 1850s, resulted in Montalvo's appointment to a minor diplomatic post in Rome (1857). The following year he was promoted to secretary of the Ecuadorian legation in Paris. He returned to...