Eugenio Espejo was born in Quito on February 21, 1747. His father, Luis Chushig, an Indian (Quechua from Cajamarca, Peru), 3 helped the friar José del Rosario, a physician at the Misericordia hospital, the only one in Quito. His mother, the Maria María Catalina Aldaz and Larraincar was neogranadina.3Luis Chushig, was not a stonecutter or assistant of Jose del Rosario, was by his own means an educated Indian, who learned to read thanks to the help of Luis Benitez de la Torre, Cura and Vicar of Cajamarca, who secretly instructed Luis Chushig, since at that time was prohibited, that the natives knew how to read. This in gratefulness used the surname "Benítez", same surname with which it contracted marriage with Catalina Aldaz. The origin of the surname "Santa Cruz y Espejo" is not yet clarified, but it is believed, that was imposed by some Spanish, since at that time, all evangelized natives were assigned Christian names and surnames.2 Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz and Espejo, learned his first letters in his parents' house and then in a Catholic school for poor children.Once inscribed from a very early age in exclusive schools of the Quito aristocracy, he became the elected representative of his classmates on several occasions. From this time dates his probable and only known portrait, in company of its class.He was a doctor at the age of 20, graduated in civil and canonical laws, he wrote between 1779 and 1781 The new Lucian of Quito; Marco Porcio Cato; And The Blancardina Science, works of mordant criticism to the science of Quito and of flaky analysis to the educational system of that time.In The Portrait of Golilla (1778), he described Carlos I as "king of decks". In 1793, the authorities tried to get rid of Espejo, whom they described as "frigid, mischievous, restless and subversive," designating him a doctor of a scientific expedition to the Pará and Marañón rivers. Espejo refused this game and was arrested.1Two years later, the Cabildo of Quito asked for an instruction to prevent smallpox. Espejo produced some reflections: History of contagious diseases, exact picture of the customs and sanitary conditions of Quito and valuable contribution to scientific literature.Attacked by reactionary doctors, he traveled to Lima in 1786, but returned to Riobamba, because the priests of the area asked him to refute the report of the alcalde and collector of royal taxes that accused them of abuses to the natives. The Defense of the priests of Riobamba, followed in 1787 by Letters riobambenses, broke the strength of the latifundistas and questioned the socio-economic structure of the dominating "reason", in a War phrase.In November of 1791 he helped found the Patriotic Society of Friends of the Country of Quito composed of 25 members who met weekly to discuss agricultural, educational, political and social problems and the development of the physical and natural sciences. On January 5, 1792, he published the first newspaper published in the city "The First of the Culture of Quito", an organ of that society, and from which came seven issues until March 27 of that year. Failed this attempt to restore the country chose the strategy to write about the economy of Quito.In Memory on the Court of Quinas and Vote of a Minister Lawyer raised the free trade against the mercantile centralism of the Crown. Having lost what little faith he had in the monarchy, he thought that there was no choice but to change the existing political structures. He wrote sermons for his brother cure in order to spread these ideas. She became an activist; In the crosses of Quito scarlet flags began with the motto: "Under the protection of the cross, be free, obtain glory and happiness." 6He died in Quito, on December 28, 1795, because of dysentery, after being in prison accused of conspiracy; He was charged that on the crossroads of Quito scarlet flags appeared with the motto saying: "Under cover of the cross, be free, obtain glory and happiness."